I am reminded of the last time I visited my mom, who was keeping her grandson, who just turned four years old at the time. He was showing me his bug observatory, which is a plastic box with a hole in the top so that you can drop bugs into. It has air vents and a magnifying glass on top for observing the critters you catch. No biggy, right. Well, I look inside and underneath the plastic tree in the box, I see a Brown Recluse Spider (a real one). Since my mom hates bugs, especially spiders, I asked her if she new that my nephew had captured a Brown Recluse which was in the observation box. She told me that they had caught a spider the night before and put it in the box, but the box was supposed to be outside. :funn: She also told me that she thought it might be a Brown Recluse, but wasn't sure.

idontno: So they caught it anyway to let a 4 year old check it out???

This is a four year old who is curious to know everything, sticking his hands into holes in trees :shock: and down into buckets of live crabs, etc.). Mom, became a little alarmed, so I showed my nephew the joys of releasing the animals back into the wild (far away from mom's house) after observing them and taking some notes about what he observed). Suddenly, he wanted to release the lizards and ants which he caught and placed in other observation boxes. :funn: It was kind of cute.

He also learned the importance of learning about the potential dangers of animals. ;-) We didn't dare let his mother find out.:nono1: She was really upset with me when she found out that I let him touch a live alligator on his last visit.
Don't want to tell mommy everything, now do we.