Thomas and Nanci Kuykendall

At 03:10 PM 8/15/99 EDT, you wrote:
>From: Cstewart73@...
>
>In a message dated 8/15/99 9:49:25 AM EST, beckycraigw12@...
writes:
>
><< Aren't there a lot more fun
> things you and Abigail can be doing that don't involve flash cards! >>
>
>Yes! Thank you! I would much rather spend my time with her watching bugs
>crawling on our back steps or playing her newest version of "baseball"
(which
>involves a huge inflatable yellow ball and her plastic shovel as the bat!)
--
>or whatever else she is excited about at the moment. If only the rest of my
>family saw the value in these "lessons" as well -- maybe in time.
>
>Candice in OK


I have an anecdote for you. Yesterday we found a tiny spider crawling
across the floor of my sons' room while we were playing together. Usually
I let spiders go outside, telling the boys that bugs like to live in the
garden. Unless it's a Hobo (Dangerously venomous spiders we have in
abundance here, in the same neurotoxin class as Black Widows and Brown
Recluses.) Anyhow I pointed out this tiny (ant sized) spider to my 2 year
old and he promptly tried to pick it up between his fingers. I said "No!
Drop It!" So he dropped the mushed ball that was once a spider, and he said,

"Spider wans ta walk some more. He wans ta walk, Mommy." Then, after
studying the lifeless form for a moment, "I Broke it, Mommy!!"

I explained that, just like with the cats, we have to be careful with all
animals, and that particular spider would not be walking anymore. He
forgot about it shortly. It was one of those precious moments..."I Broke
it Mommy!!"

Nanci K. in Idaho