It all started with a beetle

Monday afternoon, the kids and I (along with a few 'extras') saw a lonely, large, black beetle walking along my driveway. Since, this is an unusual site for my driveway and my kids, we examined the little bugger and then left.

Fast forward a few hours, and we come home to find the beetle

still in my driveway, only this time updside down, and with legs flailing. In between running in and out of the house, trying to load up the van with kids and gear, I suggested we help the beetle. So, I used a paper to flip him (do beetles have gender?) over, only to see him take a few steps/crawls and flip back over to his beetle-back (must be uncomfortable). We all felt a little bad leaving the little guy like that, but I needed to get to the next place in the day, so we loaded up.

When we got home, the beetle lay lifeless in my driveway. I carefully brought him inside on a piece of paper because I just knew he would be the focus of our Family Home Evening. Yes, it was Monday night, I hadn't planned anything specific, but we always do something as a family (moral lesson, fun activity) on Monday nights, so while I prepared dinner, I thought of how I could use the beetle as an object lesson.

This was one of my better ideas, I must admit. We talked about how we tried to help the beetle but he didn't accept our help. We talked about how we could see what the problem was and fix it. There are lots of people who can help us with our problems. We talked about some of "those" people.

To lighten things up after the demise of the beetle, we played a newly made-up games called, "Beetle" on the trampoline. I was in the middle first, on my back with legs flailing, trying to hit my kids with a beach ball. It was great fun.

The next day, all three kids had lots to say about the beetle, and wanted to check on him (out in the dirt where I thought would be a proper resting place). My son asked whether the beetle was a boy or a girl. Then, he answered his own question and determined the beetle was a boy because girls always accept help.



Do you like my littl gir's drawing?