Grace's Journals

Grace has a passion for animals and nature.  Remember her dream? 

She has razor sharp eyes for detail- in one nature hike she can find several little treasures no one else would see- interesting rocks, shells, leaves that look like something else, feathers, seed pods with neat stuff inside.   Last week, she found a tiny wood chip at school in the shape of a bear cave with a door and everything- and it really does look like one.  She finds tiny bugs, birds high in trees, little green caterpillars in a sea of carrot leaves.

And for the last few years she has been obsessed with animal science books from the library.  She devours information about animals in the Jungle, the Savannah, Antarctica, Sea Creatures, Deserts, the Northern Woods, the Rainforest, and of course Insects and Arachnids and Fish.  She reads all the details, and tries to share as much of it as she can with us, because, shouldn't we be as fascinated with it as she is? 

She's got an insatiable appetite for the life cycle of the butterfly, the hunting patterns of cheetahs, how elephants live in families, how a mother otter takes care of her babies.

She is not afraid to touch anything- she grabs up all kinds of bugs, snakes, snake skins, frogs, dead birds (if I don't catch her and tell her not to in time)- she doesn't like getting dirty in general, but her compulsion to see and experience all the stuff she finds outside trumps any gross-factors of dirt or mud.  A couple of days ago she found a dead, hard frog on the ground- of course she grabbed it right up to inspect it and shoved it in my face for me to look.  I try to suppress my reactions, so I don't discourage her discoveries.  Within reason.  Please stop picking up dead animals Grace!

She hates to lose the information she's learning, so a couple of years ago she started filling "field" journals with information and sketches of the animals she loves before she returned them to the library.  Journals and journals.  Filled with all kinds of natural gold.