potw: caterpillars

Sep 12, 2011

In honor of Fisher and Annesley loving bugs so much, we are having a poem about bugs this week. Well, at least one type of bug! These two munchkins crack me up with their obsession of finding, catching, feeding, and observing bugs. It seems they spend hours every day in this one pursuit.

Something you won’t know about me unless you’ve known me for years is that I used to be terrified of bugs. Absolutely terrified. When Blythe was a baby, I used to go ask my neighbors to come and kill spiders in my house. I used to scream uncontrollably and at the top of my lungs whenever I got near a bug. It was really quite despicable!

I didn’t want to pass this fear on to my children, so I made a decision to teach my children about bugs and to not act scared in any way, shape, or form. It was quite the decision…but I stuck with it…and by the time Blythe was three she told everyone she met that she was a bug-lover. Now my two youngest are bug lovers as well. Anyone who has spent even the smallest bit of time with them has seen them with bugs in their hands. The sheer volume of insects, spiders, caterpillars, moths, butterflies, and all sorts of other creepy-crawlies that pass through this house astounds me!

I succeeded!

On to our poem of the week…

Caterpillars
by Aileen Fisher

What do caterpillars do?
Nothing much but chew and chew.

What do caterpillars know?
Nothing much but how to grow.

They just eat what by and by
will make them be a butterfly,

But that is more than I can do
however much I chew and chew.