She was looking at little piles of dried mud that are the castings of worms from the night before. "That's worm poop," I said. And I told her about how worms stay underground during the day because the sun and heat dries them out, but they come out at night and eat dirt and dead plants. When they poop, it's just really good dirt.
She was fascinated -- this is the kid who takes woolly bear caterpillars to preschool show-and-tell, and collects inch worms in the spring -- and she asked if she could pick it up. "Of course," I said. "It's not like dog poop or people poop. It's just dirt."
That was all it took. For the rest of the week, she searched for and collected worm poop, and informed us that her plan was to take it into class for show-and-tell. My wife did some research and printed out a list of interesting facts that the teacher could use for the class, and A. took it all in on Friday.
Unlike the caterpillars, which were a huge hit, apparently other 5-yr-olds are not that interested in little mounds of dried mud that someone tells them is worm poop. But my curious, wonderful daughter, though disappointed in her classmates, was undaunted, and she's still looking for worm castings... sorry, worm poop.
2 comments:
You forgot to mention that she took 2 samples of worm poop - a.k.a. worm castings or vermiculture - to school. One to show, and one for the lucky homeroom helper to take home. Despite warning her that others may not actually want to take home a baggie of excrement, she was still a bit bummed to come home with all the poop she went in with.
funny! ...today I was trying to convince two twenty years old boys about the incredible origin of the "cropolits" thay were sitting on; Then I used your article to show them that i'm not the only person in the whole world that believes in that. Congratulations to your daughter, you're so lucky man...
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