School Projects that BUG me!

Day 1 Start of the school year, my kids bring home a note from school that says that the Third Graders will be studying bugs this year.  The students are expected to start a bug collection with at least 10 bugs to be due September 21.  PLEASE NOTE:  The start of the school year was August 14th, thus giving the kids five weeks to work on this project.  And in case you haven't figured it out, here is why this project BUGS me.  For the last 5 weeks, we have had bugs in tupperwares, bugs in baby food jars, bugs in baggies, and just flat out bugs roaming free.  Bugs in the van, bugs in the kitchen, bugs in the camp trailer at the building lot.  Many times, when it came time to attach the said bug to the collection, they mysteriously came up missing, take Mr. Fuzzy Pants the caterpillar for example, we don't know if he metamorphasized into a butterfly, crawled stealthily away when no one was looking, or was in fact a cheeto to begin with.  Another disgusting aspect of this project was bugs that had sat in their containers dead for weeks began to create an odor that was released when we got the bugs out to glue onto the boards, making me gag and want to vomit.  Then of course, do you think the kids were going to touch the bugs to attach them to the display... oh no, touching bugs is a mom's job because we like it so much.  Again, gag, vomit... burn myself with the glue gun while trying to avoid eye contact with the creepy praying mantis.  And then times everything by 2 for twins.

We came down to the wire, we weren't sure we were going to find that last elusive bug to put on Tanner's display, and then miracle of miracles, two days before the project was due an earwig turned up in a laundry basket!  I have never been so happy to see an earwig before in my life.  We were so desperate, we had even been plucking long dead bugs out of the disgusting window sill in Charlotte's room where they have probably been rotting for the past 20 years.

Ashlyn's finished product

Tanner's finished product (I'm sorry but that praying mantis just freaks me out).

My two little pests!

Hooray for the project being done!  Just hoping they don't start a unit on snakes anytime soon!!!