Bird Catchers!

Cooper and Briton have been poring over bird books. Cooper came up with the grand scheme of making bird traps. He had learned how to do this while he was having a conversation with a gentleman we ran into on one of our walks. Funny how people wonder about socialization of homeschooled kids. :o)

The way it happened was this: I was out for a walk one day with some of the children. We ran into an old friend, and as I was chatting with the lady, the husband very kindly let the little boys sit on the bumper of his car and had some interesting chat time. I had no idea what they were discussing until Cooper told me that that was where he learned how to trap birds!

The boys built their trap and then set up their stools by the kitchen glass door. I heard them discussing what kind of bird each of them would catch. Cooper reckoned he would catch a Stellar Jay. Briton was going to catch a Cardinal. It didn't matter that we don't get Cardinals in our area. He liked the picture in the book and that was good enough!

The one that I heard them talking negatively about was the eagle, "We don't want to catch an eagle cause he'll kill our birds!"
As darkness descended still the boys sat. They were determined they would catch something, simply because they had set up their cages. The faith of a child is a beautiful thing!

As it got to the near pitch black stage Cooper was sure he saw one of the boxes had fallen down. There must surely be a bird caught! Now, neither of these boys likes the dark. In fact, they are both terrified of it. They sleep with lights on every night.

But hey! There was a bird out there and they had no choice! If they didn't go out there the *eagle* might come and kill their bird. They had to go. It was do or die. Literally!

So they bravely threw on their jackets, held hands, and walked slowly and cautiously out to the boxes, which were strategically placed a little too close to the woods behind our property. They discovered the box had fallen by itself and then they made a quick bee-line back to the house.

That night they went to bed knowing that in the morning there would be two birds. One for each of them. They had decided that if they caught too many of them they would sell them. Cooper woke early and before he could even get dressed he was out the door checking on his boxes. Again, a box had blown over, but there was no bird inside.


I was a little worried about how their litle hearts would fare with no birds coming, but I worried needlessly. They soon forgot about their traps and began another game of imagination and adventure elsewhere.
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