Earthworm Hero
Last week, it was rainy really hard on my walk to school with my 6 year old daughter E. We always walk to school no matter the weather and it’s one small way to build some toughness in my kids. When it rains that hard, I don’t mind it, but the earthworms sure do. They were out in the courtyard at the school trying to avoid drowning in the soil.
When me and E walked by, we were really early for school and decided to help the earthworms. She grabbed sticks and we used them to pick up the earthworms and transport them to a dry part of the school where there was plenty of soil for them to get cozy and hide. The last thing we wanted to happen was for earthworms to get stepped on because people were heading to school.
Once the earthworms were safe, I walked back and saw a super long earthworm. It was the size of my forearm and was out on the basketball court. This worm must have been successful and whatever it was doing because it grew and grew. I had to save it (for myself and E since we were earthworm heroes) and used a stick to transport it to our home where there were dry patches of soil. Along the way home, I saw another earthworm trying to swim downstream towards a sewer and knew I had to get that one too. They both got transported safely to our home.
When I went to pick E up from school in the afternoon, we got home and there was another earthworm wiggling near the sidewalk. She wanted to save the earthworm and tried to use a stick, but it was really hard to pick up. Then, she asked to use her hands and I said sure thing. She wasn’t afraid and just picked the earthworm up, played with the earthworm a bit by letting the earthworm wiggle on her palm, and then placed the earthworm near some dry dirt. Then E went in and washed her hands like nothing happened.
I’m glad we can spend those little moments making a small difference to those earthworms. It probably meant a lot to be safe and not get stepped on (or eaten by opportunistic birds). E loves to try and save all kinds of bugs and animals so they can live another day out in the wild. And she isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty while doing it - clearly!
