Beetles. I’m guessing beetles. My four-year-old gets them and I get the goose bumps if I don’t get to her first. She’s like a mad scientist, with her swim goggles, messy hair, flipping over rocks in her search for beetles. Yesterday she twisted herself in a yoga pose to get close to a Rhinoceros beetle she found lying on its back beneath a car.

All children love to experiment and explore — and their inner scientists should be given free rein. It seems to me the camp my child attended this past week at the North Carolina Botanical Garden is an ideal laboratory for these kids. It is also a sweet, well-structured opportunity to introduce nature to children who otherwise don’t spend a lot of time outside. “These kids are like sponges,” says Elisha Taylor, the garden’s camp coordinator and instructor. “They are so smart.”

It seems to me the bugs they find like these camps, too. This is probably because the kids don’t have access to magnifying glasses on sunny days.

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North Carolina Botanical Garden :: 919-962-0522 :: www.ncbg.unc.edu