There is hardly a boy in the world who isn't fascinated with creepy crawlies. Although many girls are also fascinated, generally this seems to appeal more to small boys. They will gather admiringly around a beetle that is haplessly crawling across the playground, or pick up rocks at the back of the garden in the dark and shady places and admire the range if black and slithery beings as they writhe and scuttle their way from the blaze of daylight to burrow back within the safety of another dark and damp place.
This fascination can be developed and encouraged, although many parents would be keen to discourage it more often than not. The idea of your little boy bringing into the house his latest find, only to discover it jumped for freedom and is not hiding somewhere between the kitchen and living room is not one which delights the average parent. However, there is a way in which you can both encourage your child's interest in these creatures, helping him or her to understand more about them, whilst at the same time exercising a degree of control over the situation. It is also useful and important to bear in mind the fact that these creepy crawlies themselves, whilst not appearing over endearing to you, are living creatures, and small boys are not notorious for their delicate handling of these creatures.
It is for this reason that the wide variety of 'bug bucket's and collecting jars and related equipment is very popular. Of course, the children are drawn by the images of giant insects and weird, alien looking bugs on the box, whereas what you as a parent are more likely to see are the images of safe plastic boxes and sealable jars into which these same bugs can be contained. These kits come with instructions, and advice on how to find a bug, and how to trap it in the jar or collecting box safely, without causing it undue harm. It is even suggested that some items such as soil, moss or leaves can provide a suitable place to keep the bug for a little longer - although these are not destined to be the creatures prison for the rest of its life! Instead, these are designed to allow careful observation of the creature, so that your child can learn more about it.
Often these kits either come with a magnifying glass, or with a panel on the box having a magnifying effect. This allows the bug to be observed in greater detail, and of course it is worth bearing mind that some of these animals are beautifully attractive once you start to see past the slime and wiggles. Beatles can have vibrant, almost metallic like cases, and the eyes of flies are a radiant explosion of colour and light. Helping your child see these, and understanding why they are so different to other creatures will be a very valuable learning opportunity - and provides greater peace of mind for you! Look out for kits which come with books or pamphlets which help you and your child identify different insects. This will usually involve things like counting legs, identifying wings and a thorax, and will prove fascinating and highly educational - possibly for you both.
When I was a little boy I used to play with a whole range of toy guns. Some had caps, which made a satisfying 'crack' as they exploded, whilst others were no more than a couple of twigs tied together with a bit of string. I had long rifles, short pistols and gunslinger style revolvers. I used to shoot at the tree, my sister and various imaginary evil villains. Despite what the media would have us believe, I seem to have turned out all right, and during the whole course of my adult life I have never owned a gun, never shot anyone, and I can't honestly say I have ever felt any special desire to be violent towards anyone. Except the occasional politician, but I believe they don't count.
There has been so much talk over the years about boys and guns, and whether it is right, or wrong. Seeing a couple of small boys playing together, making rattling noises and keeling over before arguing about who shot whom first does tend to raise a few eyebrows, and almost everyone has a view on whether it should be allowed or not.
With gun crime on the increase, and more and more news stories about young people being victims of gun crime it is easy to draw a direct line between the desire to play with guns to the desire to use real weapons against other human beings. Yet, sometimes the obvious comparisons or conclusions aren't necessarily the right ones, and jumping to conclusions in this way is likely to cause more harm than good.
There has never been any formal study to demonstrate whether a fascination for toy guns as a child leads directly to a tendency towards violent crime as an adult, or whether being subject to a denial of to access to toy guns as a child is likely to result in a god fearing, morally upstanding individual who would never dream of harming anyone.
Certainly there are enough people who would testify that they played with guns as a child, but have never harmed anyone as an adult to suggest that a blanket rule is unsafe. You might as well argue that having blue curtains as a boy will result in a propensity for violence as an adult, or that owning a toy train set as a boy will encourage you towards gang membership later in life.
One thing that is certain is that young boys do like playing with toy guns - they always have it seems, and that the games they play are usually with other children, with defined rules and agreements, teams and fair play, with heaps of imagination and a large helping of physical activity. Interestingly, it is these very aspects of play which are encouraged by those who say that children do not play enough these days, and that television is taking over.
It often seems that a far greater danger than children playing together with stick guns is those same children growing larger and more idle whilst spoon fed the products of the imaginations of the generation before them, who used to run around playing together to conquer new worlds, armed only with stick guns and a group of friends.
Victor Epand has sinced written about articles on various topics from Shopping, Trucks and Interest. Victor Epand is an expert consultant about kids toys, dolls, and video games. You will find the best marketplace for kids toys, dolls, and used video games at these sites for