I’ve been using the story of Kaggen and the Moon to introduce the concept of moon phases to Charlotte.  Since we have Melvin at home and since one of Charlotte’s favorite things to do is feed him crickets and watch him devour his prey, the story is a good fit for our family.

The other day at the park, we saw an ENORMOUS mantis.  It was nearly the length of my hand.  Charlotte was very distressed by the thought of somebody stepping on it, so together we used a stick to rescue this mantis from the playground and deposited him on a tree.  He scuttled around, found a nice branch to hang from upside-down, and that was that.

Now Charlotte has two favorite mantis stories: the story about Kaggen and the Moon - and the story about The Little Girl Who Saved a Mantis From the Playground.