Would you eat a worm?
Would you eat 15 worms?
That’s the question our boys answered this month at book club, when we discussed How to Eat Fried Worms.
This book was the perfect one to follow Shoeless Joe and Me, last month’s book club selection. We again discussed gambling – what it was, whether it’s okay, and inflation amounts from 1973, when this book was originally published.
Then I asked the boys if they would be willing to eat a worm. Each one developed his own recipe for doing so – some more willingly than others. One was quite adamant that while it was fun to make a worm recipe, he would never actually eat a worm.
Then we moved into the kitchen.
Where worm eating became a reality.
I prepared each worm as the boys requested. Of course, these weren’t real worms, but concoctions of Jell-O, cream, and a few other ingredients carefully shaped.
The boys weren’t quite so brave when faced with a pile of real worms. Although My Little Man talked a big story of wormy ketchup and pepper, he didn’t really want to try it.
After one courageous kid tried the worms and declared them to be good, the others gradually tried them, too, and soon they were quite boisterous again …
Until I brought out the real crickets.
An adventurous mom had ordered these from Amazon for us. Who knew you could get bugs in such a variety of flavors? The first boy to try a worm carefully read the ingredient list and then opened the bacon and cheese flavored box of crickets. He declared them to be “crunchy” and ate all but three.
Nobody else would try them.
Can’t say that I blame them.
Then we moved on to worm science. We read a short non-fiction book about the body parts and benefits of worms to the environment and prepared to make our own worm houses. Each boy had his own jar to layer with gravel and then soil.
Then we broke out my dirt shovel and dug for worms. We found enough for each boy to have a few in his jar.
In the few days since book club, My Little Man has watched his worms carefully. He keeps them covered, since we learned that light can paralyze them, but he lifts the paper a few times each day to study the jar and watch for worm tunnels.
Who knew that worms could be so fascinating?
So – would YOU eat a worm?
