Valerie Sherrard in Saskatchewan

By the end of the week I’ve begun to suspect something odd. Namely, that children can hear ants! Allow me to explain.

When I present to the younger grades, I prepare for an interactive reading of There’s A COW Under My Bed! by distributing a variety of cards, until each student is holding one with either a cow, a frog or a group of ants. I ask those holding the cow cards to hold them up and make a sound like a cow. Ditto for the frog. Then, I ask the group holding the ant cards to use their imaginations to come up with a sound for the ants.

Because, after all, we can’t hear ants. But can they? The peculiar thing is that every group comes up with a cluster of nearly identical sounds. Even more curious is the fact that, when these sounds are blended, each group’s chorus creates a buggy cacophony that is quite indistinguishable from the others.

And perhaps strangest of all is that these groups of Saskatchewan children have come up with the very same combination of sounds that New Brunswick children did when I visited them during the last school year.

Coincidence? I'm not convinced. I can’t help but think it’s more likely that children can hear the language of bugs, just as they can hear and see so many sounds and sights that have become lost to the world of adults.