Toothwhale

Lollipop ghosts

 

Turn the Tootsie Pops in your Halloween candy bowl into ghosts with white cocktail napkins, rubber bands, ribbon, or string, and a marker.

Raising painted lady butterflies

It's one thing to read about the life cycle of the butterfly, and another thing to experience it. You can raise painted lady butterflies with supplies from Insect Lore. The butterfly pavilion and butterfly garden habitats come with information about raising butterflies and live caterpillars (or a coupon for live caterpillars). We received the butterfly pavilion as a gift and raised our butterflies over the last three weeks.

The caterpillars arrived in our mailbox on September 17. Their small brown box wore a sticker that said, "LIVE INSECTS -- OPEN IMMEDIATELY." Inside the box were two containers of tiny black caterpillars, five caterpillars to a container, with caterpillar food at the bottom.

 

The instructions say condensation in the containers is unhealthy for the caterpillars, so I fretted over the small droplets already inside the containers. Within an hour, though, the condensation had evaporated, and the containers were dry and ready for a growing miracle. Over the next week, the caterpillars did just as The Very Hungry Caterpillar* says they would: they ate and ate and ate, and were not little caterpillars anymore.

One by one, the caterpillars attached themselves to the paper disks on the underside of the container lids and became chrysalises. After a few chrysalises had formed but before they all had, I went to Asheville, N.C., for a few days. I fretted while I was gone about the chrysalises, worrying that the first to form would emerge before we had transferred them to the larger habitat. That didn't happen, and on September 27, we transferred the chrysalises to the pavilion, pinning the paper disks to the mesh sides.

 

We did what we could to gently separate the silky webbing attached to them, but I fretted that the little that was left behind would tangle them. Within a couple days, small butterflies with brown bodies and black, white and orange wings began to emerge. I followed the directions for feeding them sugar water, and soon, nine of the 10 chrysalises had become butterflies. The kids and the cat -- especially the cat -- watched them flit and flutter.

I removed the one that hadn't emerged, and saw that a silk thread did seem to have held it back. But nine out of 10 was wonderful. I wanted to release them outdoors then, but the weather suddenly had gone cold and we had to wait until nights were at least 55 degrees. On October 1, three of the butterflies died in the pavilion. Yesterday, one more did. I couldn't wait anymore. It was sunny and somewhere in the 70's yesterday afternoon, and we let go the handful of remaining butterflies. They knew just what to do with their freedom.

 

Raising painted lady butterflies made me worry. I didn't expect that. I'd do it again -- maybe. But I'm glad we did it at least once, and I recommend doing it, especially if you're not the worrying kind. Seeing the metamorphosis up close and day by day is as remarkable as you'd hope, and to see the butterflies you've raised fly free is a touching moment.

*Another of my favorite caterpillar-to-butterfly books is The Caterpillar and the Polliwog by Jack Kent.

We're reading: Lissy's Friends

It's off to school we go. Everyone to a new class, some to a new school. At this time of year, all young children can relate to Lissy's Friends, a picture book about being the new kid, feeling shy, and making friends.

In Lissy's Friends, Lissy makes origami animal friends when real ones seem too difficult to make. But when she pushes them on the merry-go-round, all but one fly away. The paper crane that isn't lost helps Lissy make a real friend.

Author and illustrator Grace Lin tells a gentle story about friendship with colorful and imaginative illustrations. She includes instructions for folding a paper crane.

Lissy's Friends inspired me to try origami. I bought an inexpensive package of paper that included instructions at a craft store. I haven't been able to make a paper crane yet, but the kids and I had fun making origami dogs and cats.

Oatmeal container craft

Small toys and treasures can find a home in a repurposed oatmeal container.

Here's how to make your own:

Use hand-decorated or scrapbook paper to cover the outside of the container and the circular lid. We used crayons and plain white paper and taped the paper to the container before adding stickers, but I can imagine lots of variations.

Cover the paper with clear self-adhesive laminate from a craft store. Cut the laminate about an inch longer than the container's circumference. Peel off a little at a time and roll it slowly around the container to seal the paper. Add a circle of laminate to the lid.

Use a hole puncher to make a hole on each side of the container and tie on a ribbon handle.