Raising Butterflies

Disclosure:  Safari Ltd provided me the Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly free of charge at my request.  Though I was offered this product for free, the opinions offered are my own and were not swayed by the free product.  This post also includes some affiliate links to Amazon for your convenience.

We have been raising butterflies every summer since S was old enough to walk.  As the daughter of a former science teacher, it's probably not a huge surprise that S adores bugs.  Butterflies are just so interesting - and to be honest, I just can't pass up an opportunity to hold one.  It's still rather like magic to me.  :)

Even at 20-some months, S was very intrigued by the process.  She would act out the lifecycle and visit with her caterpillars every day.  Though when she was this young, the rate at which they grew was a bit lost on her.  Here she is visiting with her caterpillars.  This set of caterpillars was from a science education company and there were 8 of them in that tiny little cup - so yes, I may have felt badly for them and upgraded them to the bigger house which you see below.  As a general rule, they are fine to be raised in the cup they arrive in.  :)

S was an avid bug handler, and had learned how to be gentle - and understood that you could not grab/touch the butterflies wings, so she was able to release them herself.  See what I mean?  Isn't this photo pure magic?  

Somewhere around 3, S was old enough to really learn about the life cycle of butterflies and to be able to notice the caterpillars' rapid change in size.  So I was thrilled when Safari Ltd. was willing to send us  one of their Safariology Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly sets.  Manipulatives are such a great teaching tool for children in general - and in this case, I really feel they are extra useful since handling caterpillars/chrysalides is likely to result in their death.

We have raised butterflies from several companies and have had success with all of them; here you see us using InsectLore's Live Butterfly Pavilion.  We generally get several uses out of their butterfly tent and order our "refill" caterpillars from whichever company is cheapest (often science education companies will run specials during the summer).

Here is S loving on her caterpillars right after they arrived this year.  She's made them a "snuggly nest".

They are soooo tiny when you first get them.  Almost cute, even.  Almost.

Here's where the manipulatives start coming in handy.  S got to touch and poke and handle the pretend caterpillars and eggs on the leaf (she is always sad that she can't handle the real ones) and then we compared the sizes.  She observed that the yellow pretend caterpillars were much bigger than her real caterpillars.

Two days later, we checked, and they were about the same size.  "Whoa!" exclaimed S.

She was even more surprised to find that the real caterpillars were bigger than the yellow pretend caterpillars just two days after that.

Not long after, we got to watch as one by one the caterpillars made their chrysalides.  Here S is comparing the model to the real things.  The model is of a Monarch Butterfly and the butterflies we raise are Painted Lady butterflies - so there are differences which S noted.

When the first butterfly hatched, S eagerly watched it pump its wings.  We've watched several videos of butterflies emerging (YouTube is great for this) and last year and this we were lucky enough to catch a butterfly emerging.  It happens really quickly.  Surprisingly so!  In both instances the butterflies emerged in just a few seconds.

A few days later (so long as you have warm weather), your butterflies are ready to be released.  They generally don't fly very far at first, so it was fun to watch them land on the plants and trees in our yard before moving on to the great wide world.

A little (touch free) snuggle before sending the butterfly on its way.

Between reading some great books (I'd really recommend this one)and playing with the Safari Ltd Life Cycle of a Monarch Butterfly, S is now a pro at explaining the butterfly life cycle.  I asked if she'd be willing to teach you all for the blog and she agreed, but was (adorably) nervous.  I love her little timid voice (and the hilarious mistake she makes) - she was a little intimidated to teach you guys!  :)

You can find Safari Ltd on Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Twitter.

If you haven't already, you can check out our Butterfly Small World here and our Make Your Own Butterfly Wings here!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Why You Want a Water Table

and TEN creative ways to use it!

This post includes affiliate links for your convenience.

Those of you who are familiar with my blog are no stranger's to baby X's fantastic expressions.  A few weeks back the Seattle weather, normally rainy until JULY, gave us a little summer teaser and baby X got his first experience with our water table.The photos were just too good to not share, so I thought I'd write a little post about why we love water tables.For those of you with water tablesalready, there are TEN creative ideas for how to use them at the end of the post.  :)

X loves water.  LOVES it.  And water is really one of the best (and free!) sensory materials ever.  There's warm water, cold water, ice - so many ideas and ways to play using just water.  For the littlest guys, water tablesare a great way to practice standing and cruising and splashing.

You can introduce fine motor practice by placing items in the water table for grabbing (please note the items pictured are not baby toys, and do pose a choking hazard - X has an older sister and is always supervised and an adult is always within arms' reach).

As baby X illustrates here - water tablesare just THE COOLEST.  We bought our first water table when S was 10 months old and we've used it constantly ever since.  As X gets older, he'll begin to use the water table to practice scooping and pouring like his big sister does now.

Honestly my kids really enjoy a water table with, well, water, but you can spice it up a bit if you are so inclined.  And for those of you with long winters like us here in Seattle, a cleaned/dried water table makes a fantastic indoor sensory table during the colder months (you could fill it with sand, moon sand, birdseed, dried beans - the possibilities are nearly endless!).

For those of you who already have a water table or for those of you who will soon have one, here are ten fun ways to use your water table this summer:

Add some soap and set up a Washing Station like Fun at Home with Kids

 Make a fun outdoor Penguin World that also helps you practice counting like Thrive 360 Living

Make a Dinosaur Sensory Bin like Fantastic Fun and Learning

Do some Sensory Tub Painting like No Time for Flashcards

Add in some letter practice and make Alphabet Soup like My Nearest and Dearest

Explore colors with Colored Ice like Fun-a-Day

Create a Spring Sensory Table like The Pleasantest Thing

Create an Ocean Sensory Tub like No Time for Flashcards

Set up a Marshmallow Sensory Play like Fantastic Fun and Learning

Have some Fizzy Fun like My Nearest and Dearest

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.

Starter Art Kit from Discount School Supply

What I'd Put in and Why

When I surveyed readers on Fun at Home with Kids' Facebook page, most people were interested in me running a series of posts reviewing Discount School Supply products that culminated in a shopping list.  If you haven't seen all of the posts in the series, here is a list of them:

Golden Glitter Slime (and Dragons)

Painting the Bathroom Mirror

Pretend Baking:  Painting a 3D Cake

Baby/Toddler Colored Rice Art

10+ Ways to Use Fingerpaint
Make Your Own Puffy Paint Shirt

Like my Sensory Starter Kit shopping lists for Target and the Dollar Tree, I'll include what I would put in with a list of alternates.

Before we get into the list, I'd like to say the reason behind it is that Discount School Supply charges a bit for shipping (understandably, since paint is heavy!), unless you purchase $79 worth of supplies - then the shipping is free.  I know that $79 sounds like a lot to spend, but the supplies last quite a long time.  You guys know how often we use our liquid watercolors, and our bottles are still around half full.  I generally find that if I plan well, one shipment from Discount School Supply will last us at least a year, if not longer.

Some other helpful money saving tips:
Discount School Supply's Facebook page announces a promo code for the week just about every Tuesday.  You could also try submitting a craft/activity to their website - if your craft/activity is chosen, you'll be sent a $50 giftcard to use at Discount School Supply.  And finally, don't feel like you need to buy every color of every paint.  We generally stock 3-4 paints per color - the one exception being liquid watercolors.  I definitely LOVE rainbows, so I had to have a full set of those.  :)

All photos used courtesy of Discount School Supply

1.  Liquid Watercolors

 We use our liquid watercolors constantly (in lieu of food coloring, but also as watercolor paint).  In fact, you can click here to see a long list of activities that feature them.

2.  Washable Tempera Paints and/or Fingerpaints

If you have a very young child, fingerpaints may be the way to go.  If your child is older - they may prefer tempera paints to fingerpaints.  Fingerpaints are a bit goopier and are slightly translucent whereas tempera paints are much more like what you think of as a traditional paint (we have and love the Confetti Fingerpaints).  S enjoys both, so we have a few colors in each type, but you may want to go all fingerpaints with an infant/toddler or all tempera paints with an older preschool aged child.  For ideas on how to use these sort of paints beyond unstructured painting, check out our post on Painting the Bathroom Mirror and 10+ Ways to Use Fingerpaint

3.  Paper

We have a butcher paper dispenser/rolls from Ikea that we use, and we alternate between using that, watercolor paper, and construction paper.  Discount School Supply has really nice large sized high quality construction paper.

4.  Brushes

Now that she's older, S likes having a variety of sizes of paintbrush to choose from.  She would probably most enjoy this set currently.  However, when she was younger, she really liked having chubbier brushes.  She has been using the Wacky Painting Tools and Foam Rollers like crazy as well, so those are some other types of brushes to consider as well.  And if you're going for a set of fingerpaints only, well, you already have the painting tools you need.  :)


The above are sort of the base supplies necessary to create lots of art.  Here are some added bonus supplies that are also fun:

5.  Tissue Paper

We love using this in art projects - especially when making Contact Paper Window Art.

6.  Contact Paper

To see all the ways we've used contact paper click here.

7.  Make it More Additives

We used the Make it Shine to make our Golden Slime and we use the Make it Puffy to make our Puffy Paint Shirt.  We love these and they're a fun way to make a set of paint even more exciting.

8.  Biocolor Paint

You will want to get some of these if you're looking for permanent paints to use in a variety of settings with an older child.  These were also necessary to make our Puffy Paint Shirt.

9.  Plastic Glitter

We used this to make our Golden Slime and it's amazing.  It is the best glitter I've seen.  I love that it doesn't dump everywhere and that it is plastic and is therefore glass and metal free!

10.  Seashells

We have a set of Medium Sea Shells that we use frequently in sensory bins and small worlds (you can see some of them in our Fizzing Hidden Ocean World!).

11.  Stamp Ink

The Colorations Stamp Ink is truly the most washable stamp ink I've ever encountered.  S enjoys inking her hands and stamping that way as well as using the stamps - so I REALLY appreciate that it doesn't stain her skin.

12.  Kid Safety Scissors

S loves practicing her scissor skills and she is old enough/careful enough that we feel comfortable with her having metal safety scissors.  We both appreciate how well/cleanly they cut.  We also have some of the Colorations Plastic Scissors - which we love for playdough play.  These plastic scissors are ultra safe - the blade is plastic - it won't cut hair, etc - but they do not cut paper (particularly thin paper) very cleanly because they are plastic.  If you are concerned about your child getting hurt with scissors (or cutting their hair - ha!) then the plastic scissors may be a better choice.

13.  Foam Paint

This foam paint is such a fun sensory experience.  We also love playing with shaving cream paint, which is similar in appearance, but foam paint is much drier/fluffier in texture and the color is much richer.  We love using our foam paint for full body painting (hands and feet at the same time!) and we have also made a beautiful 3D pretend cake with it.

Well, I hope that gives you all plenty of options.  I do not make any commission off of the sale of any of these products, nor was I paid to write this post (I did receive some free product to use in writing some of the previous posts, but was not asked or obligated to write this post) - I just am a fan of Discount School Supply and their product lines.  We've tried a lot of paints/glitter/etc in the last four years, and these are hands down our favorites!

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Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.