The Siren's Song ~ Our Movie from the 24 Hour Filmmaking Challenge!

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The Siren's Song

April Fools' Day Edition of Teddy's Comic Strip

Apparently, Teddy thinks I keep the house a bit cold!

Detail from "Three Billies in Fall"

by Teddy
October 8th, 2007
detail from "Three Billies in Fall"
18" x 24"
oil pastel on paper

Teddy was asked to create something with an autumn theme to publish in Wit, Wonder and Whimsy. So, he took Billie Rose outside and had her pose for him. You can see the entire work published in Wit, Wonder and Whimsy. However, the drawing has such a wonderful line quality and use of color that I just had to post this detail.

Working at their easels...

First Day of the New School Year

If you go to public school, most likely on your first day you will be sent off with a kiss and a brand new backpack.




Around here, on the first day of school...











... you get up, stay home and get bins!

Butterfly Study!

Some time ago I placed a large order for homeschooling materials from "Insect Lore" and in return I received a free classroom sized butterfly study kit. Wow! The kit included coupons for 30 Painted Lady butterfly larvae, 30 cups, food, instructions and a large butterfly pavilion. This spring we finally redeemed the coupons and embarked on an intensive butterfly life cycle study.











The 30+ larvae were delivered in a single container. The first thing the kids had to do was pack the specially provided food into the bottom of each container. They then carefully placed an individual larva into each cup and capped it.




They numbered each cup and created a corresponding excel spreadsheet where daily they logged the progress of each larva.




Once a Larvae attached itself to the lid of the cup and hardened into a chrysalis the lid could be removed from the cup and the lid with the chrysalis could be placed into the pavilion to complete its metamorphosis and hatch into a butterfly.
























We had amazing results. All but one chrysalis hatched! The beautiful orange and black butterflies emerged from their chrysalis at different times over the course of several days. We were able to observe the various stages of their emerging and pumping up their wings. Once they all hatched we feed the butterflies on sugar water and pieces of fruit. The kids really loved the close up view of the butterflies' long proboscises lapping up the juice from the fruit or searching deep into the flowers we placed in the pavilion. After all were hatched we kept the butterflies in the pavilion for about a week.

When the day came to release the butterflies they had one more surprise for us. They did not want to leave us! We thought once we unzipped the pavilion they would be anxious to fly away embracing their new freedom. Quite to the contrary, they had to be coaxed out of the pavilion and they insisted on landing on the kids. We guessed the butterflies were used to being hand feed by the kids whose hands must have smelled of the fruit juices that they they fed to the butterflies. For whatever reason, the butterflies hung around and the kids had a joyful, playful time saying goodbye to their winged friends in Teddy's garden.


Teddy has planted some special butterfly plants in the garden and a number of flowers that might provide food to a butterfly population. We haven't seen any of our Painted Ladies since the day we released them. I guess they moved on. Perhaps they have taken their place in the food chain. We will continue to watch and to feed all the butterflies in our garden...


One final note:
If anyone reading this is questioning the wisdom of introducing and releasing the butterflies from this kit into the ecosystem of our backyard, we did check this out. Yes, it is not wise to release frogs and some of the other creatures you can grow in these home lab kits. However, Painted Ladies are safe and totally appropriate to release. Most will join their place in the food chain, much to the delight of our back yard birds...