Thursday, August 29, 2013

Silk Worms

 

This is so cute but also a bit of a sad story – I had these silk worm eggs given to me from last year – they have a yearly life cycle and hatch around the same time each year into pupae which you then feed mulberry leaves to or beetroot leaves to allow them to grow fully into silk worms which then spin a silk cocoon – a gorgeous project for little children – so I stored the eggs away and had it in the back of my mind to get them out – knowing that it was around this time that they hatch – well – I got the sealed plastic bag out to put them in a cardboard box and arrrghhh the bag was full of both dead and alive pupae – so just before Julias bed time I started organising a shoe box to put them in which I lined so  they couldn’t get out the holes and Julia was just SOOOOO excited, it was delightful to see – made me want to cry with joy at how excited she was to have these silk worm pupae.  She gave up her bedtime story to stay up late to watch them moving and then we were all convinced that there was a tiny egg hatching and we watched that forever convinced it was moving (but later, the next day found it was not).  We labled the box Julia’s Silk Worms and she was just estatic!  Below  are some photos.

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But alas, the next morning we awoke to find that none of the pupae were moving!  Julia said “they’re just sleeping!” which was heartbreaking.  She wanted to take them to school to show Delia anyway.

But on the way to school she said to Nev on the way – “they’re moving, they’re moving”!

Then last night there weren’t any again and so nev said perhaps they sleep at night!?

But today there are none moving – I may have to look into getting some somewhere in Cape Town – will keep you posted xo

1 comment:

  1. Isn't it just amazing to live through all these experiences again a second time around with your child? Told G about Julia's silk worms and she was very intrigued.

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