Glowstick Fireflies

I kind of love how this craft came out – especially given its origin story. This is something I threw together in desperation while my toddler stood and cried at me in betrayal. You see, we recently started doing “Mommy School” after his naps. We’re working our way through the letters, and each day we read a book, color a picture, do a craft, and listen to a song that has to do with the letter of the week. Pretty simple, right?

It actually is, except for the part where two-year-olds don’t understand weekends. So there we were, Alex awake from his nap, me with no plan for Mommy school because, hey, it was Saturday, and a tantrum a-brewin’.

Thinking quickly, I told him I just forgot to get the supplies out, and I’d be right back. We had a book about bugs, I printed a coloring page quick, and then I hit a craft wall. My preliminary search on Pinterest was turning nothing up and my time was running out. That’s when I spotted the glow sticks. A few minutes later, we had glow bugs.

And it was a huge hit. He was so disappointed when his glow stick ran out the next day, so I’ve been making glow bugs for over a week now. I love them too, because he will disappear into the bathroom with the door closed for 15-20 minutes at a time, just rearranging and zooming his glow bug collection around.

This is the easiest craft ever, by the way. All you need is a glow stick, scotch tape, construction paper, and a marker.

Start by breaking a glow stick. Then, cut out a wing and antennae shape. You’ll need two of both.

Next, tape your wings and antennae to the glowstick.

The final step is to add the face with a marker. That’s it!

These little dudes take about 5 minutes per firefly, and they’ll last about 24 hours if you use the cheap-o glowsticks from Walmart. Pretty good return on investment, wouldn’t you say?