This is Day 11. That is, eleven days ago, I began the "ant farm". But it's not really a farm. I don't know why, "they" came up with the idea of a farm, except that the original ant "farm" that was sold as a toy for kids did have a silhouette of a farm on the surface of the habitat, and I don't know who "they" are. That got me to wondering again. Who developed the first ant farm? When? And where is he/she now? What is the story about the original Ant Farm? I decide to go to the "net" to find out.
For eleven days now I have been surfing the net whenever I can tear myself away from washing clothes, vacuuming floors, and getting ready for school. Which is actually most of the time. It’s a new habit of mine, searching the net to answer my questions, but it is yet to be determined if this is a good or bad habit.
Having internet access is truly one of the best additions to one’s home or office, especially if one likes to learn, read, study, and write. It’s like having a team of experts at your beck and call. You don’t even have to get up and find the right book to search, nor do you have to scan countless tables of contents or indexes. It’s truly an amazing thing when a person realizes they no longer need to keep every magazine for reference, they don’t need a set of encyclopedias, and they don’t need a home library filled with reference books. When you have the internet in your home, you have every available piece of information at your fingertips. All you have to do is ask the right question, enter a few key words, and click on search.
So, that is what I did a short time ago when I wondered about the history of the Ant Farm®. I typed in the key words “ant farm, history” and was shown several pages of search results. I selected a few to peruse, and soon came to know the man behind the original Ant Farm® Milton Levine, better known in the toy world as Uncle Milton. He developed the first Ant Farm® in 1956. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of Uncle Milton’s Original Ant Farm®. It was marketed as a toy back then, and sold for $2.98. Yeah, and today, it sells for as much as $28 for the giant version, and $7.00 for the mini-version. Still a good buy when you consider how much kids and parents will pay for electronic/digital games that keep the kids spell-bound for hours at a time improving their eye-hand coordination..
Keep in mind that I don’t consider what I have a "farm" of ants. They are prisoners, in a real sense. I bought them, and I put them in the habitat. They are well fed, they get all the water they need, and they have plenty of room to dig their tunnels. But they have nothing else going for them that resembles a real ant life. I wish I could let them go at this point because they seem to have served their purpose: they have dug several beautiful tunnels. It’s not that they no longer delight me, for they continue to move about through the tunnels, and occasionally I notice bursts of activity and a new tunnel takes shape. I have caused them to be removed from their original home. I am a consumer. A considerate one, but a consumer just the same.
I justify it by saying, “I’m learning something through observation of a species.” And this is very true. This ant habitat has taken me up and down many winding pathways and tunnels of facts and stories, leading me into places I hadn‘t even thought to do more than wonder about. I assure myself that I haven’t hurt them in anyway. Still, I feel a little glum about the whole thing.
School starts in a couple of weeks. This is a good thing. I know that bringing the super cool space age gel ant habitat to school will liven up the classroom as kids discover a whole new world crawling at their feet. Wait until they see the tunnels! They’ll want to read more about ants, beetles, dragonflies, bees… there’s no end to the learning that will be sparked because of this little blue world of crawling insects. And that is the reason I bought it in the first place… to spark another mind, to awaken someone’s interest, to ignite the fire of passion… to boldly go where no man…. wait, that one’s already been used… to get those kids to read more about the things living in our world, to observe the world around them, and to go outside and discover the world in their own backyards.
BG
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/kazootoys/unclemilton.html Here, you can lookat Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm®, in three different sizes, as well as an Ant Village. Also, other toys he developed for kids, all with a science theme. Also, you can order them at this site. Note: Ant Farm® is a registered trademark. http://www.toy-tia.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Library/Betcha_Didnt_Know1/Betcha_Didnt_Know.htm Here’s an interesting site with stories behind your favorite toys, including the original Ant Farm® developed back in 1956. Other toy histories: View Master, Lincoln Logs, Play-Doh, Candy Land, Match Box, Crayola Crayons, Silly Putty, Mr. Potato Head, Scrabble, LEGO blocks, Etch-a-Sketch, and many more. Permission to link granted. http://www.unclemilton.com/ For those who are totally excited about Uncle Milton and his cool science “toys”, here is a web-site for you. There are some new science toys I’ve never even seen before. I like the Morph-It toy. You can place orders and get more information at this site as well. Permission to link granted.
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