"Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." Proverbs 22:6

Monday, June 27, 2011

More on B - B - Butterfly!

I just had to share the name of this sweet book we borrowed from the library.  It was so cute and I'd had it sitting in our book basket a while, not really knowing what the story was about.  I grabbed it as a FUN read, but it ended fitting in with the butterfly theme really well.

Where's My Mom? by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, is a cute book.

Right on schedule we had butterflies breaking out of their chrysalids.  First one, then another, then another, and one more....Out of five we have four butterflies flitting around our butterfly habitat.  One chrysalid is left.  He was a late starter compared to the others, but we expect his arrival on Wednesday.  We'll enjoy them for a bit longer then let them go as per our instructions.

Here are a couple pictures of our beautiful creatures with wings:

Two butterflies are pictured here with two empty cases just to the left of 
the bottom flower.  The empty cases are setting on a bit of dried food.  
When these two became chrysalids they stayed on the bottom of the 
container and were attached to their food.  I had to move the entire little 
cluster to the habitat.

Up close and personal with one of our Painted Lady butterflies.


There are four Painted Lady's in this photo.  
One to the left and three on the top pink carnation.


This project has been so much fun.  It's incredible to me how the fuzzy caterpillars turn into such beautiful butterflies.  One of God's wonderful miracles for sure!!

"He has made everything beautiful in its time...." Ecclesiastes 3:11

God bless,
Pam

Monday, June 20, 2011

All About Butterflies

We've been having a fun time with the larvae we received from Insect Lore.  It is part of our project for "B B Butterfly."  It's pretty incredible to watch the process so far.  I hate to admit that at my age I've never seen this up close.  I'm enjoying it as much as Caleb is.  ;o)

It's hard to believe that this fuzzy little critter begins the process.  It's a Painted Lady larvae.  For record keeping sake, this is what all five larvae looked like on Day 1.


Then it becomes a chrysalis:

And this.  Not sure why these two ended up on the bottom of the container, but they did.  Insect Lore assured me that they will still do their thing and become butterflies.  We shall see.


Here they are all together before we moved the chrysalids to their new home....the butterfly habitat.  The one is still in larvae form.  That one doesn't move around much, but does appear to still be alive.  So, we used a paper towel in the lid and need to wait and see if this 5th one will become a chrysalis also.


And here they are in the butterfly habitat.  Again, for record keeping sake - this is Day 7.


These are the guys that were on the bottom of the container.  I was told to move them using a spoon and being very gentle.  They were somewhat attached to bits of the food so we didn't have any choice but to move it all in one clump.

And my little guy who doesn't care much for drawing?  Drew this.


We're both hoping to see them actually break out of the chrysalis.   Just a few more days - - so we'd better be watching!

Until later,
Pam



Tuesday, June 7, 2011

J-J-Jewels

Our most recent studies were that of the letter J for jewels.  Learning that Jesus is MORE valuable than ANYTHING else!!  Even jewels!!  A fun part of our lesson was making some jewelry.  We had several activities to choose from but mom just so happened to buy a new package of straws in a variety of colors so we decided to make a necklace.


Caleb had such fun creating a "pattern."  Only his idea of a pattern is do do a small one, then start a new one.  So, as you look back over the necklace, you really and truly cannot determine where one pattern begins and one ends...hee hee...

We cannot forget that this was our first day of school at our new desk!!!  Didn't dad do an awesome job??   Of course, he isn't quite finished, but we needed to get our things organized so we sorta pushed ourselves in there before he was ready.  


Also, Caleb has found a new favorite book.  This is an adorable book about a mouse and a mole who are best friends.  He absolutely loved it and begged and begged to read another chapter.  It's a beginner chapter book and so cute!  Didn't really have anything to do with our lessons, but we read for fun, too!


Until next time,
Pam