Everyday Learning – Page 2 – The Creative Salad

Butterfly Life Cycle: Raising and Observing Butterflies

This past few weeks, our first “official” month of homeschooling, has flown by! For our science study, we’ve learned so much about the butterfly life cycle and observed so many beautiful butterflies!

We raised Painted Lady (using this kit) and Cabbage White butterflies:

We observed Pipevine Swallowtail eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalises at our friends Susie and Joan’s house:

We traveled to the California Academy of Sciences to see even more butterflies:

We’ve watched our daughter’s interest, enthusiasm, and knowledge grow with each activity. Kindergarten is off to a great start! (Phew.)

Click here to see all of our Butterfly Life Cycle posts.

Butterfly Life Cycle: Setting the Facts Straight — What Eric Carle Got Wrong in The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book

First an update on the butterflies we’re raising: our five Painted Lady caterpillars arrived, grew tremendously, transformed into chrysalises, and should emerge as butterflies any day now. We’ve already witnessed two Cabbage White butterflies transform from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. We’ve had a big week… I’ll try to post pictures soon!

In learning about the butterfly life cycle, we’ve discovered there is quite a bit of misinformation out there concerning butterflies.

As much as we love Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a scientist he is not. Let’s tackle some of the errors in this book.

A butterfly transforms into a chrysalis or pupa not a cocoon (that would be what some moths make). Our daughter has been correcting everyone.

And caterpillars can be picky about what they eat. Do they like swiss cheese or chocolate cake? That would be a resounding no. Each type of caterpillar has a particular plant (or set of closely related plants) that it likes to eat. Cabbage White caterpillars, for example, eat plants from the mustard family, including kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.

Now the next part may come as a bit of a shock to you, but this butterfly, while beautiful, doesn’t really exist. ;) Oh, how I wish Eric Carle had picked a particular butterfly species and accurately depicted each of its life stages. What a great teaching tool THAT would have been.

We still love The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Heck, our daughter had a Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed birthday party (more on that here, here, and here).

Plus we learn in deconstructing a beloved classic. But how many people actually realize this book is art and poetry, not science? We didn’t think much about it before our homeschooling butterfly unit this fall and my college degree is in biology. (Doh!)

I just can’t help to feel a little grouchy over the fact that this beautifully illustrated book could be the ultimate teaching tool for millions of families. (Coulda, woulda, shoulda.)

We do have LOTS of butterfly life cycle books that are scientifically accurate and fun to read. I’ll share those with you next week.

Starting Something New

You guys, we have a little girl who is stressing. She’s worrying because she’s heading to school soon.

You may be scratching your head and thinking, “but I thought you were homeschooling?!”

Rest assured, we are. In addition to learning at home, our daughter will be spending two days each week doing enrichment activities with other kids at a school just for homeschoolers.

Imagine an entire community of kids in the same situation, with the support of teachers who get it.

Plus it’s free! Plus she loves her teacher!

We are thrilled.

Our little worry-wort is soooo excited, but concerned too. “I don’t want to be apart from you, mama. I don’t want to be lonely.” We know that our daughter makes friends wherever she goes, so we’re not concerned, but she’s feeling less secure.

And we totally understand. New things can be scary. Sometimes when we’re worried we cry at the drop of the hat or feel quick to anger. But we also know that to grow we sometimes need to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. So here we are, David and I, loving and supporting our sweet overwhelmed girl, giving her extra hugs and cuddles, being her safety net, because we’re embarking on something new. And it’s time.

It’s going to be freaking awesome.

Documenting Everyday Learning with Project Life (Part 2)

I’ve been slowly making headway with our Everyday Learning scrapbook made with Project Life materials. I envision this journal as a casual record of our homeschooling projects. Something for us to look back on years from now, to remember the rhythm of our homeschooling days, and–hopefully–think of with fondness.

So far I’ve documented about when we released ladybugs into the garden and witnessed a solar eclipse…

played math games (cards, fractile magnets, and time telling activities)…

made art collage postcards inspired by the masters…

explored the world through geography, using Puzzleballs, magnetic maps, and songs… (pages in progress)

learned about leaf shapes and classification and observed barn owls… (pages in progress)

and here we are getting started with more complicated math activities and observing the butterfly life cycle… (pages in progress)

As we continue through the year I will fill these pages and add many, many more. Stay tuned!

Everyday Learning | 02: Butterfly Life Cycle

I apologize about the lack of topic diversity on the blog right now. I’m very much focused on the school year starting and can’t seem to focus on much else these days (which, I suppose, is how it should be!). So here I go, bombarding you with homeschooling posts…

I’ve noticed the best homeschooling moments happen when you least expect it.

Earlier this week I stood on our front porch in my pajamas and shouted inside to my daughter, “Honey, come here right now!” (“Mom, I just need to finish this…”) “No, really, get out here RIGHT THIS MINUTE! You don’t want to miss this!” An ominous beginning, right?!

I witnessed the most amazing thing: cabbage white butterflies laying eggs on our tree kale.

The gardener in me watched in horror, while the homeschooling mama felt ELATED (!!!) because this is exactly what we’re starting the school year off with: studying the butterfly life cycle.

We witnessed first hand the laying of the eggs:

We spotted Cabbage White caterpillars of all different sizes crawling around, munching leaves:

Heck, we even brought a caterpillar inside to continue our observation just in case we might get to see him form a chrysalis.

Never mind that Painted Lady caterpillars are currently in the mail on route to us. We’ll get to see the whole thing again with a different butterfly species.

Now THIS is how we learn.

I’m so excited.