Homeschool Update: Getting Back Into the Swing of Things!

            Hey folks! We are finally getting back into the swing of things with homeschooling, so I thought I would share what we've been up to!

             Usually I will decide on a theme to roll with for a week or more based on what Myka is interested in at the time. I had NO clue what I wanted to do this week, but I knew I wanted to keep the ball rolling with school stuff. I hadn't planned on doing a specific butterfly theme, but it just kind of turned out that way this week. (What Bob Ross would call a “happy little accident”.)

             We ordered painted lady caterpillars again this year. Long story short, they sent us an extra one and we think they ran out of food, so only one of them ended up hatching...And since we waited so long to see if the other ones were going to cocoon, he started coming out while still in the cup instead of the “habitat”. Oops. Because of that, he was all dried out and was never able to open his wings all the way. Oops. They're kind of curled and gnarly looking. It's the saddest butterfly you've ever seen. 

            Luckily, though, we have had TONS in the yard, so, while we weren't able to see them go through their life cycle, we have caught quite a few painted lady butterflies to observe in our butterfly habitat for a time before letting them go. The one pictured here is a black swallowtail! We had a nice little impromptu nature lesson the day I caught it, identifying it and learning what it likes to eat. I want one of the pretty orange ones with black spots or tiger swallowtail to check out, but they are wily things!

             We checked out a really neat book at the library titled Science and Craft Projects with Insects, Spiders, and Other Minibeasts, which is part of a Get Crafty Outdoors series. Fun! Sounds right up our alley, right? After all it pretty much combines our two favorite things!

             Anyways, we did a few projects from that book this week. It was great because even my 2 year old could do them with some help AND they had two pages before the craft/activity that talked about the related critter. The girls made these cute little handprint butterflies, painted caterpillar rock garden decorations, and we made a worm farm in a bottle! (We also finished some lady bug and bee kindness rocks we started a few months ago, as you can see in the picture. Lol)

             We also made butterfly life cycle crafts (Pinterest). Ripley actually did most of hers on the left. I was impressed! She was trying to do hers like Myka. It was so cute!

             We've also been investigating some other nature critters around the farm. A bird built its nest in the corner of the school room on the outside and became Myka's obsession until they flew out. She checked on them multiple times a day...Even in her Barbie car. Lol

             We happened to see a turtle in the yard one evening, so that was fun! We came across lots of Easter Box Turtles last year, but this was only the second we've seen this year so far. I like that we seem to have a lot around here because they are threatened, possible close to being endangered, if I remember correctly. Myka has been keeping a more casual eye out for his reappearance in the front yard. ;)

             John and I noticed some frog eggs (and by some, I mean TONS!) in our pigs' mud pit today. Naturally, we had to save some of those too. :P As long as we don't forget to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't get too hot, I look forward to watching frogs go through their life cycle with the kids! (We just learned about frogs recently too.)

Are you still chugging along, or is it time for summer break for your family?