Butterflies

As a part of homeschooling this spring, I ordered butterflies. Well, I actually ordered caterpillars and we watched them transform into butterflies over a 2 week period. It was the coolest. I wish I would have been more intentional about planning activities to go along with the butterfly experience, but I was mostly just excited to watch it happen. We did check out loads of books about butterflies from the library and we made butterflies out of coffee filters, and did a worksheet or two which helped us identify and label the parts of a butterfly.
They started out SO tiny. I should have taken a picture in the beginning. We watched them grow into bigger caterpillars, and then eventually, they made their way to the top of their little cup, hang upside down and create their chrysalis. Then we moved them, very carefully, from the cup to the netted "cage" and waited for them to hatch. It was hard to wait, but such a fun surprise to wake up one Sunday and realize they were hatching! We kept them for a week and and observed them. The highlights were watching their proboscis' come out to eat, and watching them mate. :) Ha! We fed them flowers, and oranges, and sugar water. Then on Mother's Day, it was time to release them.



It was seriously so magical. They didn't fly away immediately, so we were able to pick them up and carry them around for quite some time. Miles thought it was cool, but after about 10 minutes, announced that he was going inside. Gwen, on the other hand, was in heaven. One of her very favorite things to do outside is look for bugs. If, perchance, a little white butterfly finds it's way into our yard, she follows it until she can't follow it anymore. She wanted all of our painted lady butterflies on her, forever. Totally, and completely magical.
They said that next year, we need to get tadpoles. :)