Captivating Caterpillars…

… become “flowers that fly and all but sing.”

It’s not always convenient to observe nature, but it is quite fulfilling!

Early in June, on Graduation Day for Number 1 Son,  as we were cleaning, and preparing food for a small family dinner, GraceNotes burst into the kitchen and announced, “I found a caterpillar on the fennel plant! Bright yellow, with black stripes!  Way cute!  Let’s keep it!”  Who wants to clean anyway?

After a little time spent on the internet looking for advice on caterpillar habitats we assembled a plastic container, floral water tubes, feathery fennel leaves, a stick, a rock and some soil.   We identified our guy as a Black Swallowtail caterpillar,  (Papilio polyxenes asterius Stoll, Order – Lepidoptera) and soon had our little fellow all set up.  Back to work, I thought.

Then she found a second one!  Two caterpillars required an upgrade!  We moved them into a larger space, with additional amenities, and somehow managed to get cleaned up and ready for the other big event!  (Dinner was late…)

Each caterpillar received a name, Reginald and Bertie.  The elder child enjoyed this as much as the younger!  We took lots of photos, and put fresh fennel in each day.  We cleaned out prodigious amounts of waste.  (And commented with chagrin that Eric Carle did NOT discuss this aspect of caterpillar behavior in the Very Hungry Caterpillar…)  We worried over them when we found a big bunch of gook, and they  sort of curled up.  Then  sighed with relief when we discovered that caterpillars empty their gut prior to forming their chrysalis.

We marveled at each chrysalis and watched the shape shift every so slightly, and the color deepen.  We watched them each day, and even worried that they were too dry, or too warm, or too air-conditioned.  And then one day…we woke up to butterflies!

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We placed them back on the fennel plant where they stayed for an hour or so before they fluttered off in the breeze!  We couldn’t help but marvel at seeing with our own eyes what we have learned intellectually, especially after viewing Metamorphosis: The Beauty and Design of  Butterflies, by Illustra Media during the Easter time frame.

For more ideas about Nature Study we recommend the blog Handbook of Nature Study,  and to see how others enjoy science in their homeschool visit The Home School Scientist!

Blue-Butterfly Dayby Robert Frost

It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.

The Hawk

My office, and Grace’s schoolroom, is the former sleep porch perched upstairs in the back dormer of our 1919 Bungalow.  When we look out our windows, we are surrounded by trees.  In the summer, it is a cool green leafy tree house.  In the fall, we watch a squirrel cirque du soleil performance, as they run, play and leap with total abandon in search of pecans from my neighbor’s pecan tree, often sporting nuts hanging from their mouths or clustered in their cheeks!  In the winter, it is a study of bare branches on two sides, and evergreens on the other with the swooping of bird wings more evident with the sun lower in the sky.  The sun sparkling on choppy water reflects off of our schoolroom walls where the light refracts just so. 

Grace has finished her Apologia Zoology Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day curriculum, but we are trying to remain vigilant of bird sightings to retain knowledge.  The other day, we caught the quick shadow of a

Hawk in the American Holly with lunch

hawks wings and quickly picked up the binoculars.  The Hawk is from Phylum Chordata, Class Aves, Order Falconiformes, Family Accipitridae, Genus Accipiter.  As far as the Species, we think a juvenile Coopers Hawk. Cooper’s Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks will hunt near bird feeders and song birds are their favorite lunch…Ralph caught this scene with the camera. 

For more about Hawks in Virginia visit: http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/birds/raptors/

Farming ants…

 Yes!  and it was actually pretty fun!

Setting up and maintaining an ant farm in order to watch the behavior of social insects was one of the projects in the Flying Creatures curriculum we worked on this fall – and so you are asking – why are ants in a flying creatures curriculum?  Well, Grace informs me that the Queens fly in order to establish a new colony, with the male ants who have emerged from their pupa stage (conveniently) at the same time.  They swarm, mate, and then the males, well, they die (sorry!) and the Queen begins a new colony.   

Here are some photos of our ant farm: 

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I went looking through my posts for something else, and found this post – unpublished from early last fall!  So, here it is!

Beautiful Bugs!

Sometimes not.  Yeah, I know.  But we really enjoyed the section on insects in the Apologia Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day, Zoology 1 book.  We started this study in mid-summer as we were dipping our feet into homeschooling.  It is actually the second section in the book, but author Jeannie K. Fulbright suggests working through these later chapters when insects are out and about!  The initial  “ick” factor has almost been dispelled by knowledge (interesting how that works!) and an informed appreciation of God’s creatures and the amazing way they fit into God’s design!

We developed an increased awareness of the amazing variety of insects and enjoyed our new desire to actually stop and take a look at them!  And take a picture of them!   Although it’s obvious that orders Lepidoptera and Odonata are our two favorites! 

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