One of the Outdoor Hour Challenges this month was to study bees or another insect. Since we were already in the process of raising painted lady butterflies I thought it would be the perfect fit!
Both Short Pants and Pita Pocket were surprised that our caterpillars were so tiny when we received them. We placed them on our summer nature table so we could observe them grow big and fat as they ate and ate and ate. The boys were very excited when they all climbed to the top of the jar and formed their chrysalises. We also read in the Handbook of Nature Study book that only butterflies form a chrysalis; moths form cocoons. I had always thought the two words were interchangeable. We switched the paper liner to the butterfly house and - just like last year - missed seeing any of them come out! Here is a photo of the chrysalises - you can see that 3 have been broken open while 1 is still unbroken:
We *were* able to catch the last butterfly just after he emerged from his chrysalis. Short Pants and Pita got very impatient with how long he stood waiting for his wings to dry so that he could flutter around!
We made a mixture of sugar water as the directions suggested for the butterflies' food each day. The littles enjoyed running out to the garden each morning to pick fresh marigolds to sprinkle the sugar water on:
When it came time to release our butterflies the boys proudly carried them out to the garden:
Then it was time to say "good bye" and wish them well!
We were all so pleased to see one of "our" butterflies land straightaway on the coneflowers:
We watched it for awhile and also looked for other butterflies - the boys know the coneflowers are a popular gathering spot:
When we walked around the front of the house to check the flowers there we didn't find any butterflies. The boys thought that was maybe because it was all shaded at the time:
Then it was inside to journal. We had tried to draw our butterflies before letting them go, but they just wouldn't stay still long enough!
So I brought up an image on the laptop for us to draw from:
Pita Pocket enjoyed arranging some black-eyed-susans he'd picked to press in his journal:
(and yes, it's high summer and Short Pants has on fleece pajama pants and a long-sleeved shirt. Maybe I should be grateful that at least Pita didn't put on a long shirt too?!)
