Caterpillars and chrysalis and butterflies, oh my!

I have been wanting to do a butterfly segment since I first started the idea of homeschooling... And so the stars aligned and our painted lady butterfly caterpillars arrived just in time.

We had purchased a terrarium months ago and hadn't even opened it, so I sent away for the caterpillars and they arrived in like two days!  I had the books and DVDs all set already!

So yeah, while we waited for those little suckers to eat their special disgusting looking food, and get huge (which they did like you wouldn't believe!) we also did some nice art projects.  Max liked painting an egg carton butterfly:

But I really hit the nail on the head with the butterfly wind chime.  There is something about painting wood that max really loves.  I'm not sure why, but the more unusual the painting surface, the better he focuses on the project...

I still need to put a protective enamel layer on it before it hangs outside.  We rounded out the week with a trip to a local butterfly conservatory.  And like an idiot I didn't bring my camera, I was too busy being blissed out by the hundreds of butterflies circling and landing on us and the waterfalls and coi pond,  and max being soooo well behaved even though it was super crowded.  He ALMOST let a butterfly land on him, but kept chickening out.  Can't say as I blame him, they tickle!  But he had a great chance to look at the rice paper butterfly that stayed with me for over ten minutes, drinking the sweat from my hand.  It was a really sweet teaching moment, not just about the butterfly's anatomy, but about the importance of being gentle and quiet!  Also, chocolate soft serve in the atrium afterwards for the win!

UPDATE: here thar be chrysalis!

Why you should always read amazon reviews...

So yeah, our time and timekeepers week continues... And I learned a very important lesson about amazon product reviews, as in ALWAYS read them before purchasing items.  More specifically before purchasing "make your own first clock kit"... Which got about 2 stars... Soooo, yeah.  What was supposed to be a fun project turned into a 45 minute under my breathe swearing fit.  And after following these instructions (which really should have been my first clue):

The clock didn't work.  Or more precisely, doesn't work unless the clock is PERFECTLY level.  And the thing is so cheaply made that the gears shifted around inside it so that there is no consistent level to be had.  Placed on a table it ticks for maybe 3 minutes than just stops.  No rhyme or reason.  Still max at least enjoyed seeing the insides of a clock move... Sorta.

Our hourglass project was much nicer.  Max was able to help with every aspect of this, he helped pour the salt into the jar, cut the cardboard for in between the glasses and tape it together.  He got a kick out of counting how long it took for the salt to go from side to another (almost an exact 30 seconds) and enjoyed showing it off to everyone.

We also enjoyed making another of our books (we have about ten of these, I'll have to make a separate entry about our bookmaking projects sometime).

And of course as promised here are the books we used for this week!

And we're back!

Whew.  It took some doing, but I managed almost a whole day of school for Max today.  I didn't push, we had a leisurely breakfast and eased into circle time.  It was really ice to see max smile and laugh when he rang our "bell" (I.e. got to gong the Tibetan singing bowl).  Much fun was also had with the songs this morning.  I've discovered that if I let him hum or make up his own hand gestures instead of insisting on strictly following the traditional movements of the songs, I get a much better level of interest and interaction.  Which is what I'm going for right?

Anyway, we are starting a light week, our theme is time and timekeepers.  We did our circle time, read a cool book (I will post a picture of the books for this week soon) and made a paper plate clock.  Not our best project ever, but it works!

Not as fat fancy as this one which max picked out for his birthday present however....

After lunch was devoted to vinegar volcanos, which quickly devolved into huge amounts of mess once the construction trucks got involved.

We also made chocolate covered potato chips for dessert.  Max simply adored using his fingers to crush the potato chips in the bowl, and even helped line the muffin tins and spoon the mixture into them.

  Plus eating a whole two of these all by himself at dinner was a huge plus.

All in all a good day, really looking forward to getting to my next level of mobility in a couple of weeks and getting this donut brace off my neck next Thursday!  Maybe I can even haz driving again soon?

I've seen this before, it's a space time warp!

So, yeah.  Space time warp.  Some alien swooped right down and deposited me on the planet Pluto for the last two months.  And in true Star Trek fashion, I was replaced by a doppelgänger, who didn't do much of anything but lie in bed in pain.   Through my ingenious mcgyvering of a telepathic field generator, I was occasionally able to direct said doppelgänger implement my homeschooling plan, but their performance was sub par at best.  Finally in a bout of frustration, I smacked the side of the field generator and boosted its power enough to take control of the imposter and have been slowly regaining more control each day!

(I figured this was more entertaining than a lengthy description of spinal fusion and recovery)

ANYWAY.  Backyard birds.  Here are the books we used.  The field guides have been great.  I managed through effective use of my minions, to put up bird feeders in the front yard, which has yielded so many great bird sightings.  We've had nuthatches, chickadees, Downey woodpeckers, cardinals, tufted titmice, house finches, goldfinches, red bellied woodpeckers, sparrows, junkos bluejays, morning doves.  It's been a real treat.

We've been light on projects the last couple of months for obvious reasons, but we did managed to make a birds nest with painted eggs and egg carton bird masks.

Also here is an update of our aero garden flowers from January!

We are planning both a butterfly unit and a time and time keepers unit for sometime in April.  Spring has sprung, and look out world, I'm now semi mobile!