Butterfly Release
I’ve taken a forced vacation from my blog for a couple of weeks due to computer problems. We haven’t left our yard much though and we’ve been busy with our animals, gardening and lots of homeschooling.
The kids collected 8 monarch caterpillars last week and put them in a container with lots of scarlet milkweed. The caterpillars chomped right through the milkweed quickly, so we just kept adding fresh plants every day. We added a stick with no leaves inside the container so the caterpillars would have a place to form their chrysalides. They did and we’ve had 2 butterflies emerge so far. Our 3-year-old keeps a constant watch over the container which sits on our kitchen table as a centerpiece. She yells out, “Mariposa’s awake!” whenever a butterfly breaks out of its chyrsalis. She’s always the first one to notice.
Fly away little butterfly.
The garden fairy and the butterfly.
Good-bye Mariposa.
Don’t these photos make you want to go out and find some caterpillars? It’s been a great centerpiece for our kitchen table.
Come grow with us!
Pick Me Yard 
November 9, 2010 at 5:41 am
you are the best Mom ever!
I have always questioned home schooling until I started reading your blog. You teach your children more than any public school ever could. Plus you make it fun. Love the garden fairy costume…do they come in adult sizes?
November 9, 2010 at 1:31 pm
That is a wonderful compliment! Thank you so much! The whole concept of homeschooling was scary to me at first and it had a learning curve, but we wanted to do it so badly. It has been one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. My kids are always learning because they want to, not because they have to. The next brick and mortar school for my kids will be college. My daughter has collected all the princess dresses and wears them every day. She’s all girl… except for the bugs. She loves insects. Oh… and frogs. I keep telling her I better not catch her kissing the frogs. We have a huge bull frog that lives in our pond and she’s convinced he’s a prince and looks for him every day.
November 9, 2010 at 6:27 pm
Wauuuuuuuuuuuuuu
Wonderful !
I would love to do this workshop at Le Petit Festival ….with kids and old people…
How long does it take ???
Art is the thrilling spark that beats life and sometimes even a death…
Le Petit Festival wishes you one romantic night !
November 15, 2010 at 11:55 am
And I would love to visit your workshop at Le Petit Festival! What a magical place! My mom raves about your festival.
The stage of development from egg to emerging from its chrysalis depends on different factors. The warmer they are and the longer the day, the sooner they will emerge. If kept at 80 degrees with 17 hours of light, they’ll emerge faster than if kept at 70 degrees with 8 hours of light. We didn’t keep track of how long our Monarch butterflies took in their cycle of life. I do know it was less than a week, but we are in Florida where the conditions are ideal for them right now. I’ll have Grayson keep track and write down the exact time it takes them from egg to hatching. I’ll have him keep track of the temperature and light conditons as well.
In Croatia, you would want to use butterflies (or moths) that are native to the area. I’ll do some research for you. What an exciting workshop that would be!
November 10, 2010 at 2:01 am
Art of creation is the thrilling spark that beats life and sometimes even a death…
And the best Master is her Majesty “La Natura”. The beauty of Nature…
November 14, 2010 at 8:04 am
Hi Lisa,
Those pics of your garden fairy and her butterfly are absolutely gogeous! What a cool experience for your kiddos!! I think I’ll try it too.
Kim
November 15, 2010 at 11:32 am
Awesome! You’re entire family will enjoy it.
To me, it’s like driving the same road each day and looking at the same sign. Pretty soon, you don’t notice the sign anymore. I’ve found that to be the case with the butterflies. It was a new perspective to have the caterpillars in a container going through their cycle of life on our table because we watch them every day. I actually took notice of them and what they were doing in the container instead of just noticing the passing butterfly outside (as my car hits it). You’ll soon be hooked on them just like us.