Finally - an emergence from a chrysalis

As of this morning, we have had 3 caterpillars make their chrysalis. The first one died of black death while in its chrysalis (sort of the bubonic plague of monarchs). The caterpillar had acted oddly just prior to making its chrysalis. And sometime after its wings were formed, it died before emerging. Yesterday was day 14 and we know for sure that it is dead (we had suspected for a few days, but were hoping).  However, a few days after the first one made its chrysalis, another one made its chrysalis. Then last night, another made its chrysalis. This one's tank mate, unfortunately passed away before making it to adulthood. Apparently, this is very common, but hard to watch. I also found another teeny-tiny caterpillar out on a leaf yesterday, so we are not done.

A newly emerged butterfly (imago) and a new chrysalis (pupa)

BUT, this morning, sometime after I came back from taking my beloved to take the bus to work this morning and before I came back down from my second sleep (aka extra hour before the littles drag me out of bed), our 2nd chrysalis had released it's captive!! The time of day was right (usually around 10ish in the morning...weird how they do that!). It's wings were fresh when I saw it, so we only just missed it!  Everyone was very excited.

M2 helping M3 hold it.

Since her wings were needed to harden, we ran our errands as planned. Then, this evening, when we finally all got home, the butterfly was trying to get out, so we took some pictures and then released her. Yes, it is a girl! Hurray! Little M3 is very, very sad that we could not keep her, but I told her that perhaps she will come back and lay some eggs on our milkweed for us in a few days.

She flew from my hand to the door! Ready to leave!

M2 holding her.

G2 holding her sideways.

Just moments before lift off.

Go here to see the 1st of 3 posts on Monarchs this year: (2014 Monarch Visit)
Go here to see the 2nd of 3 posts on Monarchs this year: (Monarch - the caterpillars)

Monarch - the caterpillars

So, a little while back, I posted about the monarch butterflies that had been visiting our milkweed patch that is right outside my patio door (because everyone should have some there - it grows tall, the flowers smell lovely, the deer don't like them, but the Monarch butterflies do!

So far, we have collected a whole 4 caterpillars. I can tell by looking at the leaves on my plants that there have been LOTS more that did not survive
until I found them. :(

But, here are some pictures of our caterpillars. The largest/oldest one is acting like it is ready to make a chrysalis!

Note the

A head on look.

The first 2. After the first week, they grow REALLY fast overnight!

So tiny!

This one is very close to making it's chrysalis

Our 2 youngest caterpillars. Can you see both of them?

Go here for the 1st of 3 posts about Monarchs this year: (2014 Monarch Visit)

Go here for the 3rd of 3 posts about Monarchs this year: (Finally - an emergence from a chrysalis)

Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival

 

Welcome to the next edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival! What an honor for my little blog to be able to host it again! The theme for this weeks Carnival is How to Use School Books, from Chapter 16 of Miss Mason's book School Education.

Simply discusses a topic that comes up rather often in her post What is Narration? : "Narration is the act of knowing. When a student is able to tell back what has been read, then he/she knows the material. In addition, the process of narration involves an ordering of thoughts, synthesizing and sorting the material, critical thinking, sequencing, and more."

Aut-2b-Home In Carolina shares with us Digging for Knowledge: "Understanding Charlotte Mason's method requires us to dig. Because we are used to having knowledge poured into us, opening her books and studying them is a challenge. It's much easier to read someone else's interpretation of her ideas or to follow a checklist or 'how to'."

Keep On Keeping On takes you on a nature walk that goes Over the Creek and Through the Woods: "Off we went, my daughter and her 4 children and I on a nature walk; a little amble in the woods, to a nature preserve nearby. This nature area includes lake, meadow, and woods. And since the morning was rather hot and humid we preferred to stay in the shade taking the paths through the woods. We even crossed a little bridge over a little creek, a very little creek."

Journey and Destination tells us about Picture Study: Inspired by Marc Chagall: "Marc Chagall was one of the artists featured in a set of Montessori artist cards I used with my children when they were little but it wasn't until earlier this year when I was reading Island of the World by Michael O'Brien that I became interested in learning more about him and his art."

Education is a Life discusses Masterly Inactivity: A Matter of Trust: "Charlotte Mason noticed that parents in her day felt a deep responsibility for the upbringing of their children. She felt this was a good thing, but that the anxiety and the "fussy and restless habit" it was causing in many parents was not helpful. (What would she have thought of the "helicopter parenting" of today?!)"

Simply also shares Beginning a Charlotte Mason Education with an Older Student: "We began implementing Charlotte Mason’s methods when my daughter was heading into the high school years. When I first began reading about and researching the CM method, I realized it would take some time. It can seem overwhelming at first, trying to figure out where to begin. I chose to focus on what I felt were cornerstones of the method..."

Silvia Cachia tells us all about Karen Glass' soon to be published books Consider This, Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition, by Karen Glass: "Karen Glass, -advisory member of  Ambleside Online-, surprised us with her soon to be published books,Consider This, Charlotte Mason and the Classical Tradition, and A divulged Vol. 6, Towards a Philosophy of Education, (abridged or paraphrased rendition of Charlotte Mason's influential book), both of which I was honored to get in advanced copies, and both of which I read in the span of a few days, that hungry for them I was."

I hope you enjoyed this summer edition of the Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival!

2014 Monarch Visit

We were so excited. While my beloved was cooking and I was drinking coffee, my oldest suddenly shouted, "LOOK! A Monarch!!"  Much excitement ensued as we LOVE having Monarchs by our back door!

And, as I just looked out again, she was back laying an egg! WOOHOO!  M3 really wanted to catch her and give her a hug. I had to explain to her how important it was that we don't grab her (even though we do want to give her a hug for coming to our yard). I think it might be time to go to the museum so she can learn more about why we don't grab butterflies.

 

Go here for the 2nd of 3 posts about Monarchs this year: (Monarch - the caterpillars)
Go here for the 3rd of 3 posts about Monarchs this year: (Finally - an emergence from a chrysalis)

End of June discoveries around the yard

We have seen lots of baby birds and have had a nest of baby bunnies in the middle of our garden this last spring. Juvenile (fledgling) robins are so much fun. They can fly a little bit, but they are not very good at it. They are also not yet scared of people. We have been able to get within a just a couple of feet of them for close observation.


The pictures here are one of the many young robins that have been in the yard. What was funny about this one as that it came up and tapped on my patio door window next to where I was sitting. I thought at first it was the neighbor lady, but there was no one outside the door. It tapped again at the window and cheeped at me several times when I saw it. Everyone got to see it - very cool! This was after the youngest one banged on the window to tell it high. Then, it eventually flew off.

Sounding the alarm

Go away Hawk!

We also have a very active hawk in the area. We know when it is near because all the birds go into a tizzy and instead of bird song, we get to hear bird alarm. We get the same alarm (although, not as intense) when our cat sneaks out. The birds tend to congregate at the top of the pine tree and yell at the hawk. 

Here we are at the end of June and it looks like we might finally get some summertime! How do we know? Because the Hollyhocks blossomed this morning!! Aren't they gorgeous? Thus far, we have 3 colors. The last couple of summers, they have not been very plentiful and have been under 5 feet tall. The plants are gigantic this year. The ones in the flowerbed outside my patio door are almost 7 feet tall! The pre-bloom picture shown here was taken about a month ago. Notice it is still fairly short and squat.

Milkweed plant just before it blooms

Do you see the creature in the upper left?

The milkweed is one of our favorite plants because it brings the Monarch butterflies up close for us to watch since the plants are next to the back step. The flower balls start out very small, but they open up into a sort of droopy ball. They are very pretty and the smell is heavenly. You need these in your flower beds! If you notice, there is another visitor in the picture. The milkweed also finally opened today. Hurray!

We have also been watching what we think is a vole darting back and forth across our patio from one flowerbed to the other. I catch her out of the corner of my eye rather often. I had to look because I have seen mice out
there on occasion, but this was not a mouse. They are newcomers to our yard this year.

Teeny tiny baby voles - the pink things.

How do I know it is a "she"? Because she had babies....in the middle of our lawn! Ack! I mowed on Wednesday night and since then, under a small pile of grass that was left on top, she built a nest. They are so very, very tiny. You can see the tiny bit of pink in the first picture on the right. I think that is at least 2 of them....maybe 3. Look at the size of the clover leaf next to them in comparison! To be expected, of course, from such a small creature, but still just amazing to think about such tiny creatures being born!

Crickets and Honeysuckle Sipping

Okay, not really, but I have not posted anything in a while and I am fairly certain if you were checking in, you might have thought you simply heard crickets...if it were warm enough.

It was a long, cold winter with lots of stuff going on that had absolutely nothing to do with homeschooling and yet, at the same time, everything to do with life events that are more important than any math lesson.

When I started writing this in mid-March, we were just finally starting to see the brown grass in our yard. I refused to take a picture of that. It was a false start to spring. Spring and GREEN, pretty grass finally showed up with a lot of very cold days to get us here...even cold into May.  So, to stave off spring fever, I read quite a few books. Some were simply me pre-reading for content for my oldest, others were for my own edification, then some were simply brain candy. :)  However, I did find some gems while I was reading and this was one of them.

This lovely book that I is called "Honeysuckle Sipping" by Jeanne R. Chesanow - a most delightful book!


Once upon a time, children did not have computer games, shelves & bins full of toys, playrooms, or other such dedicated places for their entertainment. During good weather, they were sent outside to play and had to amuse themselves. In the great outdoors they played with the plants that they found in their environment. They made whistles out of grass, dolls, had snacks (truly, sucking honeysuckle is a wonderful delight - yummy!), made crowns -- all kinds of wonderful things that were only limited by their imaginations.

There are some lovely poems, legends, and folklore that go along with so many of the plants in our flowerbeds.  One of the plants they talked about in the book, we already knew about and had played with:

A few years ago, when I was expecting my youngest son, we moved to a house that had LOTS of hollyhocks. I just love hollyhocks and this house had lots of wonderful colors! At the time, we also got a magazine called The Girlhood Home Companion (I highly recommend the magazine. Even though no longer in publication, you can still get back issues. They are lovely). One of the issues talked about hollyhock dolls. So, we went looking for more instructions. We found them and this is what we made:

I look forward to introducing my children to some of the other fun found in the book. It is also a great way to continue our nature studies as we look for the various plants found in the book. I hope this inspires you to take a different look at the plants in your yard and the world around you!

Our favorite conservation area

We are very blessed to have a conservation area in our small town and live only about 5 minutes from it. There are upland forested areas, upland prairie areas, wet prairie areas, wet woodlands, along with regular wetland areas (meaning ponds & swamp). So, besides our walks around our yard, we try to get out to the conservation area 2-4 times a month (well, except in the winter....we don't have snowshoes, heehee!). During the spring, it is a little harder to visit all the areas because even with grass, the trails get muddy. We have hiked trails on warm, early spring days only to still encounter snow on the trails!

We have found it to be a great place to see many different kinds of birds, plants, trees, frogs, etc. Last year, I had the privilege of taking a visiting friend to the conservation area. She and her daughter were privileged enough to even get bit by some of our state bird (cough....mosquito! heehee!). Since they visited in the summer when all the plants were well into their life cycle, I thought I would share some of the pictures I took last week to show it at the beginning of the season. I took the pictures with my friends in mind. I hope you enjoy them.

>>A beautiful, flowering tree in the wooded area just off of the parking lot. I am still working on the tree name for this one. I love this time of year.

    <<The is the main trail that we walk on from the parking lot.

>> By mid-summer, the grasses are about 3-4 feet all through here. Right now, they are just a few inches. Sometimes, they will do a controlled burn in the prairie zones.  G3 was very excited to know that bluebirds happen to live in the birdhouse in the middle. I missed seeing it, but the children actually saw an altercation between a bluebird and some robins in the area (in the trees behind me). I suspect there was a territory violation.

<<In this picture, on the left side of the trail in, when my friends were here, this was full of a wildflower that I had not ever seen before in that area. I suspect it was something new that was seeded in that area.

>>The prairie area here would be on the right side of the picture above. In this area, there are flowering plants that grow well over 7 feet tall. It is amazing to walk through this zone and be simply dwarfed by the plants. Right now, we are dwarfing the plants. In a few weeks, not so much. It is amazing how quickly plants can grow!






<<The large green "tufts" in this picture on the left are the beginnings of some of those huge plants. The picture just below on the right is a close up of the same plant, but from a different area. No name for it at the moment, but I will when it flowers this summer.

A close up of one of the unnamed tufts.

<< This one of my favorite plants in the prairie zone. In early fall, when it is dried out, the huge  leaves make this fabulous dry, rattling sound. I cannot explain it, but it is the most amazing sound to me. Isn't that just silly? This one and the one just above it are ones we are researching the names

This one has the answer to one of the clues.

This particular visit, we are looking for a Letterbox. I started us letterboxing back in 2005. We are better known as the Catherders of WI on the trail. However, due to pregnancy challenges with M3 and then life afterwards, we have not been letterboxing since the summer of 2010 (just before I went on bedrest with M3). So, this is M3's first time looking for a letterbox. We were looking for one about a Tiger....G3 was very worried that we would find Lion's in the forested areas. Silly boy! 

<< 3 different kinds of mushrooms at the base of one tree stump.

One of the many ponds in the wetlands area.

Red-winged blackbird

Seed spreading, lol!

 

Garlic Mustard plant. Pretty, but an invasive species originating in Europe. Edible.

Two of my hikers:
G3 on the left and M3 on the right. G3 is bound and determined that we will NOT get lost.

The deer lay here.

<< Common Blue Violet. If you look closely, there is some Garlic Mustard plant hiding in there.

>>I just love the contrast of life and death here.