Science Class

I love homeschooling! I didn't know that I would, but I truly enjoy teaching my Cole-Boy. He is picking things up so quickly and blending letters together already. One of the things I love about homeschooling is the freedom to do projects outside of the curriculum. I had been thinking it would be great for Cole (and the rest of us!) to see a butterfly emerge from a cocoon. I wasn't really sure how to go about this experiment, but God knew, and he worked it out beautifully for us.

As it turns out, we had a family over for dinner Sunday afternoon. They have a daughter who is 7. She had collected 16 caterpillars which had cocooned over the past few days. They actually had 16 cocoons hanging around their house! Later that afternoon her dad came back to our house and brought us a cocoon and a pumpkin from their garden. I was so excited! We hung our cocoon underneath a kitchen cupboard and waited for the transformation.

The cocoon was beautiful! It was green and looked pearly. There were also gold "stitches" in the cocoon. I'm still looking that up online, but it was very beautiful. I wish I could've gotten better photos, but it was dark under the cabinets.



We finally started to see a wing through the cocoon.



Here he is hanging out to dry! It amazes me that those beautiful, big wings fit inside that little shell.



The clear cocoon after he came out:



Logan had no trouble picking up the butterfly.



When I came downstairs this morning, the boys had laid out an animal book on the kitchen floor near the butterfly. You can see the monarch in the picture. I guess they were trying to show our real butterfly what he was supposed to look like! :) They also tried to feed him. . . . . a Cheerio!



Cole did NOT want to hold the butterfly at first! Crazy boy! He finally picked it up.





Finally, our butterfly was able to go outside. I put him near my petunias, which are still struggling along in this cold weather. It's been a couple of hours, and he still hasn't left our home. Maybe the boys will get their wish to have a pet butterfly after all!