Butterflies from Insect Lore and our Arthropod Unit
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When I was growing up, I tried EVERYTHING within my power to NOT BE A NERD. But now that I am over 40 (ahem…just barely, so don’t get excited), I pretty much just embrace my inner nerd-bomber LIKE A BOSS!! So that means when we are learning about ants in our arthropod unit…I am the FIRST one to get excited about the ant farm. And when we are learning about crustaceans, I am standing right there with the dissecting tools ready to rip that crayfish apart. And when my kids mentioned that it would be fun to watch butterflies grow…you better believe I ordered us up a cup loaded with caterpillars before anybody had a chance to change their mind. And THAT is how we ended up with a special needs butterfly named Jeffrey. But I am getting ahead of myself…let’s start at the beginning.
I ordered our butterflies from INSECT LORE and it they pretty quickly and with a butterfly house, feeder, food packets, a cup full of caterpillars and a butterfly workbook. I have also seen the same kits on Amazon, and the only difference is that on Amazon you get a voucher for your caterpillars and they are sent separately. Our order came really quickly and we were able to start our butterfly home-school unit right away…which was perfect for me because even though I am SUPER nerdy, I am not super good at planning ahead:)
I was a tiny bit nervous about our little caterpillars when they arrived because they seemed a wee bit…well…dead. BUT the instructions said they might be pretty still after their travels, so we took a good look at them, read the information packet, and put them on the shelf to watch. They started moving a little before the night was over, and by the next day they were little eating MACHINES. It was SOOOO cool to watch them grow LITERALLY over night. Then over the next few days they just ate, and grew, and shed their exoskeletons, and ate some more. The molting was one of the best parts. As we were learning about exoskeletons in our Arthropods unit from THE GOOD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, we were able to see it RIGHT in front of our eyes. What a crazy, strange, magical little creature the caterpillar is!!
Once the caterpillars started to look like they were about to outgrow their cup…BAM…they started to turn into chrysalis. I was actually a little bummed that they turned into chrysalis while I was sleeping because I would have LOVED to watch. Some people enjoy soap operas or netflix binges…I like to watch butterfly metamorphosis. …ANYWAY…this phase was the scariest part for me. We had two of our five chrysalis fall to the bottom of the cup right after they were formed. THEN when we had to move them to the butterfly house, I had to scoop those two carefully up with a plastic spoon and lay them in the bottom of the enclosure. It was NOT looking good for our five little buddies. THEN one day we woke up…and we had a butterfly. JUST LIKE THAT!!! It was so fun!!
Sadly though, the second butterfly to emerge was one that had fallen. His wings never unfolded and he was just all bunched up in a tiny little broken ball. It was pretty sad to watch him struggle. Ethan named him Jeffrey and we cheered for him and hoped he would somehow make it, but eventually after a LOT of watching and worrying, he died. It was sad, but also a good life lesson for the kids. We got to talk about how sometimes animals and people are not born EXACTLY perfect, and that is ok. Jeffrey, our little fighter, actually ended up being our very favorite butterfly and the one we talk about the most.
After the disappointment of Jeffrey’s crumpled wings, we had two more emerge totally fine…Ethan even got to watch, which was very exciting. BUT lastly, our next floor dweller came out with tiny wings and could not fully remove himself from his chrysalis. He just flopped around with the chrysalis hooked to his belly. After half a day of watching Nemo (again, named by Ethan), I finally decided to help him out. I researched via google, used some tweezers, and cut his remaining chrysalis off…BASICALLY with my eyes closed because I was sorta afraid I was going to kill him RIGHT in front of my kids. BUT luckily he survived. His wings were a little tilty and VERY small, but he could SORT OF fly around the enclosure in a wobbly way. He lasted a couple of days at least, but before we let them go, he also died. NOT GONNA LIE…losing Nemo after all of that work and worry was a little hard on me.
Finally we decided to let our three BEAUTIFUL painted ladies go and it was the perfect ending to our arthropod unit. Ethan was sad, but we had a long talk about how the butterflies would be much happier in the wild then they would be in our living-room. There were a few tears…luckily from Ethan…not me. We said our goodbyes to Daisy, Maisy, and Lazy and let them be free butterflies. (You can actually watch our butterfly release on my instragram story hightlights…saved under BUTTERFLIES). SOMEWHERE in the middle of crying…and letting them go…and then a freak rainstorm that occurred RIGHT after we let them go and MAY have caused ETHAN to panic and tell me I murdered the butterflies by letting them out into a storm…I MAY have agreed to order more caterpillars and try it again. Maybe this will just be a thing we do now…we will be butterfly farmers…who knows. BUT I DO know that this was totally worth the $30 bucks it cost to watch such an AMAZING transformation. Just when I think our Heavenly Father could not POSSIBLY be more awesome, I realize he created things like an ugly little caterpillar that can miraculously somehow digest itself and THEN turn into a TOTALLY gorgeous OTHER creature entirely!! Truly takes my breath away.
What else did we use in our arthropod unit??
We are finishing up our home-school arthropod unit, and packing it in for the summer, but here are a few of my favorite BUG inspired games, tools, and books…in case you want to try out your hand at butterfly farming too.
We have not tried out this bug dig kit yet, but it is on our TO-DO list. Ethan has grown to LOVE scorpions, so I think this will be a fun surprise!!
We have these Professor Noggins cards in a few different subjects (the dinosaur ones are a big hit at our house). They have fun trivia questions on them and are FULL of fun facts. We do not really PLAY with these as much as we just read through and try to stump each other with fun trivia facts. These are perfect for nerding out in the car:)
These BIG BOOK OFs are always a great choice. The Big Book of Bugs has lovely pictures and lots of fun facts about our favorite bugs. This was a great read along book for our arthropod unit.
But our favorite books are almost always the National Geographic Kids books. There is just something special about the gorgeous REAL pictures of the bugs in their natural habitat. PLUS Ethan loves all of the interesting facts…I don’t think he will ever get over learning about what DUNG beetles eat:) We are BIG fans of the Bugopedia.
We did not find out about this Bug Bingo until we were too far into the arthropod unit to make it worth it, but it looks SOOOOO cool. Bingo never gets old and the illustrations on this game look amazing!!
We took a bit of a tangent into spiders while our butterflies were hanging upside down doing nothing, and I found some great resources Here, Here, and HERE from teachers pay teachers. These were great for Ethan because it made ME happy that he was writing, researching, and learning, but it made him happy to read about spider fangs. They were all great and he learned about A LOT of different types of spiders…without me having to do ANY work.
I also got this butterfly Unit Study while it was offered for free this Spring. Because I hadn’t paid for it, I did not feel obligated to complete the entire thing. I just let Ethan pick and choose topics he found interesting. BUT it would have been a great unit for a younger kid to REALLY dive into a butterfly unit. For 3rd grade, it was a bit basic in parts for Ethan to REALLY stay interested, but it did have links to some good videos and had some fun cutouts we used for our Arthropod unit flip book.
Our crayfish dissection was something I was SUPER excited about, but when it came down to it, my kids were a little scared. We ordered the crayfish kit from AMAZON for like $10, so I really had nothing to lose. BUTTTT I REALLY had to sell my kids on touching…let alone cutting up the stinky crayfish. I will have to try dissection again later and hope for better participation. On a happier note though, THIS video from YOUTUBE is almost better than doing the dissection in real life:)
And maybe Ethan’s FAVORITE find of this unit is the BATTLE BUGS book series. Ethan started this home-school journey in February as a VERY reluctant reader. He did not like to read. He did not WANT to read. It was almost a battle to even get him to LOOK at a book. But through a few VERY good suggestions, we found some series that have peeked his interest and we are BEGINNING to turn him into a book lover. This series was suggested by my friend and the kids’ school librarian, and it was PERFECT to get him started into reading. It is written at a 4th grade reading level, which is a little high for where E is at right now, so I read it to him (we finished it in just 2 or 3 sittings). It is an easy chapter book, but not OVERLY simplified. I think he will be able to read the next books on his own now that he has the basic plot and characters down. Ethan also LOVES non-fiction, so this was a good cross-over because it contained LOTS of bug facts, but also had a good story. AND of course there was a bug war…so what boy wouldn’t want to read about THAT!! We just ordered to 2nd book in the series and I HOPE he sticks with it through all 9.
SOOOO there you have it. We had so much fun studying arthropods with our The Good and The Beautiful Arthropod unit. We cannot wait to dive into more of their science units next year. First up is Energy…because Ethan LOVES experiments. BUT as fun as that sounds, I am going to miss raising random insects. Who would have thought that I would miss doing butterfly surgery, saving an ant from near death in an ant farm, and hunting for spiders (and yet secretly wishing I did not find any). I am happy for summer break, but ready to get back into nerd mom/teacher mode ASAP. I know many people have been asking me ALL SORTS of homeschooling questions lately. Hit me up if you wanna talk…I know it can be a scary transition. Let’s chat soon. Jess
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