With the busyness of putting our house on the market, our outings have been very limited. We decided today to try to find a monarch caterpillar. We were inspired since we're reading "An Extraordinary Life - The Story of a Monarch Butterfly" by Laurence Pringle. (he also wrote a very similar story that we had previously read about a dragonfly called "A Dragon in the Sky" which was very good).

We had heard that there were some milkweed plants near a playground near here so we headed off for the evening with everyone to check it out. Yes, I am somewhat of a novice in my knowledge about nature at this point. With my oldest being only 6, we're learning as much as we can together as a family. I'm sure he knows about as much as I do! So, my first task was to find the milkweed plants as I still wasn't sure what a milkweed plant looks like (yes I know all you veteran nature lovers think this is very elementary)! It took a short while, but I did find the plants that had the milky substance inside.

Next came searching the plants for caterpillars. We found some with lots of ants on them and some with milkweed bugs swarming all over them (that's what they looked like at least). They were swarming by a big green pod type thing on the plant. I'm sure someone out there could tell me more about what it is that grows on some of the milkweed plants. Finally we did stumble across a plant with a caterpillar on it. I could tell it wasn't a monarch caterpillar so we picked the leaf and put it in our butterfly container and put some more milkweed leaves on a stick in it and headed for home.

Our caterpillar

Then we went online to search for the name of the caterpillar. We discovered it's a milkweed tussock moth's caterpillar. So we'll keep feeding it milkweed leaves and see if we can watch it change into a moth! It would have been fun to get a monarch caterpillar, but maybe it's too late in the season for them, or maybe we just didn't find the right plant. Not bad for an evening out!

Melanie

p.s. - the best thing about Laurence Pringle's books is that they're VERY detailed about the insects and give a LOT of scientific information. They're definitely not your basic book about butterflies or dragonflies, but they're done in a fictitious way that makes the scientific detail much more interesting than just reading about it.

Nature Walks - these are what homeschooling is built around! Getting out into nature to explore! Bring those nature journals, sketch some wildlife, write a poem...

OK, here's for reality of nature walks for our house! Right now Cody is 6 and doesn't really like to draw - at least nothing recognizable. So forget the nature journal. Nor does he like to write. We don't really have time with twin 2 year-olds, an active 4 year-old girl, and an 8 mo. old baby who likes motion, to sit and contemplate nature. BUT, we can still learn a lot from it!

Today's walk included:

Lessons in sharing a stroller. Couldn't bring the triple stroller with seats for the youngest 3 hikers so they had to take turns!

Observation of "schools" of baby catfish and minnows, water striders and snails. Also many painted turtles. "I didn't see that one" (crying accompanying comment).

Observation of poison ivy! Thankfully none were infected with it.

Lessons in dodging other families toddlers/strollers in a small space.

Observation of signs of a beaver cutting trees/wood.

2 train sightings, one missed by 2yo Derek. ("I can't see the train, I need another train")

Lunch on the boardwalk over the pond - who knows how many pond creatures will appreciate eating someone's PBJ sandwich...

Sighting of a small snake by Cody & I. 4yo Cora saying "I didn't see that one" (crying accompanying comment).

Capture of first land snail ever. Loss of first land snail ever as we didn't bring enough bug containers and it dropped out of the diaper bag.

Multiple dumpings of jar of water containing water striders and pond snails due to lack of level surface to keep container on.

Identification of goldenrod, bee balm, and no touch 'em (something like that) plants. The no touch 'em plant will develop a pod that when you touch it it bursts open with a pop! Fun to play with - will definitely have to check that one out another time when they're ready! These plants are also good for treating poison ivy! Will have to remember that one too!

So that rounds up the highlights (and lowlights) of our adventure. Thankfully 8 month old Judah sat happily in the backpack on mom's back the entire time. And yes, it was a very worthwhile trip!

Thank you God for nature and all we truly can learn and enjoy about it! Thank you also for this picture-perfect day.

Melanie and company!