Don't you love summer and the discoveries that come with it?  In the Spring the big discovery was the tadpoles in the pond across the way - we collected them and watched them turn into frogs, discussed the life cycle, etc....a fabulous unschooling moment.   This week it was baby caterpillars.  The other day when I called the girls for lunch Chelsea ran in and showed me the baby caterpillar crawling up her arm.  "Cute" I said, barely looking, trying to get lunch on the table.  "Can I keep it?", she asked.  "No, put it outside and you can check on it after lunch", I replied.  She put it carefully on the grass and ran in for lunch.  Afterward, the girls went out again to play with their neighborhood friends and I went about my business cleaning up.  A little while later, one child ran in looking for a container, exclaiming that they had found "a bunch of baby caterpillars".  "Wow, that's neat!" I exclaimed.  Thinking to myself that I just love unschooling and natural discovery and who needs textbooks when you have a yard full of baby caterpillars.  I guess we'll keep them and watch them turn into beautiful butterflies and not only will we discuss the life-cycle of butterflies, but also the spiritual conotations about caterpillars struggling to get out of the cocoon and emerging as something of beauty...maybe will even watch that cute little movie from Max Lucado, HERMIE, and top off this lesson with family movie night and popcorn....

.... a child is interrupting my thoughts ...

"Come outside mommy, come see all the baby caterpillars".

"Did you find food for them?" I ask.

"Yes, lots of grass and leaves.  They are all here and we are playing with them."

As I walk outside and they are all (about 6 little girls in all) surrounding a little container (an old cake pan) with leaves and grass, some letting the caterpillars crawl on them, I ask what part of the yard they found the baby caterpillars.  Someone says by the trash can in the garage in a bucket...a whole bunch of them.  I thought that was odd, but I bent down to look at their babies anyway, when one of the little neighbor girls says, "they're not really caterpillars, they're magnets".

My thoughts break in again...magnets....magnets, that sounds familiar...small white crawly, wormy things....found by the trash...hmmm....oh my goodness....

"THOSE ARE MAGGOTS!  GET THEM OFF OF YOURSELVES!"

"What's wrong mommy?" a small voice inquires.

"Those are gross nasty things that spread germs, that's what!", I screach in horror and disgust.

"But they're cute!", the reply.

"They are baby flies and we don't need anymore flies around here.  Get rid of them NOW!"

"Can we bury them in the yard?"

"NO!!  Go throw them in the pond!"

Great homeschooling moment OVER!

When Daddy got home and heard the story he had a great laugh.  When the teenagers got home and heard the story they had a great laugh too, until they got in trouble for not taking the garbage out to the curb on Monday, and now we have "magnets" reproducing in our garage!  Where are the textbooks???