Everyday Learning | 02: Butterfly Life Cycle

I apologize about the lack of topic diversity on the blog right now. I’m very much focused on the school year starting and can’t seem to focus on much else these days (which, I suppose, is how it should be!). So here I go, bombarding you with homeschooling posts…

I’ve noticed the best homeschooling moments happen when you least expect it.

Earlier this week I stood on our front porch in my pajamas and shouted inside to my daughter, “Honey, come here right now!” (“Mom, I just need to finish this…”) “No, really, get out here RIGHT THIS MINUTE! You don’t want to miss this!” An ominous beginning, right?!

I witnessed the most amazing thing: cabbage white butterflies laying eggs on our tree kale.

The gardener in me watched in horror, while the homeschooling mama felt ELATED (!!!) because this is exactly what we’re starting the school year off with: studying the butterfly life cycle.

We witnessed first hand the laying of the eggs:

We spotted Cabbage White caterpillars of all different sizes crawling around, munching leaves:

Heck, we even brought a caterpillar inside to continue our observation just in case we might get to see him form a chrysalis.

Never mind that Painted Lady caterpillars are currently in the mail on route to us. We’ll get to see the whole thing again with a different butterfly species.

Now THIS is how we learn.

I’m so excited.