The Creative Salad – Page 6 – Crafty fun and homeschool adventures in Sonoma County, California.

Butterfly Life Cycle: Raising and Observing Butterflies

This past few weeks, our first “official” month of homeschooling, has flown by! For our science study, we’ve learned so much about the butterfly life cycle and observed so many beautiful butterflies!

We raised Painted Lady (using this kit) and Cabbage White butterflies:

We observed Pipevine Swallowtail eggs, caterpillars, and chrysalises at our friends Susie and Joan’s house:

We traveled to the California Academy of Sciences to see even more butterflies:

We’ve watched our daughter’s interest, enthusiasm, and knowledge grow with each activity. Kindergarten is off to a great start! (Phew.)

Click here to see all of our Butterfly Life Cycle posts.

Delicious Chai Recipe

Oh, my, am I behind the times. This summer I discovered the infinite joy that is iced chai. David has been drinking it for YEARS and I’ve never really taken to it until now.

Evidently the secret ingredient that I didn’t know I loved was… almond milk! (Weird, right?!)

Here’s how David makes chai for us:

He boils and then simmers cloves, cardamom, orange slices, and a couple cinnamon sticks in a stockpot full of water for an hour (or two). He adds English Breakfast tea for five minutes, then removes the tea bags. We keep it unsweetened in the fridge for up to two weeks.

I like to add almond milk and a dash of honey to my cup of chai.

Delicious!

Butterfly Life Cycle: Setting the Facts Straight — What Eric Carle Got Wrong in The Very Hungry Caterpillar Book

First an update on the butterflies we’re raising: our five Painted Lady caterpillars arrived, grew tremendously, transformed into chrysalises, and should emerge as butterflies any day now. We’ve already witnessed two Cabbage White butterflies transform from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. We’ve had a big week… I’ll try to post pictures soon!

In learning about the butterfly life cycle, we’ve discovered there is quite a bit of misinformation out there concerning butterflies.

As much as we love Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a scientist he is not. Let’s tackle some of the errors in this book.

A butterfly transforms into a chrysalis or pupa not a cocoon (that would be what some moths make). Our daughter has been correcting everyone.

And caterpillars can be picky about what they eat. Do they like swiss cheese or chocolate cake? That would be a resounding no. Each type of caterpillar has a particular plant (or set of closely related plants) that it likes to eat. Cabbage White caterpillars, for example, eat plants from the mustard family, including kale, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage.

Now the next part may come as a bit of a shock to you, but this butterfly, while beautiful, doesn’t really exist. ;) Oh, how I wish Eric Carle had picked a particular butterfly species and accurately depicted each of its life stages. What a great teaching tool THAT would have been.

We still love The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Heck, our daughter had a Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed birthday party (more on that here, here, and here).

Plus we learn in deconstructing a beloved classic. But how many people actually realize this book is art and poetry, not science? We didn’t think much about it before our homeschooling butterfly unit this fall and my college degree is in biology. (Doh!)

I just can’t help to feel a little grouchy over the fact that this beautifully illustrated book could be the ultimate teaching tool for millions of families. (Coulda, woulda, shoulda.)

We do have LOTS of butterfly life cycle books that are scientifically accurate and fun to read. I’ll share those with you next week.

Starting Something New

You guys, we have a little girl who is stressing. She’s worrying because she’s heading to school soon.

You may be scratching your head and thinking, “but I thought you were homeschooling?!”

Rest assured, we are. In addition to learning at home, our daughter will be spending two days each week doing enrichment activities with other kids at a school just for homeschoolers.

Imagine an entire community of kids in the same situation, with the support of teachers who get it.

Plus it’s free! Plus she loves her teacher!

We are thrilled.

Our little worry-wort is soooo excited, but concerned too. “I don’t want to be apart from you, mama. I don’t want to be lonely.” We know that our daughter makes friends wherever she goes, so we’re not concerned, but she’s feeling less secure.

And we totally understand. New things can be scary. Sometimes when we’re worried we cry at the drop of the hat or feel quick to anger. But we also know that to grow we sometimes need to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. So here we are, David and I, loving and supporting our sweet overwhelmed girl, giving her extra hugs and cuddles, being her safety net, because we’re embarking on something new. And it’s time.

It’s going to be freaking awesome.

Dreaming of… Chocolate

I haven’t eaten chocolate in several months since discovering it irritates the baby’s stomach when I indulge (ah, breastfeeding, sometimes you can be hard on mama).

Since I can’t eat chocolate RIGHT NOW, I thought it would be fun to make a list of recipes to try in several months when the baby tolerates me eating chocolate again. (Knock on wood.)

I can’t wait to try these decadent, easy, chocolate desserts (that are all gluten-free and mostly Paleo) from my Almost Healthy Sweets Pinterest board:

1. Banana and Cashew Cream Ice Pops from Souvlaki For The Soul | 2. No Bake Peppermint Patty Bars from oh she glows | 3. Mexican Hot Chocolate from Minimalist Baker | 4. Chocolate Covered Coconut Stuffed Dates Recipe from Gourmande in the Kitchen | 5. Homemade Junior Mints from Coconut Mama

Want to work your way through the list with me? I’m hoping to try one recipe a week… starting sometime soon. I’ll keep you posted as to when. ;)