It was time to let the ladybugs go. The girls were so excited to release them into our garden. This was definitely a great experience. We all learned so much about ladybugs. Now we will be able to recognized baby ladybugs before they become adult ladybugs! They are not as pretty when they are babies! We hope to see our little friends crawling around our garden.
I love, love, love ladybugs! They are such pretty little insects! I don’t mind looking or holding ladybugs and butterflys. They are welcomed in my home anytime! For the last couple of years, we’ve explored butterflys in nature and in our home using our Butterfly house made by Insect Lore. It was given to my oldest daughter as a birthday gift about 5 years ago. We’ve used it every year, either by purchasing new caterpillars or finding caterpillars in our yard. This year I wanted to explore a different type of insect. I love ladybugs and so do my kids so I figured we would try the Ladybug Land
The girls really enjoyed observing their little ladybug friends. My husband and I enjoyed learning about them as well! The girls each had turns giving them water and feeding the adult ladybugs. After we witnessed the entire life cycle of the ladybugs we worked on completing a few activity sheets and they each created a picture of what their own little ladybug looks like. Soon it will be time to let them go!
Lia proudly shared her ladybugs with her classmates. Her teacher, Mrs. Kathleen, had a whole nature exploration table set up with magnifying glasses and pine cones, pieces of tree bark. She had a butterfly garden too. Kids are just natural explores. It’s so fun watching the wonder in their eyes and listening to them explain what they see! My daughter Melina also shared the ladybugs with her classmates. The little ladybug home is so easy to carry around making it possible to share the ladybug experience with everyone!
This time last year we found this sweet little baby bird right next to our garbage cans near our garage. It fell out of a nest high up in our garage. I had never in my life seen a brand new baby bird and was startled at the sight of it. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. It laid there so helpless, with it’s mouth open. My little pup was trying to lick him up! I had heard several times that if you touch a baby bird a mother would throw it out of it’s nest and not want anything to do with it. But there was no way that I was going to just leave it there and let nature take its course. I went straight to google to find advice on what to do in this situation. I found this site and several others that gave me easy instructions on what to do. My girls were so concerned for the little guy. I asked them to prepare a box with a towel to keep it warm. Luckily we always have decorated boxes laying around and it was perfect for our little friend. I spent a long time trying to find a nature refuge to help this little baby out. They get so many calls and it takes a lot of dedication to nurse these little birds to the point where they can survive on their own. I finally did find a place late in the evening and I remember dropping everything to take the 45minute drive to save this little bird. My husband thought I was nuts!! I guess it was just motherly instinct! Any mom would have done it! The girls and I always wonder how the little bird is doing and if he’s some where flying around! Now I check the spot to make sure no little birds have fallen out of their nests!
Here is the butterfly that emerged from our cocoon several weeks ago. I believe it’s called a Black Swallowtail. We have never raised this type of butterfly, so it was very exciting to all of us when we peeked into our butterfly house and discovered that the enormous caterpillar we found in our garden turned into this beautiful creature!
When my daughter Isabel turned four she received a lovely butterfly house from one of our friends. Every year since, we have been experiencing the beauty of raising a butterfly from a little tiny caterpillar (this year it was two huge caterpillars). Watching a caterpillar change into a chrysalis and than into a beautiful butterfly is a great way to experience insect metamorphosis. All you need is a caterpillar (in the years past we have ordered our caterpillars from www.insectlore.com, but this year we found our very own right in our vegetable garden), add some of its favorite food such as leaves and flowers and drops of water, and a suitable container, or store bought butterfly house. You can find caterpillars on most plants during the spring and early summer. Put the caterpillar and a few fresh leaves in a wide mouth jar or plastic shoebox. Cover the jar mouth with netting or a piece of nylon. Every day change the leaves and provide dry paper towels to help prevent mold. You can put in little twigs upon which the caterpillar can attach its chrysalis or silken coc oon (with the pupa inside). The insect will hatch in 10-14 days. Don’t forget to take pictures of each beautiful stage.
Can you see the chrysalis through the plastic?
This picture is from our first year raising butterflies about 3 years ago!
We are still waiting for our Butterflies to hatch, in the meantime we’ve enjoyed reading this lovely story titled Butterfly House written by Eve Bunting.
