Butterflies and Homeschooling

You might be a homeschooler if....you buy caterpillars to grow them into butterflies.  Sometimes the Homeschool projects find us, like when a bird made their nest in my clothes pin holder hanging on the clothes line. 

And sometimes we find them.  Bugville Butterflies is an awesome homeschool project.  It was easy to do and the results are incredible. Its actually mail order.  Nothing scares a mail carrier like delivering a package that says "Live Insects" on it.  All you have to do is sit back and watch.  You don't feed them, they come all ready to go in their own habitat.  Once they are cocoons you move them to their mesh house and wait for them to hatch.  Once hatched you feed them sugar water and eventually release them in the wild.

Here they are as caterpillars.

Turning themselves into cocoons.

The butterfly.

Now I know most people aren't gonna have birds living on their back patio, but butterflies most of us can do.  Just be sure to do it at the right time of year.  You don't want to be releasing butterflies in the snow! My kids loved this project and we will probably do it again in the spring.  They really are beautiful.