Real life science and school

Monarch just emerging

I'm trying to take a blogging break to plan the upcoming school year. Yes, I'm being more intentional this year about our children's education. Following the same basic philosophy but providing more direction in our children's learning through defined reading lists and building certain habits and skills such as handwriting and narration (composition). More on all of that later....

But all this planning was delightfully interrupted yesterday morning when our monarch butterfly emerged from his chrysalis, yes we know it was a male. As Celine and Laurent can tell you they have distinctive "scent" spots on their wings. We spent time watching and marveling at this wonder of God's creation and then the kids sketched what they had observed (that's the more intentional part I was talking about earlier). In our discussion time the kids proved that they remembered most of what we studied last year at this time about monarchs - body part identification (do YOU know what a butterfly proboscis is??), life cycle and migration patterns.

Homeschooling my kids, its the best.

Monarch ready to release in backyard