Freedom!

Today was the day. Our little butterflies had gained strength, and were ready to fly out into the world. We set the pavilion in the backyard, unzipped the top, and watched them take their turn at finding their freedom.

One little butterfly immediately landed on Kyle's arm!

I was able to get a few shots of this one while he sat in the grass and got his bearings before fluttering off to the world beyond our backyard.

The project was a messy one, but I'd do again in a heartbeat! To watch their transformation, and then to set them free was like watching a miracle. Go to insect lore to buy your own caterpillars and watch the miracle in your home. You won't be disappointed.

Challenge #3

Today we again combined our study of nature with art. Nature seems to inspire some of our most fun and favorite projects. We are on challenge #3 from The Handbook of Nature Study. I have to tell you that I did not really want to do nature study today. The kids have seemed less enthusiastic about what we might find in our tiny little backyard, and the laundry among other chores was calling my name. God must have known our need for a little encouragement today because we found lots of things to look at! A beautiful rose on our bush that had produced little to nothing this year, a leaf bug, and a lizard with a metallic blue tail were among some of the wonders we found in our little space of yard. After the kids chose something to put in their nature journals, we got out the tempera paints and the kids made printings with rocks, leaves, flowers, sunflower seeds, and anything else they could find. Enjoy the slideshow.

Sunflowers Through Nature and Art

This school year, I decided we needed to have nature study time and more art time. The kids love this kind of learning, and I discovered a couple of blogs that have inspired me in my new endeavor. Friday I decided to combine nature study with art to go along with the sunflowers we've been growing all summer. The sunflowers are getting heavy with seeds, so I thought this would be the perfect time to dissect one of the flowers. Barb at the Handbook of Nature Study has a sunflower Outdoor Hour challenge listed on her sidebar that I reviewed before getting started.

The kids and I discovered all kinds of things about God's creation as we studied the rays of the flower, it's florets, and the growing seeds underneath the florets in the disk of the flower.

We then studied Van Gogh's painting of sunflowers online and completed an art project that I found on Kathy Barbro's blog. Check out her blog, Art Projects for Kids, if you are looking for some great art ideas to do with kids.

Allison's drawing

Abby's and Chloe's drawing

Mom's and Grant's drawing