In our homeschool {butterflies and playdough}

We have been busy  and  we’ve been having fun in our homeschool.  Here’s a little bit of what we’ve been up to in our home school. 

Butterflies ~

Last year, the girls received a Butterfly habitat from their uncle, aunt, and cousins as a birthday present.  Since we were studying biology this year, I waited a bit to order the caterpillars.  But for the last few weeks we have watched these  caterpillars turn into…

 

pupae

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and then into butterflies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had fun observing them for a few days and recording our findings. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today, we decided to let them go so they could be free and experience freedom in their short little lives.

The butterflies could not wait to get out once we took them outside.  They were flapping with all of their might to leave that little mesh bag and experience life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do you see the butterflies flying away in the picture above?  It all happened rather quickly so there was not much time to snap a good picture. 

Unfortunately, as we released our butterflies, one of the newly freed butterflies was soon the lunch of a bird flying in the air.  So now we will be studying the food chain.  {smile}

Resources used this week:

Butterfly garden

Real Science Odyssey by Pandia Press

Playdough ~

Playdough is a good way to keep the preschool crowd occupied during school time.  We love to make our own playdough and since our old playdough was gray from mixing all the colors, we decided to make a new (or three new) batches. 

Here’s our favorite recipe for playdough:

• 1 cup of flour
• 1 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1 TBS cream of tartar
• 1 TBS oil
• food coloring

Heat all ingredients in a saucepan, slow to medium heat.  Stir continuously.  Once dough is at the consistency you want, remove from heat.  Cool slightly.  (We don’t put food coloring in before cooking.  We knead the color into the dough after it is cooked and cooled slightly.) 

*I’ve read not to double playdough recipes because they won’t come out correctly.  So we made three individual batches and then split those into two before coloring.  Honestly, the playdough cooks rather quickly so three batches did not take long at all. 

This playdough lasts for a very long time when stored in an air tight container.  Have fun!