Catching A Caterpillar..?

When the weather is nice we walk to Vada's speech therapy sessions. Yesterday was beautiful, so we walked. After therapy we took the long way home and two blocks from being home, there on the sidewalk I saw what looked like a caterpillar crossing the sidewalk. I grabbed a stick and put it in front of the caterpillar to see if it would crawl onto it, it did. So I carried it home. 

Kiliegh, my middle daughter, is turning ten this month and for her birthday we ordered Monarch caterpillars (which I am now extremely nervous about raising), so we have the habitat hanging on our deck awaiting their arrival. When Vada and I got home from our walk I placed the caterpillar that I had found from our walk along with some milkweed (just in case) two caps full of water (Apparently a mistake on my part.), one with some sugar added (I don't know why, but it seemed like a logical idea at the time.).

Later while Vada was taking a nap I got on line and tried to find my "caterpillar". The closest thing I found was a Tent caterpillar but I knew that this couldn't have been correct because my little guy wasn't furry like the Tent was. I did learn that with caterpillars, you don't need to give them water because they get their hydration from the leaves that they eat. Good to know. I also learned what our Monarch caterpillars would look like. I have seen them before but never put them together because up until now, I didn't need to. Interesting.

Today, I did some more searching and found out that I probably didn't catch a caterpillar but a worm. A Bag Worm to be more specific (scroll half way down on linked page to read a little about a bag worm) and one who happens to be living safely and ever so splendidly on sugar water, cherries, milkweed, nectar from freshly cut flowers and water. I have no idea if it's actually eating any of this stuff but it is still alive. Now i'm not for sure what to do!

Updates and Projects

For one of our Earth Day activities we "planted" Lima beans in a jar. That was on April 25th. Out of the five or six beans we had one really dominant bean that sprouted almost instantly.

Since the first sprouting, I have removed all of the other beans and replaced the paper towels and water. Today, May 7th, our bean looks like this...

For a science project my oldest daughter made a homemade rain gauge. I thought it was such a great idea that I decided to keep it around for the summer. 

Prior to this project is when we had the "big rain" that caused our basement to flood. Our forecast called for rain for days afterward but we had nothing but clear skies. Finally, we did get rain and it made such a noticeable change in the gauge!

Keep in mind that while these projects may be beyond Vada's comprehension I still feel that it is wonderful exposure for her and I have two older daughters who I believe need constant opportunities to have fun hands on learning for more memorable retention of the lessons.

On May 1st my whole family did this next project together. We planted some root vegetables in a garden box called a RootView Farm. Today, only six days later we have so many sprouts! 

The Radishes have been thinned out once already and are ready to be gone through again! 

The carrots are starting to pop up and after another couple of days we will pull some of the weaker sprouts to make room for the three that will eventually remain.

We have learned that the onions take much longer at spouting but they too are beginning to show their "faces".

What are we going to be up to next? Planting our garden! We have cleaned out our raised garden beds and they are ready for plants! I. Can't. Wait!

Another project that we are anticipating and have already begun is raising caterpillars into butterflies.

 Kiliegh and I planted three Milkweed plants this last weekend and are hoping that they get big enough this summer to be able to find Butterfly eggs on. 

A couple of years ago, for a birthday gift, Kiliegh received this butterfly net. I think that she may have caught something at one point in time but we've never used it for its actual purpose-raising butterflies. Kiliegh's tenth birthday is this month, on the 20th and as a gift we have ordered Monarch caterpillars for her to raise. It'll be fun for everyone but were hoping it'll also be the beginning of our many uses for this butterfly net.