Texas Flyway, Monarch Migration, Raising Caterpillars and More

We are officially in the Texas Flyway (the path in Texas through which the stately Monarch butterfly makes its way to Mexico where it hibernates for the winter). Did you know that Monarchs migrate and hibernate? Amazing stuff!

Today we counted 54 Monarchs - 'King of the Butterflies' - around town when we made our way to art class. The cold front had them all hiding yesterday. The day before we saw only five and I was beginning to think that most of them were already close to the Mexico border. I was happy to see some of them today, but I sure hope they get to Mexico in time to beat the cold weather. They are so beautiful. Friday we counted 87 or so while we ran our errands for the culture fair. Thursday we counted 49 just in our neighborhood alone! They were flying high in the blue sky... one by one, drifting along with the breeze, orange wings glowing in the late afternoon sun.

You can't really tell from our pictures (silly butterflies just wouldn't be still... and they were so high up that it made taking photos really difficult!):







Tomorrow we will probably make a butterfly to send to a student in Mexico. They celebrate the return of the Monarch every year there where the butterflies overwinter. The deadline for sending a hand-made butterfly to Mexico with Journey North has past, but I'm sure I can find a friend who knows someone in Mexico that needs some encouragement. Journey North has an amazing program that does this each year - all while teaching kids about our friends in Canada and Mexico. The Monarchs won't get stopped at the border and asked for their passport. They are truly free. Be sure to bookmark Journey North next year and participate in the Monarch migration tracking and fun. You can also help them track the journey NORTH in Spring!

We have enjoyed our studies about butterflies and moths immensely. Not long ago, we caught a leopard moth caterpillar and are planning to raise it until next spring. We have been feeding the little guy desert willow and chaste tree leaves, but today (after our cold front that got into the 40's yesterday), he is sleeping. He hardly ate a thing all day. Here's a picture of our prickly friend:



A friend of ours brought us some web worms also. We played with them and set them free on a pecan tree. I need to take the kids out to go check on our wormies tomorrow. We didn't get a chance to go out today for a walk because we were busy with art class and school.

I hope you are enjoying the critters in your area. We love bugs in the 'Bee' family. In case you wondered... that is. We have a relative that is an entomologist. Maybe one day we can go see their 'collection' of interesting little creatures. I feel a field trip coming on!



Quick Links
Insect Links
Green Moth and a God Moment
Butterfly Field Trip
Homeschool Carnival: Bee Edition

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Buzz Words: Homeschooling, Moth, Butterfly, Nature, Photos, Insects, Homeschool, Monarch, Caterpillars, Bugs, Teaching, Texas, Life, Kids, Parenting, Canada, Fall, Migration, Mexico, Education, Science, Observation

Multitude Monday

I have this 80-mile list of things I need to be posting in here, but lately I have hardly any time to even sit down and check email. The GOOD thing is, my desk has been staying clean, the laundry is always in motion (meaning that the monstrous piles are no longer threatening to consume us), and we have actually been staying pretty much on top of the chores and school. We even made it to THREE appointments last week for our school year without missing them because I actually was using my day-planner as it is intended. [If you don't open your calendar, what's the use of having one, right?]

I've been in a pat myself on the back mode, but honestly, I can't take credit for any of our successes. God has been really working FOR us through our prayers and the desires of our hearts as we seek to honor Him.

Today (right smack in the middle of my huge to-do list and our busy homeschool day) I just want to count my blessings. I am feeling really blessed.

Here are a few of the things I'm thankful for (added to my previously started list):

41 - a fledgeling photography business... The promise of beautiful pictures and loving my 'job'.

42 - orange and black in the 'Flyway' - making their way to Mexico... the king of Butterflies makes the annual journey again.



43 - Boy Scouts ... watching my husband lead his son and my son grow in to a man [please, no hurry!]

44 - hints of winter blowing in with needed thunder-storms. sweaters and long sleeves in the closet awaiting animation.

45 - big dreams of long road trips... hoping and wishing and planning for them to begin.

46 - tiny moving limbs inside my womb, anticipating the first glance, the first touch, the first smile of someone new in our hearts, lives, home.

47 - progress in the chaos of homemaking and homeschooling... pages turned, lessons learned, chores done.

48 - date night with my beloved, and the fact that he would watch a 'chick-flick' without hessitation [he really does love me!]

49 - new school supplies and curriculum

50 - parents that bless us beyond measure by their love, example and gifts [grandparents that adore my children]



51 - the baby's new words, a new one appearing every day as he learns to communicate

52 - lists being checked off

53 - homeschool friends - the children's friends and mine



54 - golden afternoon sunlight and perfect spots to take pictures






Join me at Ann Voskamp's Gratitude Community and count your blessings on your own blog each 'Multitude Monday'. Discover how she 'unwraps beauty' in the commonplace on her blog, "A Holy Experience".

What are you thankful for?

Nature as a Teaching Tool

I have been inspired by so many other great nature-loving homeschool bloggers to join in the fun and begin our own nature journals. We have added nature walks to our list of "to-do" items each day since my schedule re-vamp... but sadly, we haven't been walking. I think we will start today. I'm eager to dig in to our new book - "Handbook of Nature Study" by Anna Botsford Comstock. Being a perfectionist, I have been 'waiting until I could afford all the nature journal supplies before we begin our walks'. What a lame excuse, eh?

You can check out my little Amazon book store for some Science and Nature books that we have read and love... then feast your eyes on all these great inspiring quotes, links, blogs, and past nature posts here at Sprittibee that will help fire you (and me) up about getting outside and enjoying God's creation. I think I'll make this an ongoing list just like my BIG LIST OF LINKS so that you (and I) can come back here as a springboard for your nature studies. Please share some ideas with me if you have them in my comments section below!

Some Good Nature Books:

Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden
Discover Nature In Winter by Elizabeth P. Lawlor
The Bible
nature coloring books from Rod and Staff or Dover Publications
Drawing From Nature - Jim Arnosky
My Nature Journal by Adrienne Olmstead
Amazing Bugs (Inside Guides by DK)
The Natural World of Bugs and Insects - Ken and Rod Preston-Mafham
Texas Bug Book - C. Malcolm Beck and John Howard Garrett
Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation - Dennis R. Petersen
Holling Clancy Holling Books (Minn, Pagoo, Seabird)
Shoreline (Look Closer Series) - Barbara Taylor
Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America - Mel Baughman for National Geographic
Insect Masquerades - Hilda Simon
Weatherwatch - Valerie Wyatt
Uncover Tarantulas - David George Gordon (science kit)
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgeson Burnett
Discoveries Reptiles - Allen E. Greer
Discoveries Under the Sea - Frank H. Talbot
National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Seashore Creatures
Birds (DK Pockets) - Barbara Taylor
Rocks and Minerals (DK Pockets) - Sue Fuller
Insect Pests - George S. Fichter
Insects (DK Pockets) - Laurence Mound and Stephen Brooks
Deserts (Collectafact Nature) - Two-canpublishing.com
Insects (DK Handbooks) - George C. McGavin
Field Guide to Spiders and Scorpions - John A. Jackman
Bugs in 3-D - Mark Blum


Nature Links:

Texas Master Naturalist Program
Nature's Workshop
Dover Publications
Green Hour (get out and discover nature!)
Making a Nature Journal
Journey North Monarch Project
Wooly Bear Caterpillar Info
Some Nature Study Notes by a fellow Homeschooler
Stinging Caterpillars... with photos (Never touch an Asp!)
Moths (and how to rear them)
Identify Small Moths
Amazing Bug Identification Site!!! (for North American insects)
Monarch Waystation Program
US Fish and Wildlife Monarch Programs and Links
Nature Journal Supplies and Ideas
Ranger Rick's Nature Journal PDFs
Thursday Challenge (photo meme - lots of nature shots weekly...)


Nature Bloggers:

National Wildlife Federation Blog
Green Hour Blog
Earth is Crammed with Heaven
Sunny Nature
The Nature Corner
Mama Archer's Nature
Never Be Within Doors
Beautiful in Its Time
The Lord Speaks . . .
Nature's Sweetness
Blossoms and Bees
Bioluminescence
The Scent of Rain
Nature Notes From Above
Handbook of Nature Study
My Nature Journal
Raindrops on Roses
My Father's World
Sunny Shoots Nature
Spun with Tears (host of Thursday Challenge)


Nature Quotes:

Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
~George Washington Carver

Nature is the art of God.
~Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, 1635

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and stars. ~Martin Luther

He that plants trees loves others besides himself.
~ Thomas Fuller

Nature does nothing in vain.
~ Aristotle

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything.
~William Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1599

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

When one tugs at a single thing in nature; he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
~ John Muir

When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not...
~ Georgia O'Keffe

Nature is an infinite sphere of which the center is everywhere and the circumference nowhere.
~ Pascal

Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is God.
~ William Cowper, The Task

For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
~ Romans 1:20

...the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
~ Romans 8:21

Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand. ~Henry David Thoreau, journal, 5 January 1856

If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.
~Eleonora Duse

Nothing is more beautiful than the loveliness of the woods before sunrise.
~George Washington Carver

I'll tell you how the sun rose a ribbon at a time.
~Emily Dickinson

Art gallery? Who needs it? Look up at the swirling silver-lined clouds in the magnificent blue sky or at the silently blazing stars at midnight. How could indoor art be any more masterfully created than God's museum of nature?
~Grey Livingston

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.
~George Gordon, Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.
~Kahlil Gibran

To one who has been long in city pent,
'Tis very sweet to look into the fair
And open face of heaven, - to breathe a prayer
Full in the smile of the blue firmament.
~John Keats, Sonnet XIV

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
~ Psalm 19:1 (A Psalm of David)

Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder, Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe displayed. Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee, How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
~ Carl G. Boberg and R.J. Hughes, How Great Thou Art (hymn)

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.
~William Shakespeare

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
~Lao Tzu

My Nature Photos and Past Posts:

Mooo
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Cactus
The Colors of Fall
Alien in a Dill Tree
Outside Kitchen
Wordless Wednesday: Caged
U.S. Geography Project
Hike and Trails
Magic Grass
Punkin
Tiny
Picnic at the Pond
October Glory
Louisiana Purchase Historic State Park
Pioneer Wagon Ride
Sunset
Lower White River Museum
Meramec Caverns
Coolest Clouds I've Ever Seen
Snowberry Clearwing Sphinx Moth
Natural State Expo
Songs About Rainbows
Cousins at the Creek
Not Bad for a First Time Gardener
First Harvest
Thursday Challenge: Nature
Playing in the Dirt
Texas Wildflower Seed Give-Away
It's Good To Know Your Local Flowers By Name
Summer Reflections
Photographing Nature
Wordless Wednesday: Puff
Garden Updates in Pictures
Wordless Wednesday: Bee
Almost Wordless Wednesday: Seeds
Purple Pineapple Weed
Spider Bites, Sunburn and Numchuck Bruises
More Garden Torture
A Little Perspective
Wordless Wednesday: Observation
Guess What This Is?
Weekend Nature Photos, Part 2
Her Sanity or Her End
Green Hour in the Back Yard
What Texans Do for Fun in Spring
Our Nature Journal Covers
HSBA In Full Bloom
Home on the Range
The Pond...er... Drainage Ditch
Our Caterpillar Project - sorry folks, but he got away!
The Caterpillar Poem (song)
Our Monarch Books
The Texas Flyway
Insect Link Post Includes clipart link!
Green Moth and a God Moment
Thursday Challenge: Purple
Sunset and a Butterfly
Gone with the Wind
Digging for Crystals
Thursday Challenge: Sunny
Texas Hill Country
Nana's Back Yard
July Photos from Texas
How to Know if You're in Texas
Pinnacle Mountain
Koi Pond
Hot Springs Geology Tour
Robin's Nest
Rocks
Bee Edition of the Carnival of Homeschooling
Gone Fishin'!
Arkansas Nature Hike
Nature Hike Photos pt. 2
Spring Leaves
Camping in Arkansas
Spring Break in Arkansas
Mountain Pink
Snow Day
How Did We Get Here?
Ode to the Snowflake Creator
Wildflower Center
Butterfly Center
Autumn Spider
Autumn Leaves
Bats
Autumn Reflections
Honey Bee Farm
Learning Outside the Box
Lily Pads
Texas Farmland
Bug Trivia
Sky
Spider Speak
Chiggers - no photos, but plenty of laughs
Poem and Photo about a Tree
Moonflower
Indian Paintbrush
Bluebonnet Blues
Green Haired Easter People
Orange Butterfly
Dinosaur Valley State Park
Wisteria (the dummies who own this property CUT it down!)
Tarantula Hawk Photo
Tarantula Hawk Info
Armand Bayou Nature Center (same field trip discussed above)
Brazos Bend State Park
Rock Unit Study
Golden
Hurricane Tracking
Little Dinosaur
Coming Dawn - a poem
Leopard Moth
Praying Mantis
Lynx Spider
Houston Zoo



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