So long, monarch butterflies

It's been about a month since we first found our monarch caterpillars in the back yard, and a couple of weeks since we released the butterflies back into the wild. 

What an exciting experience it was to watch the caterpillars eat voraciously as they prepared to enter their pupa stage and then observe each day as we waited for them to emerge from their chrysalis.

As the first caterpillar's chrysalis began to turn transparent, and we could see the markings of the butterfly inside, we put a couple of zinnia blossoms from my mother's garden inside the terrarium.

After the butterfly emerged, late in the evening while we were out of the house, we gave it time to rest in the terrarium overnight.

The next day, we carefully transferred the butterfly to a portable carrier, being as gentle as possible so we wouldn't harm it or disturb the other caterpillar, still in its chrysalis in the terrarium.

Then we took the butterfly to my parents' house so that when it was released, it would be in the middle of a flower garden with lots of blooms, a perfect place to prepare for its long journey south.

The second butterfly emerged a couple of days later, apparently in the wee hours of the night. We went to bed and awoke the next morning to find it hanging from its chrysalis, gently turning back and forth.

We didn't disturb it for several hours, giving it plenty of time for its wings to dry before moving it to the carrier so we could release it in the garden. It flew up into a tree and sat there in the afternoon sun, fanning its wings.

We were able to tell by the markings that both of the monarch butterflies we raised were male. You can read more about determining the sex of a monarch butterfly here.

By now, I am sure our butterflies are well on their way to their southern destination. We hope that their journeys are safe and that their offspring return to our area for many years to come.

Embrace change, become a butterfly

Sometimes we seek change and welcome it readily, and sometimes it is thrust upon us. For many of us, the decision to homeschool involved change, and often a response to changes over which we had no control.

Butterflies are such a beautiful portrait of change fully embraced. They, like so many other insects, live their early lives in a state much different from what they will eventually become. As caterpillars, butterflies inch along, focused mainly on eating whatever plant material they can reach, and eventually, as the approach maturity, on building their cocoon. 

It's a simple life, but one to which they are accustomed. That is, until everything changes.

Emerging in their adult form, butterflies have a whole new diet. They move in a whole new way. Their entire world is expanded, as suddenly the impetus to mate and to migrate, perhaps over thousands of miles, becomes a priority. The challenges they faced as a caterpillar are different than those they face as a butterfly, but so are the rewards.

I don't think caterpillars spend a lot of time or energy focused on their lives before the change. I think, instead, they fully embrace their new existence and move ahead, because they aren't likely to ever go back to the way life was before their change.

Homeschooling successfully takes almost as determined a mindset. If a bully was making your kids' lives miserable before, leave them behind and embrace new friends. If the curriculum was holding your child  down, put it behind you and set your child soaring with a curriculum that fits. If mama drama had you tied up in knots, celebrate your freedom and fly!

In other words, acknowledge the change that brought you to where you are today, but don't dwell on the past. Embrace your metamorphosis, and be the beautiful butterfly you were always meant to be.