Feeding the Monarchs

The girls have really enjoyed watching the Monarchs eat. They like to watch as a butterfly uncurls its probosis and sucks up the juice. They have tried feeding them a special nectar that we purchased, orange slices, and a 10% sugar water solution. Madeline has helped all of the butterflies locate their food source (several times), just so that she can watch.

Here is a photo of Madeline explaining to Hailey how the butterflies drink the nectar.

Monarch Update

Our last 2 butterflies have emerged. One yesterday and one today. It appears that this is also a male and a female, so hopefully we will be able to get some additional caterpillars to study from one of the pairs.

Madeline has been tending to the butterflies, making sure they have food, and watching them closely. She is very observant and notices even the smallest detail about them! I know that she does not want this adventure to end. She checks the milkweed plants we have in our butterfly garden daily for eggs from other Monarchs. She has yet to find any, however.

ClickN READ Phonics

Madeline and Isabella have begun using a new computer-based phonics program to improve their reading skills. They both seem to really like the program and are showing improvement in their phonics skills. One nice feature of the program is that I was able to determine the beginning lesson for each of the girls, with the help of the program's guide. They can also repeat lessons as often as I would like them to. Additionally, the subscription is "lifetime," and once one child has completed the program he or she can be deleted and a new child can be added at no extra cost. This was a plus for us since Hailey will be able to use the program as well. The 100 lessons of this program as said to take a child from K to a 3rd grade level.

ClickN READ's website states:

The Worlds Most Advanced Learn To Read Phonics Software Program.
Guaranteed to teach children to learn read or your money back!
Visit ClickN READ Phonics learning to read web site for more information.

We'll keep you updated on Madeline and Isabella's progress.

Great Monarch Sites

Through our research we have found some really great sites for education about Monarchs and other butterflies, how to care for Monarchs, and how to plant a Monarch and butterfly friendly garden (which we have done). We wanted to share them with you! Here they are:

Kidzone - Monarch Picture Story
http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm

Educational Science
http://educationalscience.com/index.htm
This is the site we ordered our Monarch larvae from as well as a few milkweed plants and some other supplies.

Monarch Watch
http://www.monarchwatch.org/
They provide lots and lots of information on Monarchs! They also provide tracking information on the Monarch migration, and have a program for tagging Monarchs in the fall that you can help with.

Live Monarch Foundation
http://www.livemonarch.com/
They also have lots of information on Monarchs, as well as a milkweed plants for purchase, and a program for receiving free milkweed seeds. You can also adopt and online Monarch and watch it grow through email updates. The updates provide a lot of facts about caring for Monarchs. It is a very kid-friendly site.

Monarch Lab - Monarchs in the Classroom - University of Minnesota
http://www.monarchlab.umn.edu/
This site is also filled with lots of information. This is where we purchased the curriculum materials we are using for this project.

Journey North
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/
This site provides tons of information on not only Monarch migration, but the migration of many others. It is a wealth of information!

Hope you find some of this interesting and are able to share in the girls' excitement of learning about Monarchs!

How Our Monarchs Grew

Here are pictures of our Monarchs as they grew.



This is one that lived in the enclosure on the live milkweed plants. The girls learned that Monarch larvae eat only milkweed.

This is the caterpillar Madeline named "Madalynn Monarch" after reading the book Madalynn The Monarch Butterfly and Her Quest to Michoacan by Mary Baca Haque, which is written in both English and Spanish.

This is a picture of the caterpillar Isabella named "Princess". She was the second to pupate, first to eclose from her chrysalis, and has been confirmed as a female.

This is the enclosure we used to keep the Monarch larvae safe from wasps and other insects and predators.

Here is Madeline examining one of the newly arrived larvae while it munches on a tasty milkweed leaf.

This was the largest caterpillar we received. Unfortunately he or she did not survive more than a week or so in the enclosure.

"Madalynn Monarch Too" was the first to become a "J" larva and then pupate. When she emerged from her chrysalis we realized she was a he, so Madeline renamed him "Handsome."

This monarch is pupating. Watching this process was just fascinating (for both the kids and me)!

Here is a chrysalis.

This is the almost see-through chrysalis of a Monarch about to emerge.

Here is the newly eclosed Madeline Monarch Too, aka Handsome.

This is a picture of Princess shortly after she emerged from her chrysalis.

Madeline loves feeding Handsome...

and Isabella loves to feed Princess.

Monarchs!

Our most recent journey has been learning about and raising Monarchs. The kids have been absolutely enchanted by them.

When the larvae first arrived they were so tiny. The girls picked a few to name and keep in separate containers and then we placed the others on the milkweed plants in an enclosure. It appeared, when they first arrived, that we had 10 larvae, but we must have had some eggs on the milkweed. In all, we ended up with 14 larvae.

We had read that they were less hardy than the Painted Ladies that we have raised previously, and that turned out to be true. In the 3 years we raised Painted Ladies (5-10 each year) from Insectlore we only had 1 larvae that did not complete the metamorphic process. Of the 14 Monarch larvae we began with, only 4 pupated. Interestingly, they were the 3 that were in containers and then 1 that was raised, for the most part, in the enclosure.

We now have 2 butterflies and we are still waiting on the other 2 to eclose. The second two did pupate about a week after the first two, so we are expecting them to emerge in a few more days (maybe by Friday or Saturday). The two that are now fluttering around in our enclosure are a male and a female, so we are hoping to have a few eggs to start the process again.

Madeline loves to watch them and hold them. She goes out to see them at every opportunity. I think her favorite thing is hand-feeding them.

We have used the Monarchs in the Classroom Curriculum Guide for K-2 to learn more about Monarchs. You can find information on that program at the University of Minnesota at http://www.monarchlab.umn.edu/

We have also really enjoyed Family Butterfly Book : Projects, Activities, and a Field Guide to 40 Favorite North American Species Butterflies by Rick Mikula and Butterfly Book: A Kid's Guide to Attracting, Raising and Keeping Butterflies by Kersten Hamilton for learning about butterflies and how to care for them.

As it is getting pretty late, I will post some pictures of our Monarchs tomorrow along with some of the great books we have read about Monarchs and some of the interesting and educational websites we have found about butterflies, butterfly gardens, and Monarchs.

Goodnight!