The Butterfly is a Boy!!!

Sep.14,2011

Our second butterfly of the season was born today.

I waited a long time as he dried and rested before he finally opened his wings and lo and behold, when he finally did, I saw two black telltale spots on his wings. He was a boy. So Thomas was the perfect name for him.

We have been studying Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury that was murdered in his church, because of disagreements with King Henry II. We read a little bit about it in A Proud Taste For Scarlet and Miniver by E. L. Konisgburg. Then we read If All the Swords in England by Barbara Willard to get a full picture of the event.

So we chose the name Thomas for him. We also like Thomas Jefferson, Thomas a Kempis and Thomas Stonewall Jackson, so we were happy with the name. I was happy when I saw the sense spots on the butterfly’s wings this morning. I was afraid we might have to change his name to Thomasina. But I couldn’t tell anything from peeking into the closed wings. He finally opened them wide and the spots were very obvious.

You’ll be able to see them in the video below.

This Year’s First Butterfly!!!

Sep.12,2011

Did you ever wonder how to tell the difference between a boy butterfly and a girl butterfly?

Go here and find out! You’ll be amazed at how easy it is.

We had a successful birth of a new butterfly this morning. The chrysalis was getting dark yesterday, so I started watching it closely and taking pictures. Then it started to get transparent and we could see the orange and black wings. I knew it would come out (eclose) by this morning.

I was right! When we woke up this morning, the butterfly was hanging onto the outside of its transparent chrysalis. The chrysalis was moving around a little bit, so that probably helped her to dry out faster. We know she’s a girl because she doesn’t have any spots on the bottoms of her wings when she opens them. We named her Diamond.

Some things I’ve learned about raising Monarch caterpillars and butterflies:

1. Go out to a field where you see milkweed growing along the edge and look under the leaves for a striped caterpillar. If it’s later in the season, they will be big and orange and black and easy to see. If they’re smaller in the beginning of August, they will be white and hard to tell what they are. But if it’s on a milkweed, it’s probably a Monarch. (You can see a picture of a tiny one and how fast he grew in this post. See my posts in the category Caterpillar Chronicles to read more about how to raise Monarch butterflies from caterpillars. There are also some posts about the spiritual significance of caterpillars and butterflies among them.)

2. Put your caterpillar in a jar with a milkweed leaf. Pick some extra leaves in case the caterpillar needs to eat for a while before making a chrysalis. Just let him crawl on the leaf and eat for a few days.

3. Keep an eye on him and if you see him leave the leaf and act like he’s looking for something, he’s ready to make a chrysalis. I put the jar inside a cardboard box, because mine have often made them on the underside of the flaps of cardboard boxes. I’ve tried different materials at the top of the jar, but the flaps of a cardboard box have worked best. Two of mine last year made chrysalises on the side of the glass jars they were in. That made me nervous. I didn’t think they would stick, but they did.

4. After a week and a half to two weeks, start watching closely again and you’ll see the chrysalis start to get darker. Keep watching and you’ll see it get more transparent, and you’ll be able to see the colors of the wings inside.

5. When the butterfly comes out, don’t touch it. Let it hang on the empty chrysalis and dry. It will start walking around on its own. Then take it outside and see if it will go on the leaf of a tree. It may stay on a tree and dry some more. Or it may just be ready to take off and fly away before you even get a chance to film it. Like Diamond did for us today.

Dolphin Tale – Light in the Darkness

Sep.11,2011

Here is our chance to light a candle instead of cursing the darkness.

You may know of Sally Clarkson, a wonderful mentor of Christian women, especially homeschool moms.

Her son, Nathan, is working in Hollywood as a Christian with high morals who feels that God has called him to influence the types of movies that Hollywood produces. He wants to give his generation the opportunity to receive good, wholesome messages and inspiration through a medium that they are drawn to and enjoy.

This generation is highly influenced by the media and entertainment industry. Let’s get the light of the gospel and values like integrity, honesty, love for family, value of work, character, self-sacrifice, etc. into the movies that they will watch and take into the fabric of their souls. Their worldview is being shaped by Hollywood. Let’s shape Hollywood by showing them what we really want to see and what we want our children to be watching.

We can do this by going to see this movie in droves!!! According to Sally, their “ultimate goal is to get at least 150,000 individuals out to the movie on opening day at the midday showing, as that number indicates the interest level of people to the executives at Warner Brothers for their projects. This week, our goal is to spread the buzz about this venture and to get thousands and thousands of people to rsvp at the Facebook page that is named: Homeschool Movie Club, as they are seeking the support of support groups, mom’s groups and families.”

So let’s do what we can to support films like this and people like Nathan who are holding onto high values and a close walk with God in the midst of a dark and dying world. They need our help.

And the movie looks like it will be very good. So what do we have to lose?

Here’s the movie trailer:

And here’s a prophetic word from Pamela Carter (Wonder Woman’s sister!) about this very topic:

http://www.xpmedia.com/d22eLJIr3KnO

Multiple Intelligences and Diana Waring

Sep.8,2011

Brain research has been producing some fascinating findings. Diana Waring has been sharing some of those findings in her interviews on BlogTalkRadio.com and in other talks that she has done. See her website at DianaWaring.com and visit her radio shows at Blog Talk Radio – WATCHTalk with Diana, especially the May 5, 2009 episode with Dr. Terry Small.

I’ve embedded it here if you would like to hear it now:

Listen to internet radio with WATCHTalk on Blog Talk Radio

Also listen to her own channel on BlogTalkRadio “Diana Waring Presents”.

Here is the most recent program at this time:

Listen to internet radio with DianaWaringPresents on Blog Talk Radio

Diana has written many books. She wrote a History curriculum in which she helps teachers understand how to teach to different learning styles – how to accommodate them and capitalize on them.

She goes a step further in her book, Reaping the Harvest. in it she explains that not only are there different learning styles, there are different ways of being intelligent. I took a class on this subject years ago, and I was intrigued by this idea. I believe that it is true that we each have strengths that God has given us. And none of them are better than any other. The one that is valued by schools is the one called “Linguistic”. This one is measured by IQ tests and standardized tests. People with this type of intelligence do well in academics. The people who possess the other types of intelligence may not do well on tests or in school, but they do well in life. Some of them succeed better than the ones who made good grades.

In this post, I will summarize the different types of intelligence that have been identified. I will use Diana’s book,

Reaping the Harvest,

as my guide.

She lists the eight multiple intelligences in the chapter that starts on page 111.

1. Intrapersonal – Knowing Yourself