Nature School

The morning of Owen’s last day of school I went to turn on the hose and saw something amazing.

A little caterpillar was making it’s cocoon hanging from the siding of the house right by the hose.

We watched it all day until it was a complete cocoon, and went inside to read all our books on butterflies and their life-cycle.

We checked on it a few days later, and saw that it’s colors were changing.

One week later (we were expecting it to be two based on what we read) I hear Jeremy yelling to the boys in the back yard. I thought someone was in trouble, but it turned out that Jeremy went to turn on the hose and had the perfect timing to see the butterfly emerging from its cocoon!

It had wrinkled wet wings that it was hanging to dry.

It hung around on the siding for longer than we thought it would.  I guess it was a bit wary of making that first flight.

Watching our caterpillar turn into a butterfly was the perfect start to our summer “break”.  Nature can be an equal educator to teachers and books.  We hope to have a lot more of that nature schooling this summer.

 

 

Summer Camp

I spent the last three days as a leader at our church’s summer camp for young women ages 12-18. It was actually the 100th anniversary of the first summer camp for young women that the church sponsored.

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There was a scheduling issue with the Boy Scout camp that we go to and so what is usually a five day camp was only able to be three days this year.   But it was still a great experience.

More and more the children and youth around us are becoming completely detached from the natural world around them.  It was interesting for me to listen to a history of Young Women Camp and hear that back in 1912 that concern existed as well and was one of the purposes for starting that first summer camp 100 years ago.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency of our church once said, “May I suggest that you reduce the rush and take a little extra time to get to know yourself better. Walk in nature, watch a sunrise, enjoy God’s creations, ponder the truths of the restored gospel, and find out what they mean for you personally. Learn to see yourself as Heavenly Father sees you—as His precious daughter or son with divine potential.”

I love the link that he identifies between spending time “unpulugged” and out in the beauties of nature with coming to know ourselves better.  It is particularly important for the youth of these days who have so many voices around telling them who to be or how to act.  But time alone and out in nature can combat those forces.

I’m grateful for the chance I had this week to help some young women find that opportunity.

Butterfly Exhibit

Sometimes in helping your children interact with nature when you live in the city requires a little creativity. Sometimes it involves visiting a tent full of exotic plants and–more importantly–butterflies at the mall.

Artificial and contrived as it was, it was still neat to have the butterflies land on our fingers and be able to see them up close.

I went with the two younger boys, and they were definitely interested in seeing the butterflies–they just weren’t sure exactly how close they wanted to get to them.

(This is as great a picture I can expect from a distracted three year old as photographer.)

Some of the butterflies were really shy about showing off their colors, but when they did it was just beautiful.

And I was very tempted to bring home our own hungry caterpillars to watch transform into butterflies, how up close and personal would that be?!