This Year's Great Symbolic Butterfly Migration

Here is our class paper butterfly.

I love Journey North for Kids!  I know that I've mentioned them before.  This site is chock full of information, scientific study, videos, printable books, etc.  all about migration and seasonal change.

In that spirit, every fall they have a symbolic butterfly migration alongside the travel and migration of the Monarch's to their winter home in Mexico. 

While we were involved in this last year as well, I really like the way that they organized it this year even better.  Instead of each student making a paper butterfly, there is one sent per class.  The new design of the butterfly being mounted to the folder leaves lots of room for self expression and creativity inside the folder.

The butterfly is mounted on the outside of a folder.  The inside is reserved for information about you class (which for us, is also our family).

They suggest putting information, pictures, and their form letter inside to tell the students in Mexico about your class.  Since we home school we told them about our home school class.  I used this free translation website to translate what we wanted to say into the Spanish language (and dialect) that they would understand. 

After completing our butterfly and preparing the envelope and return envelopes as outlined on Journey North's Symbolic Butterfly Migration website I went to the post office to send it to the Journey North offices where they will process all of the butterflies and then send them on to Mexico.  While there is no cost to be involved in this symbolic migration, they gladly accept any donations offered to help them educate the kids, and study the butterflies.

There the teachers and scientists will teach the school children about the Monarchs and how to protect them and care for their wintering sites.  The class will display our butterfly, and be able to write to us if they choose.  I can also check the Journey North site to see which school received our butterfly.

The students will care for our paper butterfly, as they do for the real butterflies, all winter.  And in the spring our paper butterfly will travel back north with the real butterflies and "land" in one of the schools that sent one out in the fall.  Last year we received a paper butterfly back, with Milkweed seeds, and information about the people working to teach the children about the butterflies and the butterflies themselves.

While yesterday was the postmark date for this year (I mentioned this program in earlier posts), I wanted you to know just how wonderful this  program was "first hand".  Hopefully you will consider it next fall, and in the meantime, use the wonderful resources they offer in their website!

From Grouchy To Great In A Matter Of Hours

Where we live the days are getting shorter.  The sun shines less, and the days are cooler. 

More often than not we have good days despite the gloomier days of Fall and Winter.Today is not one of them :(

I do know that there is pattern to our not so great days in school.  We are more likely to have a bad school day after a jam packed weekend, or a bad night’s sleep.  Seeing the patterns that lead to a good school day as opposed to a bad one is important.  Not every day is going to be great.  But it is important to empower our children with the tools to succeed in their studies as much as possible by instilling healthy sleep patterns. 

On the days that sleep is an issue, my patience with my children can work wonders.  But it is a temporary fix to a bigger issue.  On the Monday after a busy weekend, patience is also vital, but so is a good night sleep the next night.  Here’s hoping for a good nights sleep to all of us tonight, and a blessed school day tomorrow ;)

Fall Is Coming

The official first day of fall is September 22nd this year.  That’s just three short weeks from today, and I am ready!  Fall is my one of my two favorite seasons of the year, and Spring is the other.  I love the mild weather, and the crisp cool nights.  I love hay rides, and campfires, and apple cider, and pumpkin pies with lots of whipped cream (the real stuff!) on top.  (My hubby and older son make the absolute BEST pumpkin pies, by the way!)
Now this year school began “before the rush” for us, so we are actually already into our third week of school, but many of you are just starting or preparing to start.  That’s fine.  So other than curriculum, what’s a home school mom to do to fully enjoy this glorious season with her kids? 
We love nature walks!  It’s funny how obvious this should be as a learning opportunity, but even the things that should be obvious get past us from time to time.  It took me awhile to realize how much fun AND educational this could be.  I mean, like duh, and I live in an area of BEAUTIFUL fall foliage and beauty.  What a wealth of opportunity!  So here’s the next question.  Is a nature walk just a walk?  Not if you check out Journey North Kids! 
Journey North “is a global study of wildlife migration and seasonal change” according their parent site for older children and adults.  That’s the official description of what they do, but there is so much fun to be had here!  This site is full of information about different migrating animals, and even the areas that they migrate to.  There are slideshows about the animals and people around them, printable photo rich books, videos, other teaching resources, and more. 
Also, right now they are asking for people to submit signs of Fall and Fall migration sightings, such as sightings of the Monarch Butterflies that are journeying south to Mexico for the winter.  After you submit sightings, you can look at the interactive map to see what others are observing!  The coming days would be a wonderful time for a nature walk, but take note of the signs of Fall all around you, and maybe you can have your own observation on the map ;)
P. S. And if you act fast you can also send a symbolic paper Monarch to Mexico to help them educate our kids, and kids in Mexico, about caring for the Monarchs as they migrate!  Hurry!  The butterflies for the Symbolic Migration need to be postmarked before October 12th!