Nature Study Success!

We actually did nature study the other day and I wanted to share how neat it was!  We were going to go to the back of our neighborhood, but my kids got distracted at an empty lot a few lots down from us that has grown up quite a bit.  The first thing ds6 notices is a cool orange and black caterpillar with spikes.  We took lots of pictures and continued to expore.  DD5 found some strange looking fruit on a vine that smelled yummy, so we took some more pics and picked some of it.  Then we spotted a beautiful butterfly and got some close up pics of it and decided to come on home and look up our finds online.  You’ll never believe what we discovered…

The caterpillar was called a Gulf Fritillary.  We discovered that the fruit was Passionfruit found on the Maypop vine.  This vine is the host plant for the Gulf Fritillary caterpillar since it grows so quickly.  The butterfly we found?…you guessed it…a Gulf Fritillary butterfly!

DD9 was so excited she was dancing around the living room saying “everything we found was connected!”

What a great nature study and a great motivator to keep doing it!