As in TEN kiddos all under the age of 9, and actually most of them are under 6. All ascended upon my home this morning at a ripe 10am. Unplanned. Oh my!
We had planned a nice day at the Botanical Gardens, picnic & all. Eery grey skies as far as we could see, but I was ever optimistic. After all, the wonderful & always on-the-button {{snort}} meteorologist said it had blown over in the night. We only had cloudy skies to cool our day. Pft. Whatev. BOOM! and downpour. So we all turned around & headed to my place. My un-vacuumed, un-mopped, dirty dishes & clean laundry piles & all home sweet home. At my suggestion. (Secret? You know I totally love you when I allow you see my home like this!)
And I thought I was brave last summer when we took on 6 under 5. Oh no, my friends, this was way more fun. And loud. And rowdy. And messy. And awesome!
But look at these odds, ladies! In our Care Group there are 12 kiddos total. And only two girls. Hello! Starlet has quite the future hubby choices!! 
Can you guess which one is Mama’s choice?
Yes, Starlet is only a wee three years only. No, I do not have any pre-schools that I have already interviewed & reserved her a seat in. Her reserved seat is at our craft table. Or the kitchen table. Or our wagon at the zoo. That is the beauty of home educating. It can happen anywhere, at anytime.
Most recent “science” studies? We began in our garden, where we found these beauties muching on our dill.
So of course they had to come indoors & take up residence in our bug box. To be fed daily. By me, said “teacher”. And the amount of frass these beauties could produce?? Oh my!!! Let me just say that I won’t be enjoying the smell of dill for quite some time now, thankyouverymuch! I’ll save you the agony of a picture, but if pictures smelled I just might have to make you suffer with me.
But fortunately within a week, they coccooned & VOILA! no more frass. Or dill.
Within about another week, sheer excitement (probably moreso on the grown-ups part). Beautiful caterpillars turned beautiful butterflies.
But that was not the end. Butterflies need a few hours for their wings to dry before they can fly. We made sure to release them outdoors as soon as they “hatched”. But within half an hour, a huge thunderstorm exploded. Staret was fit to be tied that the butterflies would not survive because they couldn’t fly to “dryness”. So out in the storm Mama marched (donned in fab leopard wellies, of course!), umberella in hand to “save the newborn butterflies”.
After the rains calmed & the skies cleared, all was well in our little world. And my sweet Starlet was at peace that her butterflies had survived because of her rainbow umbrella.
And in this mama’s world? To be able to put a smile on my Starlet’s face…. its worth all the rain & frass.
