Why We Love Monarch Butterflies

EP98: Today on the Art of Homeschooling podcast, Jean talks with her my dear friend, Janet Kramer, all about why they love raising and watching Monarch butterflies. Listen in for tips on how to raise butterflies, how to help with butterfly and habitat preservation, and suggested resources to help you learn more. Plus lots of funny stories about their experiences raising monarch butterflies for the past 20+ years.

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Transcript

Jean Miller, Host 1:11

You're listening to the Art of Homeschooling podcast, where we help parents cultivate creativity and connection at home. I'm your host, Jean Miller, and here on this podcast, you'll find stories and inspiration to bring you the confidence you need to make homeschooling work for your family. Let's begin. And today you are in for a special treat because in this episode, I'm talking with my dear friend Janet Kramer, all about why we love monarch butterflies. Welcome, Janet.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Thank you, Gene. I can't tell you what a joy it is to be able to talk with you today about monarch butterflies, one of my favorite topics.

Jean Miller, Host 2:13

I know it's just going to be so much fun. I'm really looking forward to our conversation because we both have such a passion for raising monarch butterflies. And you're the one who introduced me to this whole process, to this whole activity. Let's just start off with why we love it so much. Like what do you love about raising monarch butterflies?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

So part of this is looking back, right? Based on all these years, 25 years ago, my neighbors introduced me to it. So I think it's the ability to observe one of nature's many miracles. And and to participate a little bit, to feel like we're doing something. We're actually, it was also because our, you know, my son was I was homeschooling him and wanted very much to introduce him to nature. And this was a beautiful way to do that.

Raising monarchs is a community or neighbor event

Jean Miller, Host 3:19

Yeah. Oh, I just love that. For me, it's all about that transformation. I just think it's so magical to watch. And what you mentioned about observation is such an important skill, actually, for children to learn. And yet that seems like just a bonus, right? Because the actual experiencing this teeny tiny egg that grows into eventually into this big fat caterpillar and then makes this beautiful chrysalis and out comes a butterfly. I mean, every time I feel so in awe of this beautiful transformation. So yeah, thank you for introducing me to it. It's so exciting. And we'll talk more at the end of the episode here about some resources for all of you listeners. But we are helping. And I'll share a little bit more about how we can help even more, right? With protecting the environment for the butterflies, and then also participating in other ways. So we will get to that. But I agree with you. I think raising monarchs is such a great family activity. And also for us as homeschoolers, it's always been like we know summer has arrived, right? Here in northeastern Ohio when we start seeing the monarch butterflies, and then we begin looking for eggs on milkweed plants. And so we're going to talk about that whole process of how you do it here in just a minute. But there's just one more thing that I love about it. I don't remember the first year. So we've been doing it maybe for 20 years, right? And in my family, and and Janet and I both have grown children now, right? And so we're still raising butterflies.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

I can't help myself. Honestly, when I come across milkweed, I have to check the bottom of the leaves to see if I find any eggs. And if I do, I gotta bring them in and protect them from any of the many predators out there that eat the eggs. Yeah, yeah.

Jean Miller, Host 5:38

That's so great. But one of the things I love the most that I just want to be sure to mention is the is that bright green emerald chrysalis that has these little gold dots and it looks painted, you know, or it looks, it's just so otherworldly.

SPEAKER_00 5:56

So beautiful. It looks like a jewel, like a gem, a gemstone, something that I would like to make into earrings or something like that. What I also want to mention is the sense of community, because it was, I said my neighbors introduced me to it, and then it turns out there are half a dozen households, you know, families on my street that grow milkweed and collect eggs, raise butterflies. And it has been a neighborhood event for me. I love that.

Jean Miller, Host 6:35

I love that. So remind me, because I I can't even remember now. I think it was a neighbor, but when were you introduced to this? And who introduced you to raising monarchs?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

So it's a good story. My neighbors, Nancy and Don, first showed me about it, and they have a son the same age as my son. So, you know, we were always talking about what we could do, activities with our kids. And Don mentioned that he read about doing this from Ranger Rick, that's a kids' magazine from the National Wildlife Federation. And so he learned about it from Ranger Rick, and then they started doing it. And then, you know, I started, it was easy enough. There's plenty of milkweed around here. And and then, of course, we planted more and it propagates pretty easily. So yeah, yeah. But it was 25 years ago when my son was, you know, two or three that we started doing this.

There's no one right way to raise monarchs, but learning from neighbors or friends is a bonus!

Jean Miller, Host 7:38

Yeah, so I have three kids, and we started the boys were probably almost eight, nine, somewhere in there, but it was right around when Lila was born. So that would be 23 years for us and 22, 23, somewhere in there. And at first, we didn't have any milkweed in our yard, right? But I knew that monarchs only lay their eggs on milkweed plants because that's what the caterpillar, when it emerges from the egg, that's what it needs to eat. And so I remember early on when we would go to these, we always had a back to homeschool or not back to school, that's what it was called, not back to school beach party, the day after Labor Day every year for a big homeschooling group. And there's milkweed along Lake Erie. So around the Great Lakes, there is a lot of milkweed. And so that's I knew you were doing this, and so that's actually where I started looking for eggs, just out of curiosity.

SPEAKER_00 8:47

And at first, it's easy to mistake other little nicks and things on the milkweed for eggs, so it takes a practiced eye to do to realize what is an egg and what isn't an egg. Yeah. I would I remember running over to my neighbor with leaves saying, Is this one? Is this one? And he's like, Nope, nope, nope, yes.

Jean Miller, Host 9:09

That is great because I remember bringing some in thinking they were eggs, and then nothing would happen. You know, and then we're bringing something in and then it moved. It's like, oh, that's a tiny little bug, it's not an egg. Right. So, yeah, yeah. So let's talk about what the process is. Like, how do we raise monarchs and what what it's been like for each of us over the years? So, do you want to start?

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Like, sure. And honestly, there's no one right way. I think many people do it differently, whatever suits them. But as recommended by Nancy and Don, I would take the leaf on which I found the egg off of the milkweed stem and lay it on a tray with some wet paper towel and loosely covered with plastic so the leaf wouldn't dry out, and then wait. And sometimes you have to wait even five days, six days, because if you get the egg right after it's laid, it takes a while until the caterpillar hatches. And so then once it's so tiny, I mean, it's really tiny, it's so tiny you almost need a magnifying glass to see it. I wait a while and let it eat the milkweed that it's the leaf that it's on and get big enough, at which point I will transfer it to a another stem of milkweed or stalk that I've taken out out of the garden and put in water in a jar or vase of water. And I I usually will either lay the leaf on one of those leaves or maybe even kind of tear around the caterpillar. So I just have a tiny little piece of leaf with a caterpillar on it and lay that on the bigger milkweed stem. And then the caterpillar knows what to do, it does its own thing.

Jean's step by step guide to raising monarchs

Jean Miller, Host 11:03

Well, so I just want to say that I often find it easier to see the egg than to see the tiny caterpillar because the egg, yes, is very, very, very, very small. I mean, it's smaller than a grain of rice. It is so small, right? Right. But it's white against the green leaf, right? And you always find them on the under, not always, every once in a while. I found one on top, but it's almost always on the underside of the milkweed leaf.

SPEAKER_00 11:30

But when the caterpillars on the flower, too. Sometimes you will find them on the flowers, but you're right, mostly on the underside.

Jean Miller, Host 11:37

Yeah. But that tiny caterpillar, it just, I mean, you really need to leave it alone and let it grow a little before you can really even identify it as a caterpillar.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

You know, right before it's about to hatch, it looks like a little black pinhead because it's almost like you see the nose of the caterpillar coming out. And many times I'll check the egg and think, oh my god, it disappeared. Where'd it go? You know, and it's just you have to have faith. And then it appears again. But it's really cool actually to look at one of the just hatched caterpillars with a magnifying glass because you can see those stripes from the very beginning.

Jean Miller, Host 12:19

Isn't that amazing? So a monarch caterpillar has these very distinct stripes that are absolutely beautiful. And from the very beginning, you can see it. Yeah, so true. All right, so let's talk stage by stage. So I used to do it that way too, and bring just one leaf in and put it on a wet paper towel. And now I have, I don't know when I switched, but I've started bringing, usually I think because I have I often have multiple caterpillars in my little habitat at once. So I just bring the stalk in from the get-go and put it in a little vase of water. But it does make it difficult to see, you know, you have all these leaves, and if you have caterpillars of varying sizes, it can be kind of hard to find them.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

So something else that I didn't realize until more recently, and my neighbor confirmed is that sometimes they cannibalize themselves, like a bigger caterpillar might eat a smaller one. Maybe it's unintentional, maybe it's just eating the leaf and it accidentally eats the caterpillar. I don't know. But I used to keep close count of my caterpillars, my eggs, my caterpillars, and everything. And then if one disappears, then maybe it was eaten. That's yeah, yeah.

Jean Miller, Host 13:42

And so let's talk like what uh kind of enclosure. So we're bringing these in the house. I'm gonna talk, give a little caveat to that in just a moment. But what do you put those stalks of milkweed in?

Tips from Monarch Watch to raise monarchs outside

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah, so that's evolved, right? It started out in a big aquarium with a screen lid. That's how my neighbors do it. And I started doing that, but I realized that they really like height because the stalks are tall, and we'll talk at you know about the next stage when they form their chrysalis. They like to crawl up. So there was a time when my screened in porch was my caterpillar what? Habitat. Nursery habitat, right? And I actually did not have them in a cage at all. And I just had a table with multiple vases filled with milkweed and caterpillars at all various stages, and soon chrysalises as well. And they were kind of free to roam in this screened-in porch area. And there's some, we'll get to that. There's some funny stories associated with that. But more recently, I decided to build a cage. You know, I've read, and this might be the caveat you were going to talk about, that you don't want to raise them inside because they need to be exposed to all the natural elements they would be if they were outside to just develop appropriately. So I had these old screens from windows, and I made I built a cage that's tall as the window screens with a piece of wood across the top so that there's a flat surface where they can form their chrysalises. And the two sides, I just took some screen and put Velcro, the sticky Velcro on it, and and then it sticks on both sides. So I can open it easily, change the milkweed out, and put the screen back. The point of the screens is to keep the predators out.

Enclosures for caterpillars

Jean Miller, Host 15:55

I love that. So I did just learn this recently. I mean, I've heard over the past few years about the importance of them being outdoors, and I've still brought them into our kitchen. You know, they're it's right by a window. Well, first I will say that the caveat is that they are stronger if they are raised outside. And I've learned that even more specifically recently from an organization called Monarch Watch. The organization is really involved in education, conservation, and research, all about monarch butterflies, because their population has dwindled and the goal is to build it back up. The way I learned this about raising them outdoors is from their tagging program. They now have a monarch tag, you can buy monarch tagging kits from them as part of this citizen science program and tag monarchs, but they don't want you tagging any that are raised indoors because their likelihood of making it all the way to Mexico is lower having been raised indoors. That's how they've discovered that. So I just find that really interesting. And so now my project, Janet, is going to build a habitat like yours so that I can yeah, that I can keep outside. So I'll just quickly say we two started with a tank. I think it had been a lizard tank, right? My kids had, my boys had some lizards. And so it was just an extra tank with a mesh, a screen lid. And we started there, and then Brian got me, it's a collapsible sort of netted uh butterfly habitat that's taller. It's about three feet tall and probably two feet, foot and a half, two feet wide. And and it's been really nice. It's just sets on a tabletop or a countertop, but I'm gonna build one. I'm inspired to build an outdoor setting for them. So what's next? So the caterpillars, then it's funny to go and read the very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carl because they really are like that. They devour these caterpillars just eat and eat and eat.

Caterpillars & the larva stage

SPEAKER_00 18:19

But it's just milkweed, and that's where you know, if you're going to do this, you have to commit to providing fresh milkweed. There have been times when a whole stock has been completely devoured and it's just a bear stock. And I remember one summer giving some caterpillars to a friend who didn't have a supply of milkweed. And so I do I remember one night, probably, you know, 10 o'clock, it was in the dark, and she lives in a different community. So we met at at a library parking lot halfway in between, and I gave her milkweed. It looked like we were up to something clandestine, you know, something bad, but it was it was so funny. It was just milkweed for her caterpillar.

Jean Miller, Host 19:09

Yeah, I remember late at night before we had it in our yard, and I think you would give me eggs, right? And then I would need to keep the milkweed stocked. And I remember one night also late at night, I knew this one spot at the edge of a field nearby, you know, by a park near us where milkweed grew. So I remember it was also like 10 p.m. or something like that. Like, I know they can't make it until morning. I have to go out and procure some milkweed right now.

The "J" and the chyrsalis

SPEAKER_00 19:41

One more thing I just want to add that um, if if you, you know, your listeners are reading about this, the caterpillar is the larva stage. And sometimes I think of larva as something, I don't know, like maggots or you know, awful things, and it is the larva stage of this development. Yeah, but then once the caterpillar hatches and gets big and becomes, like you say, a big fat, juicy caterpillar. I mean, you know, the size of your pinky probably, it's time for it to form a chrysalis, and it knows, you know. What I have found is they like a protected spot. So if they can, they crawl up. I've just noticed they go as high as they can. But sometimes when I when they were on my porch, I found them everywhere. These are some really funny stories about where these caterpillars would decide to form their chrysalises. Oh, and um, you know, under chairs, under tables. Once there was one, our sofa, our little you know, couch or love seat on the porch was it's a cloth one. It was soft cushions, one cushion overhang a little hung a little bit from the seat, and there was a chrysalis underneath the cushion. I mean, it was in the front of the couch. And then another time I just had random things on my table, like a plastic cup with a plastic spoon in it, and I found a chrysal. Well, first a caterpillar, I should say it forms a J. What it does is sew a button from it's behind, and the the back two legs attach to this button, and it hangs upside down and curls up like a J. So I would find those J's before it forms the chrysalis on the spoon. I found one on the end of the plastic spoon. And wouldn't you know it, the next day there was another one right beside it. So my gosh, isn't it? I'll send you that picture. It's hilarious. Yeah, hilarious.

Jean Miller, Host 21:54

Yeah, so we in in our little enclosure, right? We would put even this year, I just have two chrysalli left right now. A butterfly emerged yesterday morning. You know, I add the sticks in there. Sometimes they've jade and formed their chrysalis under underneath a leaf, but they often crawl up to the top, very top of this netting and do their J from there. So, like you said, they do generally like to crawl up and they then hang upside down, they form this shape of a J and then they turn into the bright green, emerald green crystal.

SPEAKER_00 22:31

So let's talk about that process for a minute, though, because I am I feel so privileged to have had the time to observe that transformation. And it takes place about 24 hours after they form the J. And it's chrysalis emerges from within the caterpillar. It's different than mods that spin cocoons. This is not a cocoon, this is a chrysalis, and it comes from within the Caterpillar, it's as if the skin unzips, you see it split, and then the green blob emerges from that split skin, and the skin itself just shrivels up. The green blob kind of wriggles around to make the dry skin drop off if it can, and then it hardens into that beautiful emerald green crystal. Yeah.

The butterfly emerges

Jean Miller, Host 23:31

So I will tell you a funny story is that this year at the beginning of August, for the very first time, so I've been doing this 20 plus years, I got to see that process. And I was on the phone. It's so funny because I was working on planning the Taproot teacher training that I host. And I was on the phone with one of the presenters, my friend Jody, who does the music at Taproot, and it was happening like, wait, Jody, I have to call you back. You'll never believe it's happening. And I went and watched it, and then I came back and finished my conversation with her. And one of the books I'm going to share at the end is about butterflies. And I was using that book as part of one of the workshops I was presenting at Taproot this year in 2022. So I took my butterfly habitat to Taproot. And that the caterpillar that I saw form its chrysalis is the one that emerged on the Saturday morning of the Taproot weekend this year. So that was really magical, really a wonderful thing. So let's talk about when they come out as butterflies.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

That that process is probably a couple weeks later. I don't, I haven't exactly measured, but my sense is it's between 10 and 14 days from when they form a chrysalis.

Jean Miller, Host 24:54

Yeah, and that's what the that's what you'll read that that that is the general time frame.

SPEAKER_00 25:00

And you'll know that it's soon because that beautiful green chrysalis becomes transparent. Yeah. It looks like it turns black, but really it's clear, and what you're seeing are the folded up wings of the butterfly inside. Yeah. And you and you know it's coming, you can see it. But again, unless you have time to just sit and watch it, there have been times when I have done that, just sat and watched and watched and watched, and trained my video, you know, my phone to videotape it. And then I get impatient and I walk away, and then I come back and wouldn't you know it had emerged. I missed it.

Jean Miller, Host 25:39

Yeah, isn't it crazy? Such a quick press into the other room. Right.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

It's a butterfly. Yeah. It takes place so quickly that it's like the shell. It the chrysalis is just a clear, almost plastic-looking shell that cracks open, and it's like a birth, the way the butterfly slips out. There's a little bit of fluid there that comes out, and then and it's so looked so distorted because its body has been in that, you know, looks like embryo shape, right? And then and then its legs have to kind of grab onto the old chrysalis, and it takes a couple hours for the fluid to pump from its abdomen into its wings, for its wings to spread out and for them to dry. And all that whole process, they really need to be left alone to be able to do that.

Jean Miller, Host 26:33

Yeah, and they sometimes they flutter a little bit, or sometimes they just sit really still once the they've pumped up their wings to their like full size and while it's drying. Sometimes they just sit. And one of the fun things in our family, so my kids have all had the experience, right, of releasing them. So when they crawl, you know, you put your finger inside the wherever the little habitat, and and the butterfly will crawl on your finger and it really tickles, I think. And then you can go outside and release it, or if you're already outside, that's what we're we're gonna try to do from now on. But you let the butterfly go. And then in our family, we always say, bye-bye, butterfly. That's so cute. I know. I mean, since my kids were really little, so that's a such a fun process, and it really every time is magical. And I do also think there's something amazing about doing it year after year after year. It be has become, you know, in both of our families, such a tradition, and it's just like a part of uh the seasons, you know, our experience of the seasons.

SPEAKER_00 27:45

I will say that mostly, you know, I haven't read a whole lot, but most of what I've learned has just been from observation. And you mentioned that sometimes the caterpillar will form its chrysalis on the leaf itself, of on the stalk of a milkweed. And later when I've been throwing those stalks out, I notice the leaf is secured to the stalk with some of that webbing that like the the caterpillar will secure the leaf because it will turn yellow and die. But I'm always surprised why it or have been surprised, you know, why it doesn't fall off. And and that's why, because the caterpillar already secured it to the isn't that incredible that they yeah, that they know instinctively to do that.

And now it's a butterfly!

Learning more about monarchs every year through experience

Jean Miller, Host 28:36

So I would just love to share some funny stories. So when you were talking about, you know, all the different places you would find the J's or the chrysality. So, you know, when you're when you're first bringing them the milkweed in and the caterpillars are small, it doesn't seem necessary to cover the the the whatever they're in, right? And so we would keep these, we now keep them in the kitchen by the kitchen windows, but we would keep these in our dining room, which is where we did most of our homeschooling, right? Living room, dining room. And we kept them there because it was fun to watch them while we were doing our our homeschooling activities. And so one year I had put new, we'd replenished the milkweed, and I thought all the caterpillars in there were really small. I didn't realize one of them was getting quite large and ready to j and then turn into a chrysalis. And so we went to bed and the lid was off the tank. And I got up in the morning and I was looking for a book on a, we had a, so there's a doorway into the kitchen, right? An open doorway. And the tank was on the sideboard to the left of the doorway, and to the right of the doorway was a bookshelf. And so I was getting a book off the bookshelf in the morning for our lessons. And I look up and there's the J on the very top shelf of this very tall bookcase. And I thought, oh no, you know, we left the tank open. What am I gonna do? Because then you realize, well, at that point, you can't move them. Right. Right? It's that's where it's gonna be for the next two weeks, and then a butterfly is going to come out. And hopefully we will be there when that happens so we could let it outside. So it all worked out just fine. But I do remember toward the end, I knew to look for it darkening, right? The chrysalis darkening when it when you can begin to see the butterfly inside. So then I was watching it like a hawk, right? I mean, I'm I'm watching it constantly so that when it did emerge, before it started flying around our house, right?

SPEAKER_00 30:48

I could get it outside. We've had those experiences in the past of having to get butterflies that were flying in our house out. Because once they start flying, they're not as amenable to crawling on your finger as initially. And that's the other thing that's really funny. I think when they first emerge, I don't think they know they're a butterfly. They're used to being a caterpillar and they crawl. I'm like, you can fly, you don't have to crawl. I'll I'll take it out and I'll put it on a flower, and it might end up maybe on a fence or something. And instead of flying away, it crawls up.

Jean Miller, Host 31:23

Oh, interesting. I've never seen that. That is very funny.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

I mean, if you wait long enough for them to really be ready to fly, they will fly. Yeah. Which you've probably done.

Male vs. female butterflies

Jean Miller, Host 31:33

Well, so I just think that is such a good example of how doing this year after year, you learn more every single time. To me, that's a such a great lesson, a commentary about education, because when we really get into an activity and do it regularly over a period of time and really take the time to observe, I really think that's one of the key tips here is that so much of this is about you just learn by observ through observation. And then it builds up into this really rich experience that you carry with you for the rest of your life.

Metamorphisis

SPEAKER_00 32:18

And it's such a great thing to share. I have to say, another neighbor just learned about it two summers ago, I think. And she's a fanatic. She sends her husband out looking under the milkweed on around the block, you know, all the neighbors. And last year, I think she released over a hundred butterflies. Oh my gosh. And she names them also. She'll she'll post on Facebook and ask for names, or she'll tell them what she named them. Oh, here's another interesting fact that uh we haven't talked about yet. That you can tell the difference between a male and a female. Oh, yes. And the males have a swelling on the lower wings that uh looks like along one of the black veins, just is a little bit bulgy. It doesn't stick out, but it's wide.

"Hope for the Flowers", a sweet little inspirational book for adults

Jean Miller, Host 33:12

I mean, yeah, so it's a a lot of people will say, Okay, there's a black dot. Look for the black dot, right? And on each side, yeah, that's really fun too to see. Oh, is it my kids would always be like, is it a girl or a boy? And then it makes me think the same thing. It's like a birth, you know? Right, exactly. Uh yeah, we're we're monarch butterfly doulas. That's what we are, Janet. That's it. That is it. That is it.

SPEAKER_00 33:39

And just to circle back to something you said at the very beginning, the transformation, the metamorphosis is such a metaphor for our own lives. You know, I mean, there's so much deep meaning there if you want to go into it.

Jean Miller, Host 33:54

Yeah. So one of my favorite quotes, and I'm paraphrasing a little bit here because I don't have it in front of me, but I will be sure to put it in the show notes. And it comes from Buckminster Fuller. And the quote is there's nothing in a caterpillar that knows it's going to turn into a butterfly. And it's so fascinating to me because that transformation is often like that. Like we have a sense, but we don't know, right? We don't know what's coming. And yeah, it really is a metaphor for so many things.

Books for kids

SPEAKER_00 34:29

So here's a funny story. There's this book called Hope for the Flowers. Oh, I remember that book. Do you? Yeah. Well, it turns out, I mean, it's odd that I first learned about it in a spiritual meditation community that I'm part of. And years later, the same neighbor that turned me on to raising monarchs in the first place, showed me this book again and told me that it was another neighbor, Trina Paulis, who wrote the book. And I never knew that. So I Trina didn't live here anymore, but her mother still lived here. Her mother Alice still lived here. And Trina's the one who wrote it. It's just so she signed it for me. I have a signed copy, and it says to Janet, to believe in the butterflies always. That is so sweet.

Jean Miller, Host 35:24

Ah, I just love that. Yeah. Well, let's let's move into resources because that's a beautiful, that's a beautiful little story.

SPEAKER_00 35:33

It's not exactly about how to raise monarchs, though. I mean, it's a more of a meta, it's like a metaphor for life, that story. Because in this one, even the caterpillars spin cocoons. It's not like it's a chrysalis. So oh, interesting. It's not really about raising monarchs.

Eastern & Western monarch populations

More about Monarch Watch

Jean Miller, Host 35:51

Yeah, yeah. Well, there are some great books about raising monarchs, and listeners can find in the show notes. We'll put links to all of these resources that we're mentioning. But one I want to mention that we I just came across this book one year at the library, but it's so simple and straightforward, and it has a lot of great photographs in it. And it's called How to Raise Monarch Butterflies: A Step-by-Step Guide for Kids. And it's by Carol Pasternak, and I'll put a link to that book over in the show notes. Yeah, this one is called Butterflies for Kids by Jay Dicker Northgard. I'll put, I will put a link to that one in the show notes too. And then I want to be sure to mention monarch watch because that's where I've learned more and more about protecting monarchs and butterfly conservation and also the research that's being done. You know, these monarchs migrate. This is a whole fascinating aspect, too, right? So there are multiple generations of monarchs through this the summer, and then the final generation is the one that uh migrates to Mexico. There are eastern monarchs and there are western monarchs, right? So there's sort of two streams of migration, and monarch watch is the organization in North America that is monitoring this activity and the numbers of monarch butterflies.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

Something interesting that I found when I was doing some research is that there are really two distinct groups of monarchs, and the eastern monarchs are the ones that migrate to Mexico to about 12 different mountain ranges in a couple of the states in western Mexico, and it's the it's a particular tree that they overwinter on, the Oyamel fir tree. But then the western butterflies are those in the United States that live west of the Rockies and they migrate to California, to the coast of California.

"The Girl Who Drew Butterflies", a book for the middle grades

Jean Miller, Host 38:07

Isn't that interesting? Yeah, and they are different. They're, I just think that that is so fascinating. But Monarch Watch, you can go to monarchwatch.org and they have so many resources. And now one of the most exciting things that they're doing, you can purchase tagging kits from them if you're interested in tagging. And it's this uh citizen science project. So there are ways that you can report if you find a butterfly with a tag on it. And they also have a program for you could turn your home garden into a certified monarch habitat, and they can they teach you how to do that. So I think that would be such a fun project to do as a family, as a homeschooling family, or any family I think would really enjoy doing that. It really just takes planting some milkweed and then having other sources of nectar for the butterflies. So that could be a really fun thing. You can actually certify your home garden if you if you want to. You can be part of the tagging program, and they have events and and education and all kinds of other things that you might want to learn more.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

I know your audience is all over the country, so you people need to look at what are native pollinators in their areas.

Inspiration to learn more, grow milkweed, or raise caterpillars

Jean Miller, Host 39:28

Yes. Thank you. That is a great tip. Yeah, and listeners all over the world, actually. So I know it's fun. So one other resource I want to mention is this book that so my friend Allison and I love taking a book and turning it into like a main lesson block. And we chose a book this year for our workshop at Taproot, and it's called The Girl Who Drew Butterflies. The subtitle is How uh Maria Marion's Art Changed Science. It's a book for probably we did it for grades five through eight. It's written by a woman named Joyce Sidman, and it is a fascinating story of a woman in the 17th century who from the time she was a little girl, loved bugs and uh butterflies and all kinds of, she was very nature-oriented. But at that time, girls did not grow up to be scientists officially. Her father or stepfather was an artist who would paint these big paintings of flowers, and he would also often put bugs in them to make the painting look more realistic. And so she learned to paint, and then she combined her art and her scientific knowledge. And here's a fascinating thing: all of her knowledge came from observation. So she would go find bugs, eggs, chrysality, all kinds of butterflies at different stages and bring them into her house, kind of like your screen in Porch, Janet, and and watch them. And one of the cool things that she learned, she was the first human to discover that certain butterflies lay their eggs on certain plants because that's what the caterpillar eats when it emerges. And nobody had ever discovered that before. It's just so interesting to me. So it's a wonderful book that could go along with if you want to do this kind of raising monarchs as part of your homeschooling. It's a really, really wonderful book and so many things in it. It sounds wonderful. I wish that I had had that when we were homeschooling. I know it's a newer book, but it's it has so many beautiful pictures in it, too. Well, thank you everyone for listening. And do check out the show notes. You can find them at artofhomeschooling.com slash episode 98, and we'll have links and some photos for you to check out. And I hope this encourages you just to be more curious, right? And and maybe you'll plant some milkweed in your yard, you know, every little bit helps, and just learn more about caterpillars, butterflies, monarchs if they're in your area. And let us know because I would love to hear if you explore.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

You know, something I'd like to branch out into at in the future is swallow tails. I had the the really great luck to find a swallow tailed caterpillar last summer and it overwintered, in fact, in my butterfly cage. Their chrysalises are or chrysalli are not as beautiful as monarchs, but when it did emerge this in the spring, it was just fabulous. So you know there are other butterflies as well.

Jean Miller, Host 43:06

Yes, yeah, that's a really good point. Yeah. The two tips I would say are it really teaches the skill of observation without having to directly teach it. And then a wonderful metaphor for transformation and metamorphosis. So thank you so much, Janet. This has been really, really fun. I appreciate you being here and having this conversation together today. You are so welcome. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. That's all for today, my friend. But here's what I want you to remember rather than perfection, let's focus on connection. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Art of Homeschooling podcast.