Our caterpillar has transformed into a butterfly named Beauty Blunis

We found a little caterpillar (4cm long) while gardening the other day and decided to keep her. (Notice how all creatures found in our premises are automatically female! haha..).

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The very next day we awoke to find that she had turned into a pupae, shorter than her caterpillar length. From 4cm, she shrunk to be come just a 2cm long pupae.

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Over the days we monitored her, but nothing much changed, except for tiny changes in shape. Then on day 6, we noticed a clear outline of her wings in yellow.

Here a front view of her new wing. Unclear as pic taken from outside the container.

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Day 7 of pupae stage showed great difference. There were distinct black lines and patterns on her wings and her eyes could be seen.

This is her again, 7th day of Pupae Stage

I new she'd be out very soon....but wasn't so sure when. We read that when a pupae turns a dark colour and starts shaking, the butterfly will soon emerge, and that usually happens in the morning. However, today morning we had signed up for a short computing course for our girls and had to leave home for a while. After the morning session, we rushed home to find that she'd transformed already. So we missed the whole process where she emerged. How sad... :(       

Seeing how beautiful she was, my girls named her Beauty Blunis. (Beauty by Nel and Blunis after Jo). She's much larger than the pupae that she was and my girls were amazed at how she'd fit in that little shell. We've read tonnes about how a caterpillar goes through the stages to evolve into a butterfly.... but to see it happen over the days is amazing...and we're still in awe. My girls wonder...how did the wings form and how did the colour change? How did the fluid form parts such as the proboscis? How did an almost "legless" caterpillar form 6 legs? Yes, they're still in awe, and so am I. :)

So reluctantly we took Blunis out into the open and took off the cover. However, she did not come out immediately and stayed in for a while.

Then she flew out and sat on the edge of the container..and my girls had a last look. We were happy for her, in awe and yet so reluctant and sad to let her go. After all, we've been watching her for days and hours.

Then Blunis took a short flight over to the nearest leaf, where she lingered still a while more, before finally taking off really high up over the trees and away. Ahhh....sighs my heart.....such a beautiful butterfly and we miss her already.

Here's our "empty nest" now that she's free. :)  We found some yellow liquid left on the bottom of the container after she left, not stinky but a unique smell.

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Update: Turns out our butterfly is male! and a Striped Albatross. Info can be found here. 
Striped-albatross

Study of Mesopotamia

We started the study of Mesopotamia this week. We used DK books and several books borrowed from the library as well as looked at some videos and websites online such as:
Ancient Mesopotamia for Kids
Nationalgeographic video for kids on mesopotamia
http://www.mesopotamia.co.uk/
 http://mesopotamia.lib.uchicago.edu/



With the start of Ancient Civilization studies, I decided to attended a workshop where I learnt how to  make a Book of Time. Basically during the workshop we made a very very long book made by sticking 40 pieces of B3 size art block paper together. The workshop was conducted by Glazemud and you can view the book of time and other project ideas on her page. So far we've started filling in our book already by drawing coloured lines to mark events such as the rise and fall of cities, time frame when certain kings ruled etc. We also made little "booklets" describing events that happened and stuck it into our timeline book together with timeline figures, which were so generously given by Glazemud.

Bits of information stuck in below figures. I know though that it would have been better if the timeline figure was stuck on the cover of the little "booklet" instead.

Eg. of  timeline figures so kindly made by Glazemud for us.

Other than that girls have started a Scrap book, in which they will collect pictures, maps and stuff about Mesopotamia. We plan to continue with this for a while, hoping to end with building a model of a Ziggurat and possibly, most likely  making our own Mud Bricks! :) 

Other than that....................

Nel wrote a couplet this week

And is super excited about her Incredible Machine game that arrived in the post a couple of days ago. She's worked through most of the tutorial and is pretty hooked on it. (This is in continuation of our project on Simple Machine

 Jo drew these for fun..

While I drew this while showing em how to draw figures. (Nel says this is a gross drawing. haha..)

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One final update, our caterpillar which turned into a pupae is changing. Distinct shape of the butterfly can be seen now, and we are very excited about the emergence of a brand new butterfly soon. Just hope we'll be around when that happens.

update on spider, caterpillar and baby plants

We met  Charlotte Our Spider  several weeks ago when she was still a young spider. We watched her build her web, noticed her growing larger, watched her protect her nest. Then 2 weeks later we noticed baby spiders and thought they were hers.

Because we thought they were hers we decided to take down the "empty nest". So I plucked down the nest for the children to have a look and we left it on the table. Lo and behold, the very next morning, we noticed about 8 brand new baby spiders crawling out of and around her nest!! So the other baby spiders weren't hers I guess. Well.....as for Charlotte our spider, she went missing about 2 days ago. We hunted for her but couldn't find her. I guess after a month she's decided that it was time for her to go.

The empty nest after the babies hatched

 

Charlotte's baby hovering near the nest

A new spider on our plant just wrapping its web around the catch of the day

While gardening the other day, we found this green caterpillar crawling on our fence, strange to be so far away from any plant! We decided to keep it for a while. Well...again, lo and behold (haha), the very next day...we checked in the morning to find that it'd turned itself into a pupae!!! It's day 4 now of being a pupae. We're very excited! :)

As for Jo's garden which we worked on last weekend, baby plants have begun to sprout. :)

I think these are baby pak choy

and this a baby pumpkin

Something Jo drew yesterday while Nel worked on more poetry

too sentimental

 (something I wrote a while ago)

Before I lay down to bed today, I kissed my girls goodnight..and whispered "goodnight Nel..goodnight Jojo bubs.." Then I watched them drift off to sleep while I remained awake. The same sad thought visited me...that they are growing up too fast. 2011 is almost gone...it's slipped through my fingers like sand.

I remember happy moments in 2011...and I also remember feelings of panic and fatigue in trying to catch up with schedules and datelines. I remember feeling contented and happy with my home, and sometimes frustrated when things were not in place because I wasn't able to cope. As I reflect back..I do wish I could go back, pick up some pieces and redo certain things...but alas..time is like the kite that you've accidentally let go in that stormy wind. You run and chase with all your might, but you never get to catch it ever again.

As I write, I'm thinking back of Nel as a toddler. I smile as I think back of those days. She was a child with an infectious laughter. She found most things amusing...and she was one with a wonderful sense of humour who also loved playing pranks. (she still does..but less now.) She had lots of questions, a strong will power, and was constantly on the move. All of a sudden, here she is, going on 10 next year. In place of that giggly headstrong active child, now I have a dreamer, lost in her own world most of the time. She's sensitive..and instead of blurting all her thoughts out as she used to do, now she has many unspoken thoughts. 

Sometimes I wonder and I ask her "Nel, can you tell me what you're thinking of?" Sometimes she answers...sometimes she replies "Nothing mum." That certain candid phase of her childhood seems to have passed. There's a newness in or relationship and a different wonderful feeling when I walk with her, with her head now slightly above my shoulders. It's a feeling of quiet understanding, ....and I'm lost for words here, can't quite describe it. In place of the bouncy child with chubby hands, is now a slender young girl who walks dreamily, quietly observing and sometimes we enjoy a real conversation with each other. 

This Christmas she insisted that she wanted to buy me presents with her own pocket money. When I said "You don't have to," she replied "Why do you stop me mum? Why can't I be allowed to buy you something?" I replied "Ok, go ahead Nel..I'll accept it with love."

As for Jo..she was the tough one with really terrible twos who had me crying many nights because I couldn't cope with her. Now she's the famous lizard catcher who talks too much. She's gotten quite good at arguing and reminds me of my own faults and when I break the rules I've given them. I'm afraid that too soon..she too will move out of this candid phase and become the second dreamer.

I'm too sentimental...I must learn to let go and realise that growth happens and I can't stop it. I can only be here for them, grow with them and help them become the persons they're meant to be.

For that,I pray for vision..that I'll be able to see what my children were intended to be. I pray for courage... to accept growth and change.... I pray for a lot more things..for all that's needed to be a better mother and wife to my husband.

*Note..my girls do still quarrel and drive me crazy with that. And also..they still do play together and have many crazy laughing moments. Times when they're both child like and playing are precious moments which I cherish greatly. Oh well...it's almost 2am. Happy New Year all..and here's to 2012.

~~Martha

Singing

Went to watch "We bought a Zoo". Not bad...a little slow going initially...(for some throughout), but still in my opinion, touching with a nice family message/reminder. Kids loved it, except for a small kissing part where they went "ewwwww" and covered their eyes.
Well...during a part of the show, the song "And I think it's Gonna rain Today" was featured. For a while I tried to figure out where I've heard the song. It's a song I used to love but have not heard in more than 10 years! Finally I figured out it was a song Bette Midler used to sing.

Upon getting home, I just HAD to...I downloaded the lyrics, got on my piano and recorded this impromptu. Chords may not be not right...but hey...I just had to record it. Love the song so much for some reason. Here's it, my impromptu recording and singing.


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Jo and Snail
*warning...cruel post*. After gardening yesterday...Jo drew me some diagrams and said "Mum, this is a snail. Now if you hit it and it breaks, you'll see a slug inside. If it's a mummy snail, you'll see yellow eggs inside stuck on its body. Now if you squish it somemore...you'll get yucky squishy things, the eggs will be destroyed. If you want it worse...you roll it around in mud." (That's how disgusting Jo can get....uurrrghhhh.....)

Poetry Writing Again

Mid last year we did some poetry writing. Inspired by some books we just received, we decided to revisit poetry writing. We  started with something more interesting and simple, Shape Poems. Since friends Ad and D are still around they joined us as well.

This was something I did on the spot just to inspire the kids a little....

This is Nel's shape poem. "Pink Butterfly flies high in the sky", "A Green frog eats a fly in the pond, hoppety, hoppety, hop." "The Orange sun is getting ready to set..set...set"

This is Audrey's attempt  at alliteration

Jo's shape poem~ The Sun is setting....people going to bed.zzzzzzz

This is Dylan's shape poem_ Gummy Beans shoot up to the sky and make a rainbow

We ended the day by looking at the globe playing "Name and Find a country."

Cats and Spiders

 While working on planting a  vegetable patch yesterday, these strays came around looking for food. They're very familiar with Nel who feeds them quite regularly.

This is quite the baby still and Nel's favourite.

 This is the dominant cat who tries to hoard the food.

As for  Charlotte our spider, she's still in her web. Amazingly she's not left us, perhaps she thinks this is the better place and she wants to be here forever. She still watches me paint and is very patient in allowing me to take shots of her. Her eggs have hatched!

This is a creative attempt at dressing Charlotte in purple.

These below are some of her babies...they're everywhere on the same plant. My girls think that's good coz they'll keep mozzies away, but I think they might also keep visitors away if they keep multiplying. haha...

Try as I did, I couldn't get a very good micro shot of her babies, here's my best attempt as seen below..

Yup..this is the baby magnified several times. For right now, they're just about 1mm long.

More on Simple Machine and Jo's Garden

 We've been studying Simple Machine through books and online sites (read post- Simple Machine) . Well today we decided we'd take it a step further by inventing a really simple one first. Since my girls have friends over for a few days we decided to do it together. The project was a really simple one, a balloon popper and we had great great fun over it! :)

 Well, it starts with a car going down and incline plane. The car hits a lever which is attached to a string. The string pulls up, causing another car on a different lever to move forward hitting some blocks arranged in Dominoes styles. The largest block hits another lever which releases the bowl attached to a pulley. There's a needle attached to the bowl, so when the bowl drops it pops the balloon.



Sounds easy??? Huh....well the kiddos had several plans before they tried this one, and no it wasn't really easy..because sometimes the car didn't hit the lever, sometimes the dominoes did to topple correctly etc etc etc. There were lots of screams, sighs, jumping while shouting "You LouSY Machine!!!" hahaha.... but we didn't give up. There was also lots of laughter! :)

Here's a video of the final outcome.


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Apart from that, my girls have been working on their garden again. Today with the help of Dy and A, they weeded the garden, loosened the soil, made fresh beds for the seeds and planted. Jo chose the seeds, and we ended up planting pumpkins, radish and pak choy (vegetable). Let's hope they'll get to reap the fruits of their labour very soon. :)

Simple Machines

We've been doing a bit on Simple Machines. Besides reading some books from the library about Simple Machines and Inventions, we looked at the following site:

1) Edheads: Simple Machine 

The girls enjoyed the game. The game provides the option of exploring several rooms, in which the player has to find simple machines, and  identify what sort of machine it is.

2) I also ordered this game, The-incredible-machine, which I played in my college days. I remember loving this game so much, and I thought it'd be really suitable for the girls as they learn about pulleys, wheels and so on.

3) Finally, while Christmas shopping I found the following at the mall, Physics Discovery, which provides parts for projects focusing on the topic of  Forces and Simple Machine. This  fitted wonderfully well with what we were doing. We were excited about it, and Nel and Jo got to work right away. So far they've (esp Nel) finished 2 of the projects already, such as the Land Yacht below and a recent one on pulleys.

 

And now On to design and create our own machine, probably by using stuff from around the house.

Fruit Harvest and Happy New Year

WE decided we'd spent the New Year in a very different way this year, in the remote village. On our journey there we stopped by several farms as it seems to be harvest time for most fruits now

We saw lotsa Pulasan on trees at Bentong Farm...

Plucked some Longkong or Dukong

Saw this very unique species of Brinjal (Eggplant)

Stood in awe at this really huge melon

Loofa??

Alex AuYong the Xtra Miler, came with us and enjoyed the endless feast of durians

We went and plucked our own mangosteens! This was like treasure hunt looking through the trees for ripe ones. Nel and Jo really enjoyed this (and so did I! ) :)

Here's our loot, not bad almost a whole pail

Passion Fruit
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Following the yummy fruit harvest trip, we headed to the village that we've become friends with. It was truly a wonderful time there, spent with friends, the villagers and  visiting doctors.

Here the kids were searching for grasshoppers and praying mantis. THey were very excited to show me their catch and even offered me some as pets. I didn't take any home coz I think they're better off in the wild.

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Some of what they caught. I've never seen a praying mantis fly till this trip! Beautiful large wings!

A large one!

Volunteer docs came with us and visited at least 5 or more villages. Amazing doctors they were to give of their time and help to the villagers. :) Grateful they came along to help. What a wonderful way to spend the 1st of January 2012 by helping the needy.

And as usual, very hungry children, slrrping even to the last drop from the pot.

Well....on New Year's Eve, we decided to drive out to the nearest town to celebrate. After a so-so dinner, we drove up to main town to welcome the New Year. That's when my beautiful kids fell asleep. So they missed all the fireworks and New Year greetings. I've to admit that while the rest of the team members who visited the village with us greeted each other "Happy New Year", I too...stayed in the car, drowsy and half awake, too tired to move. haha....

Then....we drove back to the village, walked back to base bamboo house to find that we had lost the keys. Spent some time trying to break in...(mind you no electricity...but thank God for flashlights), and finally managed to get in for some sleep before the 1st of January 2012. :)

Happy New Year Everyone....:)