We raised butterflies (painted lady) and had 5 of 5 hatch. One had it's wing mangled when it got caught in it's own weblike stuff from before it formed the crysalis and it dried all funky, but it survived and was able to fly, sort of, when we let them go. It was great and a lot of fun, but very hard to photograph.

Our chick brooder box has been lent out to 2 different families who each received a mixture of eggs, so their chicks were various breeds, not all white leghorns like ours. I will seriously consider that option for next year! It would be a lot of fun to hatch chickens that are all different colors and maybe have funky feathers on their heads! We'd also return them to the farmer who provided the eggs, which would be a whole lot easier that making other arrangements.

Anyway, our school year is off to a good start with one in 3rd grade at home and another in kindergarten/1st grade at home. Along with using Alpha-Omega's Switched on Schoolhouse program (an old version we were given by someone else), we are also making science notebooks this year. So far we have completed pages for cheetah and lemur. Did you know that cheetah's are the fastest of the big cats and have the telltale characteristic of long teardrop markings at the outer edge of their eyes? That's one way they can be distinguished from other similar big cats. One daughter has decided she would like a lemur for a pet, but they prefer to live in Madagascar.