Homeschooling Korri

5/25/06 - There is a trout hatchery on the campus of Milton Hershey School. The boys in the student home signed up to release the trout at a nearby stream (Manada Creek). These photos are of Korri and some students releasing the fish. She really enjoyed herself (0nce she learned how to walk in the boots!).



3/3/06 - I started homeschooling Korri the beginning of the 2005-2006 school year after the birth of our second son AJ in March. She is four years-old and going through the K4 ABEKA curriculum.

Our fall was spent watching the leaves change and antcipating the holidays. She is learning time through months, weeks and days. Here Korri is dressed as an indian girl before going to a Thanksgiving Feast that she participated in with our MHS Homeschool Co-op. The children shucked corn and made popcorn over an outdoor fire, Korri also made a bow & arrow, baked her own loaf of bread and creamed butter. After the food was served, the children sampled many dishes that were thought to have been prepared during the first Thanksgiving. Korri learned that the first Thanksgiving Feast happened by "accident" about 400 years ago. There were approx. 90 Wampanoag Indians and 50 settlers at the first harvest feast in 1621. Here is a website that dispels many of the myths surrounding the First Thanksgiving: http://www.plimoth.org/OLC/index_js2.html

Presently, she is beginning to read (yeah!) and just finished studying and observing Painted Lady Butterflies. We sent away for the baby caterpillars from a certificate she received for Christmas at www.insectlore.com and they came in the mail marked-CAUTION: LIVE CATERPILLARS!

• We watched four caterpillars eat and grow for about 7 days. During the weekend of Feb. 20-22, they formed their chrysalides while we were away with the student home on a Racial Reconciliation Retreat in Ocean City, MD. We came back and found the caterpillars at the top of the lid of the container and they were in their silky wrapping. There was one caterpillar that did not form correctly, so we began to suspect that it may not transform into a butterfly.
• After about 7 days we saw the first butterfly transform. Korri named it "Korri" (how very original). The next day the second butterfly emerged, Korri named it "Mommy". The last butterfly to emerge took place a day later. I tried to catch this final emergence on videotape but I ran out of footage. It was named (you guessed it) "Daddy". What about the 4th one, you ask? It did not emerge because the chrysalid was not formed all the way. Still, Korri named that one "AJ" but told everyone that "he didn't make it."
• It has been amazing to watch these butterflies eat with their probiscus as they suck the juice out of an orange slice. They are quite amazing. As I watch them I cannot believe that they were once fuzzy caterpillars. Our God amazes me!
• It's been wonderful teaching Korri the life cycle of the butterfly and the word butterfly in Spanish--la mariposa. She cared for those insects like they were her own children. She also shed tears when we flushed them down the toilet; after she held the last live one, of course. Her tiny fingers held the body while she watched the wings fluttering rapidly. It's refreshing to see how much children enjoy God's Creation!