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Butterfly School Tips and Ideas

What Is Butterfly School?
Butterfly School is an opportunity for you to spend quality time with young children -- your children, grandchildren or children in your life. It is a fun and creative way to foster a love of learning while teaching them important lessons about health and hygiene. There is a weekly letter that describes the theme for the week, and daily activity sheets outline a loose curriculum. Spend 15 minutes a day playing Butterfly School and help your child's knowledge grow.

Best Time of Day for Butterfly School
Butterfly School Sessions work best when you and your child are feeling calm and open to sharing new ideas. You are the expert in knowing the time of day when you and your child are most open to sharing new ideas. I prefer to hold Butterfly School sessions in the morning, but on crazy days when we need to be up and out of the house unusually early or when things all seem to be chaotic, we hold Butterfly School after lunch, after nap or even on the go!

Best Locations for Butterfly School
I began Butterfly School at my kitchen table and that is still my favorite location. It is easy for me to make the transition from breakfast to Butterfly School. My creativity basket is handy, clean up is easy and there are lots of great things in a kitchen to share in our Butterfly School sessions (like apples and other healthy foods, interesting shapes and colors). Our kitchen table is also great for my children. They have seats where they are comfortable, and they can see me, the papers we are sharing and each other. Since we do a lot of drawing and coloring, I ask them to work on a "Butterfly School work mat" in case their artwork spills over and off of the Activity Sheets!

You can hold Butterfly School sessions any place that you are comfortable and where your child will feel comfortable.

Butterfly School works well on the go!

Weather Check
Look outside together. Ask what your child sees. Show your child what you see. Ask your child specific questions: "How does the sky look? How does the ground look? How does the air look? How do the trees look? How does your skin feel?"

Share your favorite weather words with your child. Try: sunny, cloudy, bright, dark, windy, foggy, wet, dry and sticky.

Activity Sheets
Have fun with the ideas. Enjoy the time to share ideas with your child. Stay relaxed and flexible. The idea is to have something to share with your child, not to expect your child to master the subjects presented. In the spirit of sharing, it is wonderful to write down your child's thoughts or answers to the questions. At the end of each month, you can read through the sheets with your child and learn what pictures or ideas were his or her favorite.

Posting and Collecting Finished Activity Sheets:
It is great to post your child's work for a short period of time. You can use a magnet on your refrigerator or tape on the wall.

After a couple of days, find a nice place to store finished sheets.

Saving and Storing Completed Activity Sheets
Our favorite is a three-ring binder with see-through plastic sleeves. We don't even need to punch holes that way. At the end of a month you have a nice dated collection of your child's pictures and ideas.

A bin, drawer or box also work well. Since it can be overwhelming to save all of your child's art work, consider mailing some to special relatives or friends. Let your children learn to throw away some of their less favorite works too!

Creativity Baskets
Start your creativity basket simply. Use a shoebox, safe basket or bin. Start with tape, a pair of scissors (for you) and crayons. Try to keep these supplies dedicated for Butterfly School use so you will not need to search for these every day.