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in Nature Study· Science· Science & Technology· Unit study resources

Your Backyard DVD: The Life and Journey of the Amazing Monarch Butterfly

Springtime is a great time to get out and talk a walk. There are so many animals coming out from the winter, babies being born, and buds coming out on flowers and trees. One of the many things you can look for is the Monarch Butterfly.

The Life and Journey of the Amazing Monarch Butterfly DVD offers close-up images of the remarkable 30-day transformation from egg to butterfly from watching a tiny Monarch caterpillar eat its way out of its egg to the completion of metamorphosis.

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Your Backyard: Life and Journey of the Amazing Monarch Butterfly

The Crowe family did yet another spectacular job in giving glory to our Creator with their newest DVD, Your Backyard: Life and Journey of the Amazing Monarch Butterfly. The Crowe children star in and lead us on a learning adventure. Our hosts:

  • Taylor, First Born Son, Backyard Scientist
  • Samuel, Second Born Son, Monarch Netter
  • Grace, Third Born Child, Monarch Spotter

Our impressions of the Monarch DVD include:

Pointing to the Creator: I was struck with the incredible detail of the monarch butterfly, the exquisite design. The beauty of the Creator’s plan. Just one example of His plan is the beautiful image, above, of the milkweed plant. Crowe’s Nest explains that the journey of the monarch coincides with spring and the emergence of milkweed.

“Are you ever simply amazed at God’s goodness? Down to the very last detail. Everything. So beautiful. So purposeful and so orderly.” ~Samuel Crowe

Seeking to learn from experts: What better way to learn than from those who have devoted their life’s work to learning all they can about the monarch butterfly?  Taylor, Samuel and Grace visit with Destiny Phillips who teaches the Crowe children how to find monarch eggs in a field of milkweed and other nectar sources. Ms. Phillips also:

  • takes the Crowe children on a field trip to the nature center where she raises hundreds of butterflies.
  • shows viewers how to tag monarchs and participate in monarch watch via University of Kansas.
  • points out the differences in male and female monarchs.

The Crowe children also include the viewers on a visit with Mr. Poirier – a Creation Scientist, author and musician. From the Crowe’s Nest Media site: “87-year-young Mr. Poirier is such a delight!  With a career that includes designing the radal pulse altimeter used in the Apollo 11 moon missions, Mr. Poirier’s fascination of the monarch’s incredible navigational ability led him to do extensive research, writing several books about the amazing monarch!”

Teaching with beautiful video: the quality of the filming is impressive. We stopped the time lapse of the life cycle several times because we were simply amazed at what we saw! “Would you like to see a magnified view of the butterfly emerging?” ~Samuel Crowe

Music that praises the Father: This is My Father’s World, other hymns and classical music play gently in the background.

Fun Facts: Animated Professor Solomon, the Owl, pops in for a visit throughout the DVD, sharing the wisdom of God’s design plus simply amazing facts about the monarch butterfly. He often uses his ‘Owlvision’ TV screen to teach.

Humor! We enjoyed the clever choice of sound effects throughout. Samuel’s description of his ‘famed’ monarch netting is fun – complete with slow motion.

A homeschool unit study! You can build an entire unit study around the Life and Journey of the Amazing Monarch Butterfly DVD – right in your own backyard! Watch the DVD several times to learn not only the life cycle of the butterfly but migration, all about the milkweed plant, raising butterflies, netting and more.

“God designed the monarch to have four distinct stages of life.” ~ Taylor Crowe

Inspiration: You might even be inspired to raise monarchs. You can learn how in the bonus features of the DVD. You may even wish to create an environment in your own backyard to welcome butterflies. A backyard butterfly haven!

See what all we learned and enjoyed? Just a sampling of what is included:

  • Time elapse of caterpillar hatching from egg
  • Experts showing how to find monarch eggs and caterpillars – which plants to search and how to look on the underneath of leaves
  • How to net and gently hold butterflies. Plus a fun instant replay of Samuel netting a monarch!
  • Differences and comparison between butterflies who mimic monarch butterflies
  • The complete life cycle of a butterfly
  • Tips for tagging with 1, 2, 3 steps

After watching the DVD, my children and I were excited. They asked if we could do a study of the life cycle of the butterfly again. My daughter found paper and pencil and sketched a butterfly right then!

Here are just a few reactions from my children while we enjoyed Your Backyard: DVD

  • “Oh my! That’s awesome!” ~ 14-year-old
  • “The butterfly’s heart reforms, Mama!” ~ nine-year-old
  • “Mama! It turned into a butterfly!” ~ four-year-old
  • We decided we’d like Crowe’s Nest Media shirts like the Crowe children wear in the DVD!

We then enjoyed the nearly 45 minutes of bonus features, including:

  • How to raise monarchs
  • Ordering tags
  • Mr. Jules Poirier’s testimony
  • Behind the scenes
  • About the bottom shelf
  • Professor Solomon’s quiz
  • Your Backyard Trailer
  • This is My Father’s World
  • Bloopers

In summary, I am grateful to Crowe’s Nest Media for finding, researching and pointing out how much there is to learn about the monarch butterfly. This God-honoring production left us excited to learn more, smiling at a family enjoying working together and teaching, and thankful to a God who designs the heavens and the earth.

Crowe’s Nest Media is a family venture. The Crowe family created, edited, animated, starred in and produced this DVD. They are offering more exciting details for you!

Also from Crowe’s Nest Media – Your Backyard Birding

More on Butterflies

Spring, summer, and fall are perfect months to study butterflies. Include a butterfly nature study with NaturExplorers Butterflies Flutter By. A review from The Curriculum Choice
Homeschool Springtime Science: a collection of butterfly resources that are sure to delight and educate both you and your children! Books, printables, a butterfly kit, videos and more!

– January 2012

Tricia (190 Posts)

Homeschooling since 2000, Tricia faces a daily dose of chaos with five children. She has seen the fruits of home education with three grads so far! With their You ARE an artist art curriculum she, "Nana" and her family are passionate about growing a love of art. She also shares helpful homeschool habits at Hodgepodge and is author of the book, Help! I’m Homeschooling! She and her husband, Steve, are owners of The Curriculum Choice.

Author Info

Filed Under: Nature Study, Science, Science & Technology, Unit study resources Tagged With: Crowes Nest Media, DVD, monarch, updated by Heidi C, written by Tricia

Previous Post: « Beautiful Charlotte Mason Picture Book Biography Perfect for Your Homeschool
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jenna says

    January 26, 2012 at 7:27 am

    I would love to win this. We r doing a 2 week study on caterpillars and butterflies in the spring.

    Reply
  2. Kendra says

    January 26, 2012 at 8:25 am

    Looks fantastic. I know the kids will love it. We kept a few gulf fritillary caterpillars in the fall and we would all love some more in depth information about the process.

    Reply
  3. Heather Brandt says

    January 26, 2012 at 8:31 am

    I hope to learn more about the monarch butterfly’s life cycle & life span.

    Reply
  4. Victoria says

    January 26, 2012 at 11:03 am

    Sounds fun. We studied monarchs a couple of years ago and would like the chance to learn more.

    Reply
  5. Wendi S says

    January 26, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    This dvd looks wonderful. I’d love the chance to learn more about the migration of monarchs.

    Reply
  6. Danielle says

    January 26, 2012 at 12:47 pm

    We are planning on studying butterflies in the spring! I would love to know more about their migration.

    Reply
  7. Karen says

    January 26, 2012 at 1:05 pm

    This sounds wonderful! Would love to have this to teach (and learn) about the Monarch’s lifecycle. ~Karen

    Reply
  8. Susan M. says

    January 26, 2012 at 1:42 pm

    This looks GREAT! Loved the little video sample. Would so much love to win this!

    Reply
  9. Tracy says

    January 26, 2012 at 2:24 pm

    I’d love to learn more about their lifecycle. Thanks for the giveaway

    Reply
  10. Krista says

    January 26, 2012 at 4:15 pm

    I would love to win this for our family! I would like to learn how to raise Monarchs.

    Reply
  11. Julie says

    January 26, 2012 at 5:10 pm

    This sounds great. Would love to win.

    Reply
  12. Apryl Powell says

    January 27, 2012 at 12:17 am

    Would love to win this resource to share with my four wee scientists! We raised butterflies once, but missed some of the process because it happened while we were away from their net.

    Reply
  13. Ashley W says

    January 27, 2012 at 11:03 am

    We would love to learn how caterpillars turn into butterflies. My dd is 5 and it would be a very neat study for us to do!

    Reply
  14. September says

    January 27, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    We love learning about how these marvelous creatures point to their Creator.

    Reply
  15. dana t says

    January 28, 2012 at 12:19 am

    would love to win! with 12 people in one RV, we love to have new movies to pull out on a rainy (or scorching!) day 🙂

    Reply
  16. Regina says

    January 28, 2012 at 10:31 am

    I want to see the complete life cycle before my eyes.
    tarter95 at hotmail dot com

    Reply
  17. Jamie says

    January 28, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    We are finishing up Apologia’s Flying Creatures in the next few weeks. We would love to learn EVERYTHING about monarch butterflies and I’m wanting to continue learning about “flying creatures.”

    Reply

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