Butterfly redux

Auntie Gisela, Mommy and Rye went back to the living butterfly exhibit and it was even better than the first time we went. Rye seemed a little more comfortable with a familiar place, and there were tons more butterflies!

We started a Waldorf art class this week, and guess what the theme was? Butterflies!

After some drawing and rubbings of butterfly shapes, Rye painted a wet-on-wet watercolor featuring the blue sky and tissue paper butterflies. He loved painting and liked choosing the colors of his butterflies.

Then Miss Molly asked the students whether they'd like to go out to the garden to look for some butterflies! Rye was very excited about this. It was so fun to do on Sunday!

And here is where the educational paths of the Waldorf magical storytelling and Montessori realism diverge. Rye went looking around for those delicate butterflies fluttering by, like the gentle ones he saw on Sunday. The other kids joyfully grabbed the colorful craft butterflies perched stock still on wire jammed into the garden's dirt.

FAKES!

His utter confusion seemed to reveal a sense of betrayal. And by the time he figured it out, most of the butterflies had been snatched up, and Miss Molly was collecting them and singing the transition song to lead everyone back inside to the glue pots and treasure baskets, to create his own (fake) butterfly.

Rye mostly preferred to play with the little pieces, but he did get some glued down. And he very much liked the snack of apples and oranges to recharge him after all of his hard art work. He also was completely riveted when Miss Molly told a story about gnome friends and Old Mr. Frost, and Duck and the Kitty family, and he got to listen to the huge seashell that Duck found in the ocean.

He didn't want to leave when the class was over!