For years I have been wanting to get my animal loving science geek girl a Butterfly Garden (by Insect Lore). The opportunity presented itself to buy it for her at the local Homeschool Convention (read more about my experiences at Homeschool Con here) this spring. She opened it on her birthday, and we ordered caterpillars that night.
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| Sorry, forgot to take a picture of our box. |
The kit included:
The Butterfly Garden enclosure
Instructions
A certificate for a Cup O Caterpillars
I love that the enclosure folds flat for storage. Not that Baby Girl has let it sit idle long enough to put it away. It is also a very pretty color and would go well in our homeschool area. The instructions were clear and helpful. They even included a whole section of suggested activities that you could do as you study your caterpillars, which we might explore next year. Rosie, our puppy, did get a hold of the instructions, but they can be found online in PDF just in case. Whew. The certificate is a single use postcard marked with a special code. The ordering process was quick and easy. You do have to pay a $5 shipping and handling charge, but the first Cup-O-Caterpillars is indeed included in the price.
We ordered the caterpillars on a Saturday and they arrived the following Friday. Please note that if you do this project you need to be available to get the caterpillars as soon as they get dropped off. Unfortunately our shipping notification didn't update proper;y and our caterpillars sat in the mailbox overnight. Thankfully it was a temperate evening and none of the caterpillars have problems, but it could easily have been one on a warmer or cooler day.
The next step was easy. You set the cup in a quiet area and watch them grow. When they arrive they are tiny. And they grow so fast! But there is no feeding, watering or other care required. Food is included in their cup and they happily munch away. Once they are big enough they hang from the top of the cup and turn into chrysalises.
You then carefully move the paper from the lid to the enclosure and safety pin it to the side. And then you wait some more. There is a lot of waiting in this project, which is nice for a busy mom, but occasionally frustrating for kids. Thankfully Baby Girl knew that important things were happening and wasn't discouraged by the lack of visible progress.
Next thing we knew there was a butterfly in her enclosure! Then another, and another until all 5 were fluttering around the enclosure. We fed them (sugar water on a paper towel) and watched them for 6 days. And then it was release day. They were so fun to watch. You could really see them eat, and they fluttered around the enclosure quite a bit. It was a very good experience for all of us. Baby Girl was a little sad to see them go, but she knew they needed to be "free and in the wild" (Thank you Wild Kratts!)
Overall this was a really fun project. We were wrapping up the school year, so we didn't do very much with it this year. I fully intend to do a unit study next year and really get into the science behind metamorphosis. It will definitely appeal to a wide range. Bubba was even excited to watch them fly away, and I thought watching them was lots of fun.
I recommend you order this as a school project or just to satisfy your little scientist. Getting to study animals up close like this can be hard to do, so this is a great way to bring nature home.
Stay messy friends!
We ordered the caterpillars on a Saturday and they arrived the following Friday. Please note that if you do this project you need to be available to get the caterpillars as soon as they get dropped off. Unfortunately our shipping notification didn't update proper;y and our caterpillars sat in the mailbox overnight. Thankfully it was a temperate evening and none of the caterpillars have problems, but it could easily have been one on a warmer or cooler day.
The next step was easy. You set the cup in a quiet area and watch them grow. When they arrive they are tiny. And they grow so fast! But there is no feeding, watering or other care required. Food is included in their cup and they happily munch away. Once they are big enough they hang from the top of the cup and turn into chrysalises.
Next thing we knew there was a butterfly in her enclosure! Then another, and another until all 5 were fluttering around the enclosure. We fed them (sugar water on a paper towel) and watched them for 6 days. And then it was release day. They were so fun to watch. You could really see them eat, and they fluttered around the enclosure quite a bit. It was a very good experience for all of us. Baby Girl was a little sad to see them go, but she knew they needed to be "free and in the wild" (Thank you Wild Kratts!)
Overall this was a really fun project. We were wrapping up the school year, so we didn't do very much with it this year. I fully intend to do a unit study next year and really get into the science behind metamorphosis. It will definitely appeal to a wide range. Bubba was even excited to watch them fly away, and I thought watching them was lots of fun.
I recommend you order this as a school project or just to satisfy your little scientist. Getting to study animals up close like this can be hard to do, so this is a great way to bring nature home.
Stay messy friends!
Insect Lore Butterfly Garden
- Exciting and fun to do
- Appeals to a wide age range
- Let's your budding naturalist get up close with nature
- Very low maintenance
- No small parts
- Easy clean up
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