The Butterfly Nursery | The Butterfly Lifecycle
When spring arrives, it is time to watch the miracle of metamorphosis of the butterfly from caterpillar to a beautiful butterfly. Raise your very own caterpillars and watch them cocoon themselves and then erupt as butterflies with your very own Butterfly Nursery.
The Butterfly Nursery is such a delightful kit your children won't even realize they are learning. The kit enables your family watch the lifecycle of a butterfly. Literally, miracles happen before your eyes. The live butterfly kits come with caterpillars so you and your children can see the amazing transformation!
These live butterfly kits are amazing for our science project and simply for the children to learn all about the ever-changing caterpillar and the butterfly life cycle in general. One of the greatest things about these live butterfly kits is the fact that after the butterflies hatch out of their pupas, we get to observe them for a little while and then let them go!
When the kit arrives, there will be a card to send off to let them know when you want to receive your caterpillars. In the kit will be the Butterfly Nursery which you can set up or wait until later.
When our kit arrived, it was a very cold spring day here in Chicago. My daughter got the mail that day and I could see her shaking the box all the way to the door. I would advise against this! ☺ Thankfully, all the tiny caterpillars were asleep?? We had six little caterpillars in our container filled with food.
The caterpillars were so tiny! However, they literally doubled in size by the next day! Each day they continued to eat and grow right in the container they arrived in. All six caterpillars grew and grew and grew! You won't believe how fast they grow!
After a week plus a couple of days, one caterpillar started to form into a chrysalis. This happened on a day we attend school. my daughters were so sad as they thought they would miss the entire process. However, when we arrived home that afternoon, we were able to see the caterpillar finish his chrysalis making process. The next morning, there were a few more. That evening we had five chrysalises and the last one was up on the top of the container ready to get to work.
This is when tragedy struck our container. My daughter accidentally knocked it off the counter. All the chrysalises that were formed were barely hanging on the paper circle. One had popped open and the last caterpillar had burst. Oh the tears!
I carefully removed the paper circle and placed it in the butterfly house. I took the two chrysalis that had completely become dislodged and placed them on the bottom. We said a prayer and were hopeful! included in the butterfly house will be a chrysalis hanger. I taped our paper circle to this and watched everyday to see how the chrysalis fared.
About a week later, we came home from violin lessons and I saw a flutter. One butterfly had emerged while we were out! We could see another butterfly on the bottom of the butterfly house, but he was missing a wing as it had not dried properly and he was unable to move very well. The next morning we woke up and we had the same issue.
We have one healthy butterfly out of the six caterpillars. We did learn a very valuable lesson thought. DON'T shake the box! DON'T drop the cup! My girls are sad--but we were able to watch the Butterfly Life Cycle.
We have one beautiful Painted Lady Butterfly and are feeding her sugar water and plan to let her go tomorrow.
Letting our butterfly go is going to be a satisfying experience, but it is also a wonderful teaching lesson. My children are learning that animals do not need to be locked up and while it is okay to observe them for awhile, it is always best to let nature take its course.
We have our Butterfly House and I think we are going to order another cup in order to do this again!
This The Butterfly Nursery | The Butterfly Lifecyclepost has been sponsored by Lakeshore Learning. All opinions are mine alone.