Growing caterpillars and watching them hatch has probably been the best activity I’ve done at home with the children. Being able to see all the stages of the butterflies life cycle was really fascinating, and not just for Molly, for me as well. Although I knew what stages they go through, actually seeing it happen in real time before your eyes is really amazing.
We looked at lots of books about butterflies and caterpillars. Here are some of our favourites:
The Crunching Munching Caterpillar by Sheridan Cain
Usborne Butterflies Sticker Book
Lifecycles: Caterpillar to butterfly by Camilla de la Bedoyere
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
It was brilliant to see the life cycle of a butterfly come alive right before our eyes. It’s a perfect activity for young children as it only takes a couple of weeks from start to finish so retains their interest. Five was the perfect age and had the added bonus that she was learning about butterflies and mini beasts at school.
Once the butterflies hatched the fun really began. It’s wonderful to get so close to butterflies. Usually they have flown off by the time you have pointed them out to young children.
The butterflies hatched really quickly and we didn’t get to see them come out of their chrysalis. The best thing was definitely releasing them. We named one of our butterflies sleepy and he seemed really happy to stick around for a little while as he got used to being outside.
If you want to see some other adventures with butterflies then look here:
Plain Vanilla Mom has some really stunning pictures of their butterflies and a link up with lots of others too.
Kitchen Counter Chronicles had a lovely time with their caterpillars and even saw the butterflies mating.
Nurturestore made some beautiful glitter butterflies after their experience with the butterflies.
Mum to two posh lil divas had some really brilliant photos of every stage of the lifecycle.
RedTedArt made a beautiful butterfly mobile after their butterflies hatched.