Saturday, March 26, 2011

Caterpillars

We decided to do caterpillars this year. Our oldest is 4 and I was sort of hesitant about it because I was doubted that he would get much out of it. But, I figured I would get them anyway if only for the sake of exposure and something fun and different. He wasn't very impressed the first time he saw them because they just looked like little black pieces of string. Within only a few days they had more than doubled their size. So, when I showed them to him again he said, "wow." We read the book The Hungry Caterpillar and then I showed him the caterpillars again. He said, "those are going to turn into butterflies" in a very excited tone.

Within another few days they turned into chrysalids and we moved them from the cup to the butterfly garden to wait for them to hatch. This is day 5 after we moved them so we have a few more days to wait but should have butterflies within 2-5 days. Can't wait!





2 comments:

Faith Girl said...

That will be one exciting day when the butterflies hatch. I know from experience though, that they tend to make a mess right after they come out. You'll probably have to wash their habitat after you set them free. But they are really fun to feed, and if you put a little bit of their food on your finger and put the finger under a feeding butterflies tongue, then they will start drinking it, and often put a foot or two on your finger, and then you can gently pull away, and they'll resist at first, but you just keep gently pulling, and usually they will put the rest of their legs on your finger, and then you have a butterfly on your finger!! Its amazing how light God made them, because you can't even tell they are on there, except that you can feel their tongue hunting for more food. And BOY!! does that tickle!

Also, its hard to get them back off, so you have to put their tongue on something besides your finger, and wait until most of their legs are off, and pull away, but often you have to try this more than once.

Hope the tips help!

Kathryn<3

Tina said...

Thank you so much Kathryn! You are so sweet and I really appreciate all of your comments!