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Maggie
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Hi Moms~
Well...we live in the south...and it is almost time for butterflies. :)
Has anyone every bought a butterfly kit? Any success?
Do you think a 5yo would like this?
I found this kit, but I have no idea what I am doing, admittedly...
or should we just stick with construction paper at this age? ;)
Any good "living" books about butterflies for littles?
Thank you for your ideas!
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Christine
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We use this kit (ours might be a little larger) from Insect Lore, purchased locally many years ago for a school Kindergarten Science lesson. I reuse the habitat every other year or so and simply order new butterfly larvae. I usually order them around the beginning of Lent, so that the butterflies emerge right around Easter.
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Waverley
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We love to raise butterflies! We bought our butterfly kit from Insect Lore. The kit which includes the habitat, caterpillars and food was $19.99. The habitat is made of mesh and can hang or sit on a tabletop. The habitat can be used over and over again. You just reorder the caterpillars! The mesh habitat is also nice because when it is not in use it collapses to store easily.
Two of our favorite story books involving caterpillars are:
Farfallina and Marcel by Holly Keller
The Caterpillar and the Polliwog (I can't remember the author)
Good luck to you!
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Becky Parker
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I've been thinking of a butterfly kit for my ds. I'm wondering if there is only a certain time of year that you should use them though? I know you can buy them year round, but what happens if you get one in the fall? (I'm thinking about science topics for next year.) Will the butterfly emerge in the winter? And then what do you do? Is it possible to keep them alive indoors?
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Maggie
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So...if we are moving in 3 weeks, is it a bad idea to purchase butterflies now? Will moving them disturb the larvae? Hmmm...I'm thinking we should probably wait...but considering there has been so much grief and sorrow around here, I wanted to do something fun and easy.
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Heliodora
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I was just planning on ordering some painted lady butterfly eggs or larvae from www.carolina.com I would think that it would be best to order them in the spring if you want to release them, but I don't see why you couldn't do it in the winter- they don't live that long anyway. Depending on how successful you are, you could provide the right plants and a grow light to keep breeding them until spring and release the ones you have at that time- I haven't done that before so I don't know if that's desirable.
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melanie
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Oh, fun! We did this once when my oldest was 6 or so...I need to do it again. I also used the kit from Insect Lore. The one thing I would suggest, as far as doing it when you are moving, is that you will be more likely to see them hatch if you are home a lot. If you are having to leave the house frequently, this will make it harder to catch one hatching..ours hatched very quickly! I think we had five of them, and when we knew it was getting time for them to hatch, we tried really hard to catch at least one so we could watch, but we always missed it. Part of that might have been that we had to keep ours up high to keep the cats away from them,  . If your kids won't be bothered by missing the actual hatchings...maybe you can even find a hatching to watch on video or something to substitute for missing the real thing.
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Mackfam
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Maggie wrote:
| So...if we are moving in 3 weeks, is it a bad idea to purchase butterflies now? Will moving them disturb the larvae? Hmmm...I'm thinking we should probably wait...but considering there has been so much grief and sorrow around here, I wanted to do something fun and easy. |
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Call the company first, Maggie. They won't ship the larvae until a certain date in early spring. They might not even ship to you until after you move. It's doable to move them, but it might add to the stress. It could be fun to arrange to start them as soon as you move to give the kids something really enjoyable to watch and connect with as you unpack and settle in.
I order from Insect Lore as well and butterflies are our favorite spring study!!! All my kids love it, but my little people just adore it!! One year I ordered the butterfly pavilion and each subsequent year we just order the larvae.
Favorite books we read every year at butterfly time:
** From Caterpillar to Butterfly by Deborah Heiligman. This is a part of the fantastic Let's Read and Find Out Science series. Great general introduction to the idea book for littles!
** Where Butterflies Grow by Joanne Ryder. Beautiful illustrations in this book!!! Amazing!! They're all quite detailed and on many pages there is a small inset illustration with even more detail! Great picture book!
** Butterflies in the Garden by Carol Lerner. Carol Lerner is a naturalist and she writes and illustrates amazing books. Her illustrations are always fantastic and so realistic! This is a great book for planning a few butterfly friendly flowers in the garden, but also includes some great detailed information and illustrations of a variety of different butterflies - each page has a few butterflies on it and children are encouraged to use the front and end papers to help them identify the types of butterflies illustrated on each page of the book. Helps with ID.
** Creepy Crawly Caterpillars by Margery Facklam. This is a great book for explaining the life cycle of 13 different caterpillars, including the Monarch. (note - the painted lady, which is the butterfly most/all companies send out in larvae form for observing, is not included) Great illustrations and really neat information. The kids like to use this book to help them with sketches because of some of the details offered. Great for helping in identifying the parts of the caterpillar!!! We love the first chapter - From Crawling to Flying in Four Easy Steps.
** The Travels of Monarch X by Ross Hutchins. (The first link is so you can see the cover - but if you are purchasing this book rather than checking out from library, check for the best price). This was a leftover from a library sale and is a real treasure! It's an absolutely stunning and exciting portrayal of the Monarch butterfly's life and his travels! It's great for understanding what happens to butterflies after you release them.
** Enjoying Butterflies More by Jeffrey Glassberg. This book would be too much for your littles, Maggie, but in case others are reading with older kids...this is a fantastic little resource for older children. It includes great articles:
1) Finding Butterflies
2) Butterfly Biology
3) Parts of a Butterfly
4) Butterfly Predators
5) Butterfly Behavior
6) Attracting Butterflies to Yard and Garden
7) Planning Charts for Butterfly Gardeners
8) Butterfly Families
9) Identifying Common Butterflies
10) Focus on Butterflies
11) Butterfly Conservation and Butterfly Clubs
There is enough here with the picture books and the articles in this compact little magazine to turn into an entire unit of spring science study along with some great projects!
Butterflies in the spring are one of our favorite things!! I sure hope you get a chance to enjoy observing them with your kids, Maggie!!!
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stefoodie
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we are patiently awaiting our butterfly larvae... we got our kit from insect lore as well.
meanwhile, we've got books to read (some mentioned above) and yesterday i came cross
The Children's Butterfly Site
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Carole N.
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This is so much fun! I used to have butterflies pretty much every year. We also had a butterfly garden from Insect Lore. After the first year, I just ordered the larvae. Then I planted a bronze fennel in my herb garden. After the first year (in which I wondered if it would live or not), it grew to almost bush size. However, the monarch butterflies loved it. After they went into their larvae stage, we would carefully place them into our butterfly garden. We had butterflies galore. And they came back every year. It was so much fun to watch they cycle and to keep track of the butterflies in their migration.
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MaryM
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Love butterflies - the best years we've had were when we were getting Painted Lady larvae right from our hollyhocks in the summer. Haven't had any in years though unfortunately. 
One of the projects at the wonderful Journey North site is their Monarch Butterfly Migration Tracking Project. They are in the spring migration study right now. It's fun to follow along as the butterfly migration is tracked on the site. the migration starts in March and they are just reporting that the first butterflies have been sighted in Texas.
I've got some great migration books to post, but have to run. Will be back soon.
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MaryM
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This thread has some picture book recommendations: Butterfly book recommendations
A few more books not mentioend here or in that other thread:
Waiting for Wings - Lois Ehlert
Monarch Butterfly - Gail Gibbons
Monarchs - Kathryn Lasky
These are specifically books featuring or about butterfly migration, since I mentioned following that.
The Butterflies Come - Leo Politi
On a visit to the Monterrey Peninsula, a boy witnesses an amazing sight. High above the town of Pacific Grove, a swath of orange and black fluttered overhead. It was another wonder of nature - the monarch butterfly migration. It tells of the annual migration to a grove of eucalyptus trees which are known locally as "Butterfly Trees."
Hurry and Monarch - Antoine O Fltharta
Fictional story of a monarch and an old tortoise who share witheach other about their experiences of staying throught eh winter vs. migrating away. A monarch's cycle of life experience is shared with the tortoise. Very sweet story with lovely illustrations
Wings of Light: The Migration of the Yellow Butterflly
Tells the Cloudless Sulfer's migration story from the Yucatan Pennisula to the Southern & Eastern U.S. as they reach certain regions. The book has 3/4 page spread illustrations - very colorful.
And a couple very good choices about migration in general that have sections on butterflies:
Ride the Wind - Seymour Simon
Explores the travels of several winded creatures who migrate including butterflies.
The Journey: Stories of Migration - Cynthia Rylant
Gorgeous and vibrant illustrations on many migrations including that of the Monarch butterfly.
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dakotamidnight
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If you are doing butterflies would it be better to do them in K or in 1st?
I have a science loving DD who will start K this fall, and who loves butterflies. We're using CHC, which doesn't really have much for K science IMO.
I can't decide which year to do the butterflies - I have a rule only 1 big project per year for science {big meaning multi-week} so need to figure out which would be best.
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Mackfam
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I'm so sorry I'm only just now getting to your questions...
dakotamidnight wrote:
| If you are doing butterflies would it be better to do them in K or in 1st? |
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BOTH!!!
Seriously! We do butterflies almost every year and learn or observe something new each year!
dakotamidnight wrote:
| I can't decide which year to do the butterflies - I have a rule only 1 big project per year for science {big meaning multi-week} so need to figure out which would be best. |
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I get a little overwhelmed if I've got too much going on as well, but incorporating observing butterflies can be so low key. If it were my first year, I'd probably just observe them every morning, maybe check on them a few times during the day, but always just be informal - encourage wonder, ask questions - they don't all have to have answers. The important thing is to get her excited about the awesome changes God orchestrates in the humble caterpillar so that a lovely butterfly emerges.
Check out a bunch of butterfly books from the library and read. You could plant a butterfly bush. Those are lovely and attract a lot of butterflies for us!! Then release your butterflies and save your reusable materials for next year's butterfly time. This leaves a lot of time during the year for other projects. You don't have to do anything else concurrently, but observing butterflies can be super informal and low key at first...once she's much older you could incorporate some other record keeping with your observations.
Anyway...just wanted to encourage you to consider this at any age!! This is one of our favorite spring things to do!
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Carole N.
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Mary, I love Journey North! They have so many wonderful projects. And the monarch migration was a part of our lives as the butterflies came through Oklahoma and always left our bush covered with larvae!
Dakota, I hope that you do the butterflies this year. It is such a fun project and I think that once you hatch the butterflies, you will want to do it every year.
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dakotamidnight
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Carole N. wrote:
Dakota, I hope that you do the butterflies this year. It is such a fun project and I think that once you hatch the butterflies, you will want to do it every year. |
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I'm still debating it - DD will be 4 this fall, and starting a relaxed K level so I'm not sure if she si ready for it. On the other hand, she does LOVE science so we'll see. We may just do the zoo - they have butterflies during butterfly season so that would be an easier option for it.
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MaryM
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Another picture book to add:
Summer Birds: The Butterflies of Maria Merian (Margarita Engle)- Vibrant illustrations and well written text bring to life the story of Maria Merian (Germany 1600's) a young girl, whose study and observation of caterpillars/cocoons and butterflies helped to show the life cycle of this insect at a time when the scientific community believed that butterflies spontaneously generated. Fascinating story to add to a butterfly study.
More information about Maria Merian at wiki.
"In those gardens, Merian began studying insects, particularly the lifecycle of caterpillars and butterflies. The scholars of the time believed that insects came from "spontaneous generation of rotting mud", an Aristotelian idea held in spite of the teachings of the Catholic Church. Although St Thomas Aquinas concluded that spontaneous generation of insects was the work of the Devil, Pope Innocent V in the thirteenth century had declared that belief in spontaneous generation went against Church teachings, since all life was created in the first days of Creation chronicled in Genesis; however, the Greek tradition prevailed in the scientific community. Against the prevailing opinion, Merian studied what actually happened in the transformation of caterpillars into butterflies. She took note of the transformations, along with the details of the chrysalises and plants that they used to feed themselves, and illustrated all the stages of their development in her sketch book."
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AtHomeScience
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What a fabulous book, Mary! I just ordered it from the library--thanks for posting it.
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JennGM
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AtHomeScience wrote:
| What a fabulous book, Mary! I just ordered it from the library--thanks for posting it. |
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Yes, thank you. Waiting for my copy from the library. I'm trying to get in as many as I can before September 1st when they start charging for reserves. 
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AtHomeScience
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Oh, that would put a huge damper on my use of books. Our libraries somehow get rewarded if people borrow or even order books to their branches. They really like homeschoolers for their numbers, lol!
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Kris, Mom to 3 rambunctious boys
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: Butterflies for Littles/butterfly kit?
