Butterflies

I have wanted to order a butterfly "kit" for my own kids since before I even had kids! At a long term subbing job pre-kids I got to enjoy releasing the butterflies with a 4th grade class, so I have always known about this type of project. This year seemed like a good fit. Makin had a batch in his preschool class as well, but I knew he would like to see them more often than 2 days a week to see the growth. We couldn't believe how tiny the caterpillars were when we opened the box and how quickly they grew. The kids were over-the-moon that we finally had a pet, even if it is temporary. (Yes, a perfect pet, you don't have to walk it or pick up its poop!!!) I quickly found some printable journals on pinterest for the kids to fill out during our project.

I cannot explain how excited they were and wish I had gotten a video.
Makin's jump on the top right shows a gimpse of it.
We put a jelly bean next to the jar to show how tiny they were. (about 1 cm)

Just a few days later...

And a few more days...

They grew to 4 cm long and then started to transform into chrysalises. Yes, I was surprised that they really transformed, not put some kind of silk around themselves! There is a reason it is called metamorphosis. I think The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a great book but it made me forget that real fact! The kids were so enamored they asked to eat breakfast watching them in action.

And then we waited for the chrysalises to fully harden...

prepared the enclosure and waited some more...

Two of the little stinkers decided to emerge while Lorelei was at school! :) Thankfully she wasn't bummed, just super-excited to see them when she got home. There were still two left for her to watch and wait while she did her home school work on Friday, Makin and I were lucky enough to get to watch one through the entire process before he went to preschool. It was so neat. :) Lorelei did see one right after it emerged on Friday and saw how it's wings were still folded and needed to spread out etc. Another highlight was watching them use their proboscis to drink. Just nothing like being able to observe all of this close-up!

Excited Face Getting To See It Emerge From Chrysalis

Intently Watching During Breakfast

Attempting to do math and not miss a chance to see the last two emerge.

Up Close While It Takes A Drink

We ended up deciding to release them a day earlier than planned because of a lot of rain the forecast. We really wanted to hold out for sunny skies because that is what they like best, but there were a lot of days of rain coming up and only bits of clear skies on Saturday so we thought it best to release them a bit early. The kids took it well and loved seeing them fly away. One butterfly had no desire to fly and we aren't sure why, only that perhaps it wasn't sunny enough, so we hope it decided to leave its orange slice eventually. We put it up in a tree that comes to our backyard with it's orange. It gave us all a chance to see it so close without the net in the way since it didn't want to fly though!

Caught a bit of their reactions, but a few of the butterflies even snuck out while the kids were watching their friends fly away. On the top picture (below) you can see they are looking up, but there is one just flying out right above the enclosure.

We loved getting to learn so much about the butterfly life cycle and it was such a fun experience!