One of the things I love best about homeschooling is getting to experience all the hands-on adventures alongside my children. I mean, why would we simply go to the library and get a book about the life cycle of a butterfly when we could see and experience the full cycle from tiny caterpillars to beautiful painted lady butterflies right before our eyes? We were all eager to have the opportunity to observe this beautiful transformation with the Butterfly Garden Kit from Insect Lore.

The Butterfly Garden from Insect Lore comes with everything needed including a net, feeding tray, water dropper, stickers, etc. When the box arrives, the caterpillars are contained in a small cup with a lid that has all the food that the caterpillars will need until they form their chrysalis on the lid. When we got our Butterfly Garden and Live Cup of Caterpillars, it was a hot summer day and I was nervous that the caterpillars wouldn’t make it. But after several hours, we began to see some of them move. They begin to grow fast, and before you know it, they are all crawling around each other, their waste, and their food. Just when you think they will run out of food and space, they attach themselves to the lid of the cup. Once they all are in the chrysalises, you transfer the lid to the butterfly habitat and wait for their transformation to be complete.

We had a total of 5 butterflies live to adulthood. Once they emerged as butterflies, we observed them for about a day and then the kids set them free. The whole process took just a couple of weeks, but was so much fun and very educational. There is something so miraculous and joyous about observing a fuzzy caterpillar emerge with beautiful wings.

Everything about our experience with the Butterfly Garden was easy and foolproof. The butterfly set retails for $24.95 and includes the cup of caterpillars. You can also reuse and purchase the cup of caterpillars separately if you want to do this more than once. I think it is such a neat experience and would highly recommend you add this to your homeschool at some point.

-Product review by Audrey Tolle, The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, September 2017