Mad Science Monday: We're Growing Butterflies!

We found this great life cycle of a butterfly wheel at
the Dollar Tree last fall and are tracking the days of the process of
observing our own caterpillars grow into butterflies...

 BIG news here just in time for Mad Science Monday! We'd like to welcome to our family five new friends: "Yisroel," "Menachem," "Pete the Cat[erpillar]," "Flamingo," and "Very Hungry," our brand new baby caterpillars. We are trying our hands at growing our own butterflies! My slightly older junior scientist assisted in naming the first four caterpillars. I initially did not see the fifth caterpillar, who was hiding under the lid of the larva jar in our kit when it arrived this morning, so I took the liberty of naming him myself once I finally discovered his whereabouts!

We bought our kit from Amazon.com, however many garden
shops likely carry caterpillars if you prefer to buy locally.

I initially thought about purchasing a butterfly kit last summer when my then younger toddler become obsessed with the butterfly exhibit at our local botanical gardens. He was casually known as "The Butterfly Boy" by the lovely volunteers in the exhibit, which features beautiful live butterflies and moths fluttering around a beautiful greenhouse room and several small exhibits of caterpillars in various stages of metamorphosis. We visited almost every week and he always wanted to see the butterflies. I resisted buying the kit even though it was on his birthday wish list as I worried he might be sad when it was time to release the fully grown butterflies.
Fast forward to this year and, in spite of loving butterflies in theory and out in nature, my now older toddler was terrified in the exhibit he loved so much last summer. We took a family trip on a nice warm weekday over the Pesach break and everyone was eager to see the butterflies...until we actually went through the exhibit. There were some school children on a field trip, so we waited longer than usual and then the room was rather more crowded than we were used to. The part that really sealed the deal for my previous butterfly fan was when two lovely moths landed on my skirt (unbeknownst to me at the time) and my little guy became very afraid they might land on him. It did not matter how much I told him they were not hurting me and that they are very gentle. He is very much in the age and stage of being fearful of animals coming toward him, making unexpected noises or, worst of all, touching him. This makes our trips to the zoo and botanical gardens and farms and even around the neighborhood a little more anxiety-ridden than they once were. It is a normal childhood anxiety and one we both validate and simultaneously try to work through. I took both the boys back to the gardens a few weeks later and Big Brother was adamant that he did not want to see the butterflies that day. In an amazing display of awesome parenting, I bribed him with a butterfly kit to try one more time...
Perhaps I should have listened to that and accepted it right away. A part of me, however, really wanted for him to have the confidence-building experience of working through his anxiety. I suggested we try it again to see if he still felt as nervous and explained to him that many times when we are nervous about something, practicing it again and again can help us to feel less worried. We got into the building, we got into the entry room and that is, I am afraid, as far as we got! He cried and cried and while the volunteers offered a stool to watch from the outside and I tried to gently encourage him to try walking through just one more time, I had to pick him up (while wearing Little Brother) and haul him out of there like a football! Part of me was frustrated because he had so loved this exhibit last year and I could not help but feel sad for the "step back" this resembled to me. And then I took a step back. Childhood anxieties are normal--even when they do not occur in a chronological time frame. Time, in fact, means very little to toddlers! Ever seen one get dressed and ready to go at a turtle's pace when you're in a morning rush? To push my little guy beyond his comfort zone in a way that is too harsh and too fast would not only damage his relationship to those butterflies more significantly, it would potentially also damage his relationship with me and his own self confidence.

a themed snack after our
last visit to the gardens

I also recalled many of my own childhood anxieties. I was terrified of thunder storms. No amount of cute explaining helped at all. G-d bowling? Nope. Offers of ice cream? No, thanks! Benadryl so everyone could get some sleep? Well--you get the picture. And the one thing that made me feel OK about thunder storms (and now even love them) was understanding the science behind them through a well written book by one of my favorite figures of all time, Mr. Rogers. On the car ride home, we talked about our favorite parts of the trip. I didn't even mention the butterfly incident. "I no see butterflies today," my toddler announced a bit nervously. "You didn't feel up to seeing them today. That's OK. We can try again another time if you'd like, when you feel ready." We talked about things that make us feel nervous and I told him about how I used to be afraid of thunder and how understanding it made me feel less nervous. I asked him if he thought understanding butterflies might make him feel less nervous? He felt sure it would! We decided to learn about them at home and to borrow books from the library. We also decided to buy a butterfly kit and grow our own butterflies at home, where we could look at them through a container like our pet fish and they would not fly all around the room.

Our playroom is set up to learn and play about butterflies, flowers and gardening!

Our caterpillars arrived with our butterfly kit today right as we sat down for lunch. He seems quite comfortable with the caterpillars so far (comfortable enough to hold the container while he's eating his yogurt!) and we were both excited to read through some of the literature in the kit as well as a book on Painted Lady Butterflies (the type we are growing) that we had borrowed from our local library!

We set out to naming our new little friends and started journaling about the process...

We will be learning about the life-cycle of a butterfly both in real time and through some learning materials, like these sentence strips I made (with pictures), which can be used side by side (as shown) or on a metal ring.

Join us later this week when we make this fun Life Cycle of a Very Hungry Caterpillar craft!

The truth is that my son may not overcome his fear of animals right now. He may not go back into that exhibit this year. And that is OK. We will work with him in comfortable increments to understand the things that scare him. And for now, playing and learning about (and growing) butterflies at home is a safe and fun way to do that.

 We will keep you posted on our journey here from caterpillar to butterfly...until then, happy playing!