Today, I am going to shift a little bit and talk about a recent homeschool project we did.  We recently took the homeschool journey of raising butterflies at home! It was so much fun watching these live caterpillars go through the process of metamorphosis into butterflies!

We originally got them for my four-year-old’s birthday in March. I bought two cups of caterpillars so that he and his older sister could both have one.  What began as a birthday gift soon morphed into a full-blown homeschool adventure!

Un-boxing Our Caterpillars

We got them from a company called Insect Lore through Amazon. The kit came with twelve Painted Lady Butterfly caterpillars, six to each cup. Each cup came with ample food at the bottom that was a viscous blend of leaves.

The Butterfly Kit Came With the Following:

• One Mesh Butterfly habitat
• One Dropper
• One Flower Butterfly Feeder
• Two Chrysalis Stands
• One Instruction Pamphlet

Meeting Our Tiny Caterpillars

When we first opened the box and took a look at the caterpillars they were each about the size of a grain of rice. To be honest, I thought they were dead at first! The box said they might be sluggish after their long journey but would perk up quickly after sitting in a warm house. After about 15 minutes they were wriggling around in their little cups. It was nice to see my rambunctious four-year-old so gently handle his little cup of caterpillar friends.

Tracking Their Growth

These hungry little guys didn’t waste anytime and got straight to eating! We measured them every day and discovered they increased in size by a whopping 10% each day! My daughter recorded their growth and changes in her science journal.

About two weeks later the caterpillars were about 4cm long and began their ascent to the top of their cups. They hung themselves up and then proceeded to take quite a mysterious nap.

Forming Cocoons

While the caterpillars slumbered in their acrobatic, inverted state about half a centimeter of their tail fell off and their once-hairy bodies became smooth. Pale green cocoons formed with brilliant metallic, iridescent spots symmetrically running down their sides.

Transferring Cocoons to the Butterfly Habitat

I, carefully and slowly, opened the lids for the first time since their arrival once they were deeply sleeping and I knew their chrysalis shells were hardened (3 days after they formed). To my surprise my disruption of their slumber caused them to stir. Hanging from the lid their little cocoon bodies began to quake and shake like mad.

As I found out, later, from ichthyologist Dr. Google, PhD., cocooned caterpillars will shake and flop in their cocoons if they feel threatened.

And so, as carefully as I could, I placed them down into the bottom of the mesh butterfly habitat so they were erect on the stands that came with the kit.

One of the caterpillars had hung itself up with a much-too-long length of silk. When I placed it on its stand it rested on the floor of the habitat. I contacted Insect Lore and asked them what to do in this situation. They recommended I put a paper towel on the bottom of the enclosure and gently place the cocoon onto it. I don’t buy paper towels so they said it was ok if I used a small square of flannel (I used a clean flannel baby wipe, we don’t buy baby wipes either).

Emergence

Two weeks after forming their chrysalides these little critters began to emerge from their cocoons in the quiet hours of the morning. Finally around ten o’clock it hit me that we were in the hatch window, yet I had not gone to check on them on that lazy Sunday. When I arrived, to my delight three had already emerged!! What beautiful new clothes our caterpillars were wearing! By my daughter’s sharp observation we were actually able to catch one emerging on camera! You can see that in video below.

Learning About our Winged Friends

The kids and I , and even the neighbor kids, a mix of homeschool and public school friends, made a big display board with facts about the Painted Ladies. We found detailed information about how they live in the wild from The University of Michigan’s website BioKids.

We Threw a Butterfly-Releasing Party!

My six year old had the great idea to have a butterfly release party!
We invited our friends over and asked them to dress up as butterflies or in butterfly-ish attire (Only simple things already in their closets or home made BY THE KIDS).

Keep Your Butterfly Party Simple

I like to keep our parties simple, no elaborate decorations, I stick to things the kids can make themselves. For our party, my kids and the neighbor kids squeezed lemons and made lemonade. I made a cake and my neighbor came over and helped me decorate it. I bought some orange roses from the grocery store for six bucks to match the butterflies wings. And that was it, not a fancy-pantsy Pinterest worthy-party, just simple fun. Some other decorations did show up at the party but they were 100% kid thought of and kid made. Impromptu parties are the best especially when you keep the focus on visiting friends.

I opened the butterfly habitat, gave the kids instructions not to touch their wings, and watched them fly away when they were ready. We cheered when each one left and said goodbye.

We had our butterflies for six days before the party. It was great to get to share that experience with everyone. It is definitely something we will remember.

Mistakes We Made Raising Butterflies at Home

One of the butterflies got the tips of its wings stuck together, sadly, from some watermelon juice. I did my best to separate them with a toothpick but that unfortunately took the scales off the tips and that butterfly was unable to fly. Hindsight is 20/20 though, and when the same thing happened again with another butterfly, I took a syringe full of water and dripped a single drop where they were stuck. That little drop of water allowed the butterfly to open its wings without hurting its scales. We kept the butterfly who couldn’t fly and released it toward the end of its natural life cycle to let nature take its course.

Raising Butterflies was an Incredible Experience

Overall, we loved raising caterpillars and are eager to find other life-watching experiments. Let me know in the comments what some of your favorite homeschool projects have been.

If you liked this post scroll up and sign up for my newsletter for all the latest homeschool adventures. Leave a comment down below and let me know, what a favorite project is that you have done with the kids in your life?

Thanks for reading and happy homeschooling!