Growing Butterflies & Ladybirds

Last year the girls and I ‘grew’ our own butterflies. It was an amazing experience for us all – I mean, them, mostly, of course, but I loved every minute of it.

The butterflies arrive in the post in a small tub with self contained ‘food’. Over a period of about 2 – 4 weeks, you watch the butterflies go from tiny caterpillars to huge ones, to chrysalis, and eventually, to butterfly. Feed them for a few days, look after them while their wings strengthen, and before you know it, you have five fully-fledged butterflies ready to send out into the world to help cross pollinate the plants in your area, bringing new life into your environment. I find it quite an emotional thing, letting those butterflies go!

You can buy the butterfly kit at any time, but the company will only send the butterflies out from March onwards, to make sure that they’re looked after, and do as much as they can to make sure the little insects have a good start to life.

If you’re worried that you wouldn’t know how to raise a butterfly, it’s honestly easier than fish! You largely just sit and watch them for four weeks, but it is an incredible learning journey for children too.

There are fantastic resources to help you on your journey too, like the Butterfly Life Cycle from Twinkl or one of the ample free resources online too. And don’t forget Youtube – there’s everything from songs to kids shows about the butterfly life cycle. 

Growing butterflies is so rewarding – I can’t wait for our new kit to arrive.

• BUY THE BUTTERFLY KIT FROM AMAZON UK HERE
• BUY THE LADYBIRD KIT FROM AMAZON UK HERE
• BUY THE BUTTERFLY KIT FROM AMAZON US HERE
• BUY THE LADYBIRD KIT FROM AMAZON US HERE

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