Friday, May 30, 2008

The Hungry Little Caterpillers

One of Harrison's favorite books is The Hungry Little Caterpillar. We have read it over and over AND OVER again. Harrison has acted out turning from a caterpillar to a butterfly since he was about 18 months old with his beloved Big Blue Blanket.

Then Ken saw an advertisment on TV for growing Painted Lady butterfies and we talked about ordering one online in the near future.

It was a no-brainer to get a butterfly house when we went the the Bug Fair last week.

Actually the Bug Fair took place over the weekend at the Natural History Museum, but I heard about it in the final few hours. Shortly after washing the car with Harrison, I crammed him in his car seat, opted out of nap, and drove across town to the Bug Fair.

Let me just say that he was a willing participant...

we arrived in time to still see quite a bit of bugs, most importantly, big furry spiders. Harrison even experienced a millipede walk up his arm. In fact, it was the length of his little arm! He loved it. I wasn't so loving the idea of it walking up MY arm, but I kept a Poker face. I just held his arm still, kept my fingers tucked under and smiled.

We also made a terrarium to keep beetles that we catch. We were going to get a beetle at the fair but we ran out of time.

Fine with me really. We have enough beetles and other big ugly bugs to put in it in the future. That will be a "daddy adventure". In the mean time he checks it daily for any signs of life.

Speaking of signs of life, he also got to "pin a bug". He picked out a beetle from a pile of dead - beetles, then he stuck a pin in it "for study". Yesterday, he said, "I need to see my pin bug mommy." He looked at it and announced, "Still Dead."


Before we left all the bug-fun, we went and picked up our Butterfly House with caterpillars; and yesterday, we moved our 5 little chrysalids from their cup to their new home.

Here is their week in pictures -

1. baby catapillars - day 1 May 19, 2. baby catapillars - day 2 may20, 3. Caterpillars may23, 4. Caterpillars May 25, 5. Caterpillars May 27 8:40 am, 6. Crystalis forming May 27 8:30 pm, 7. Caterpillars - May 28

Whire we watch and wait, Harrison continues to give us his version of the Hungry Little Caterpillar using his Big Blue Blanket as the chrysalis, he eats, rolls up in the blanket, stands and "breaks free" to fly like a butterfly.

I can't wait until they emerge.

3 comments:

Blueberry said...

sounds like a fun time!

we did the butterflies every spring at work (i used to work at an art and education supply store). it was always exciting to watch them come out. :)

Andi said...

Years ago, when I was a student teacher, I purchased a Painted Lady house for my class. We did so many wonderful butterfly related activities while waiting for them to become butterflies, even planting some butterfly bushes for them! It was the most fun; when it was time, they had a release party (it was after my time was already over and I was back in school full time). The students sent photos and letters to me saying how much fun it was for them; it was one of the most special times for me as a beginning teacher. How wonderful to do this with Harrison! I also LOVE the creative things from Thursday's post- especially the certain place for the creative products. Harrison is a blessed little boy to have such a great mom! :)

Christina said...

I want to be like you. You do so much fun stuff with him! Too cool. "Still dead" that cracks me up!