Now that Spring is round the corner, we here is a very cool project for your kids to teach about the nature; the Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden. What better way can you find to help your child learn and explore nature and science other than providing them with hands-on learning by showing and letting them experience closely the nature’s spectacular and miraculous transformation of butterflies. The Butterfly Garden has a great deal of educational value and it also helps your kid develop a healthy respect for nature. In the following review, we will see in detail about this Oppenheim Best Toy Award winning kit.
A great kit:
The Butterfly Garden from Insect Lore is a do it yourself at home kind of kit and the concept is pretty simple. The kit has a transparent hatching net that allows the kids to witness up close the caterpillars transition as it grows double the size each day from chrysalides to beautiful colourful ladies. The entire process of transformation takes just about three weeks. After enjoying the fully grown butterflies, the best practice is to either release them into your own garden or into the wilds. This way, both the little kids and adults will learn and remember the important lesson in life for rest of the life; respect nature’s way.
Receive your set of caterpillars:
All that you have to do to receive your set of caterpillars is, simply post the mail-in coupon and the butterfly larvae with the food will be shipped in directly to your home. The caterpillars will be in a small clear plastic cup and it has a paper seal where the Chrysalis will eventually attach and a plastic cap. At the rear end of the cup, you will find a light brown fudge which will be the caterpillars food and toilet for the first couple of weeks. Home kits come with 5 caterpillars while 33 caterpillar kits are available for the classroom kits. Sometimes, one or more of the larvae may not develop fully into butterflies, but according to the Insect Lore website, at least 3 are guaranteed to do so.
The kit:
The habitat offered by the Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden is both durable and reusable, which can be collapsed for storage when not in use. The other contents of the package includes the feeding supplies for the butterflies, instruction booklet that is complete with caterpillar and butterfly facts and a mail in coupon for five painted lady caterpillars and special food.
Re-order for more fun:
If you wish to repeat the whole fun experience of raising your own butterflies, and relive the fun, you can just order another batch of caterpillars and reuse the butterfly habitat again.
Fun experience:
Our experience with the kit was nothing less than great fun. Once the caterpillars arrived, we behaved just like kids and set it up. For the first few days, the caterpillars seem to be quite drowsy and did not move around much. As all caterpillars, they were grey and pretty small at about 5mm long. By the end of the first week, they were a bit bigger and active too, happily wriggling around the bottom of the cup. In the second week, the changes are quite dramatic as they seem to double in size each day, grown to 2 or 3cms long and quite fat and they had also turned black. By the end of the third week, they are all pretty chunky and put a big dent in the food and made a good deal of mess on the plastic cup. The cup walls seem to be cloudy and seem to have heaps of silken threads around the pot. By the end of the week, they just started to form chrysalises.
Once we found that the Chrysalises have been made and seem to be hanging from the paper seal, they can be gently removed and transferred to the hatching net. We even added some sticks and flowers to the net to make it cosy. The next week we had the beautiful butterflies fluttering around the net. Just feed then with sugar water and given a couple of days to get their strength up and dry out their wings and can then be released into the wild. The overall experience was extremely enjoyable and enriching.
Care:
As far as caring for them goes there is not a lot to do, keep them somewhere well lit but not in direct sunlight, not too hot and not too cold and that is about it, everything they need is in the sealed pot. All you need to do is talk about them with the child, draw pictures and take some photos.
Age limit:
The Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden kit is designed for kids, so physical contact with the insect is limited, almost down to nothing. The only necessary contact that has to be ever done is, transferring the chrysalis from the pot to habitat, but that being a delicate job, it is probably best done by a grown up. The kit is not suitable for kids under the age of 4 years as it has small parts.
Verdict:
The Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden will inspire your child’s lifelong love over the learning and discovering the nature and science. This live butterfly garden kit offers a whole new world of fun learning and experience to children as they watch their caterpillar larvae transform into beautiful and gorgeous coloured lady butterflies. There is simply no price you can put on the happiness that you can see in their face as they release them with joy into their own garden. Just if you are curious, the kit is extremely inexpensive. The Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden is a wonderful educational toy that makes a great learning activity for parent and child activities and science projects. This kit is a guaranteed way of both amusement as well as education for kids of all ages. Now, who does not love butterflies? Watching them grow is double the fun.
Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden Kit – Product Details
| Manufacturer | Insect Lore |
| Product Name | Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden Kit |
| Product Code | 1010 |
| Type of Toy | Nature related |
| Material of construction | Net |
| Gender | Bigender |
| Assembly | Very Easy |
| Interactive Toy | Yes |
| Weight | 409g |
| Colour | Green |
| Product Dimensions (H x W x D) | 33 x 33 x 7.6 cm |
| Speciality | Great educational value Develop respect for nature |
| Age Limit | 3 years & above |
| Choking Hazard | Yes |
| Batteries | NA |
| Box Contents | The net garden, feeding supplies for the butterflies, instruction booklet that and a mail in coupon for five painted lady caterpillars and special food |
