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Raising butterflies with kids is magical and rewarding! Start with a cup of caterpillars and watch the entire metamorphosis happen right before your eyes!
Updated March 2024
Have you tried raising butterflies with your kids?
When I was a kindergarten teacher, we did this in my classroom every year. And then this spring, it occurred to me that it would be really fun to do at home with my two preschoolers, too!
It was such a fun and exciting experience, for all of us!
We used a butterfly house and sent away for the caterpillars, although you could also bring in caterpillars from your garden.
Raising Butterflies with Kids
MATERIALS
- Insect Lore Cup of Caterpillars
- Butterfly Garden (we already had this, but if you order one it comes with a voucher so you can order caterpillars when you are ready)
INSTRUCTIONS
- Order your caterpillars
It sounds strange, but we ordered our caterpillars from Insect Lore on Amazon and they came a couple days later! It was a very exciting mail day in our house when they arrived!
They came in a little cup with instructions, and everything you need to raise them to butterflies.
If you have a garden with caterpillars, you can also find some and bring them in that way. - Observe and wait
The next step takes a couple weeks. We watched the teeny tiny caterpillars eat all the food that comes inside the caterpillar cup.
And then we watched them grow and grow.
And then, one morning we woke up and saw that the caterpillars were making their chrysalides! Each time we checked, another chrysalis had formed.
Once all the chrysalides had formed, we moved them carefully to the little holder provided and set that inside our butterfly garden net.
- Wait a little more
Once the chrysalides are in the butterfly garden, you have to wait a little longer!
After about 7-10 days, the moment you’ve been waiting for happens! And it will probably happen when you aren’t expecting it! At least, that’s what happened to us.
We put orange slices in our butterfly garden to feed them so we had a chance to observe them.
Once we had observed our butterflies for a day in their net, we brought outside and released them! We bade each one goodbye as they flew away.
We had such a fun surprise when we saw them flying around our garden later that day.
Raising butterflies is the most magical process to witness! And it’s such a magical process to share with kids!
If you’ve been wondering how to raise butterflies, we highly recommend giving this a try. It’s super easy with a kit like this.
And if you’re really getting into butterflies, you can draw what you observe every step of the metamorphosis process, try a butterfly art activity, and read some butterfly books, too!
More Butterfly Activities for Kids
- How to Paint Butterflies for Kids
- Gorgeous Watercolor Butterflies
- A Marbled Paper Plate Butterfly Craft
- A Crayon Resist Butterfly Art Activity for Kids
- Garden Crafts for Kids
- Nature Art for Kids
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