The Very Hungry Caterpillar

One thing living in the country affords you is the unique ability to observe nature first hand. I'm a big "learn through experience" person and I take every chance I get to help the kids connect the dots between something they've heard of or read about to it physically happening. Reed and Kieran are both pretty inquisitive, for his part K really has shown no fears so far but Reed is usually our more cautious Kiddo. That being said, animals and nature are things he embraces. He loves going on scavenger hunts with Grandpa, working with me in the garden, and so far has held worms, tadpoles, bugs, frogs, and caterpillars without hesitation.

The latter happened for the first time just a few weeks ago. Jon was out running on the ranch behind our house and witnessed a migration of thousands of caterpillars. He told us about it and the next day we went on a family walk in the same spot. There were still a few little guys crawling around so I asked Reed if he'd like to hold one. He said yes, loved it, and asked if we could bring it home. Long story short we ended up with three caterpillars, Reed carried one, all by himself, over a quarter of a mile home. He collected sticks for the caterpillars to crawl on and put lettuce and spinach in the jars. After three days one caterpillar had created a cocoon and seven days later he emerged as a butterfly that Reed released in our front yard last week. The smallest caterpillar didn't survive and the other has been in a cocoon for about five days. Reed has loved checking on them daily and I think he now really understands how a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. He has also learned there are things that "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" book doesn't cover, like that after eating caterpillars poop, a lot! Here are a few pictures chronicling their journeys.