I bought the Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden for my son when he was in grade school. He loved watching the caterpillars grow (caterpillars are sent separately from the kit. Ours arrived quickly and in excellent condition), and watching them create cocoons when they were through eating leaves from our garden. The instructions to care for the caterpillars were easy to follow, giving my son a sense of accomplishment. When the butterflies hatched, we released them into our yard. This is the only drawback. I'm not sure that the species of butterfly that we were sent is native to our area. Of course we were going to release them but I am concerned about introducing non-native species.

KrissWE

USA

I am a homeschool mom and I'm always on the look out for some fun science project to do. This one caught our eye and our kids got really excited about the idea of growing our own butterflies. We decided to give it a go and we were glad that we did. When you first buy this you get the pop up butterfly home and there is plenty of space for the butterflies to grow. The only thing that you will need to know is that you will have to pay a small fee to get the larva/caterpillars mailed to you. It's under five bucks so it's not too bad. You will end up getting mailed a small plastic container with the larva and some brown stuff in the bottom. Eventually you will end up transferring them to the butterfly next, but it will explain all of that in the manual. Just so you know they don't all form at the same time. I think you get five larva/caterpillars and one of ours was a lot slower than the others. We thought it was dead, but a short while later it caught up with the rest of them. Anyway, they will grow into butterflies in the pop up home. They you will be able to put pieces of oranges and other stuff on a plate in the bottom to feed them. Eventually you will set them free. It is such a neat learning experience. I love hands on things. My kids learned so much more from this then learning it out of a work book. We may even do it again sometime. Such a neat learning kit!

anne2shine

USA

I love this product. It's exciting at any age to see the whole process of the butterflies. I remember being in my senior year of high-school and having one of my teachers start us on this project. It was so amazing to feed the caterpillars and watch the transformation. When all of the butterflies had emerged we (the seniors and our teacher) went into the remembrance garden at our school and released the butterflies. It was symbolic of us breaking out into the world by graduating from high-school. Fast forward six years later and I got to see my daughter experience the exact same thing through the eyes of a five year old with her kindergarten class. She was just as excited as I was. We both love butterflies and getting see that process up close was an amazing bonding experience. She is in second grade now and we still talk about our experiences with that from time to time. This would be a good purchase to make. We are going to do it at home when the weather gets a bit better.

evesmama

USA

The Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden is an amazing educational toy. I homeschool my children and I love having this to use for science class. My children are actually able to see each stage from a caterpillar to a butterfly. They would get so excited at each new stage and I found myself running in the room to see what was going on too. This is a toy that can be used year after year and never gets old. I would recommend starting it in the spring so you can release the butterflies when you are done and not have to worry about them freezing. They are very easy to take care of and the whole process takes about one month from start to finish. I would highly recommend this toy for everyone. My young children love it as well as my husband and I. It is just amazing to see the whole process take place. I would definately recommend buying this product, especially if your child is very curious of how things happen.

amlaws

Scott City, MO

This is half toy and half lesson. Honestly that's the best way to describe Insec lore live butterfly garden. in this set your children or students get to learn to appreciate nature. they will see how a caterpillar slowly evolves into a butterfly. with this knowledge and armed with this experience, it will teach them just how valuable life is and how other species besides their own act and live. it is with sets like these that can get a young mind interested in animals and nature so do not underestimate the power of a toy like this. The set is quite inexpensive and is really an investment more than a cost since it is educating and providing fun for your kids. The container that comes with the set (the one that holds your caterpillars) is well bult and sturdy. I did not have any holes or any rips. The directions and pamplet were more than adequate and I fully knew what I had to do to get this project rolling. The great thing is that you can order more if you want to relive the experience.

zeoeric

Los Angeles, CA

This is a great butterfly lesson that you can teach at your own home. If you are a teacher, this is a great toy to bring to the classroom. With Insect Lore Live Butterfly garden, kids get to monitor how a caterpillar slowly becomes a butterfly. When you purchase this set you will receive in the mail a few caterpillars. The caterpillars munch on the food inside the little garden and they go about doing their thing. As time progresses, they wrap themselves up in a cacoon and stay dormant for some time. Eventually, they pop out as butterflies, which gets the kids all excited. Everyday the kids come by and check to see how the caterpillars are doing, and to see if they transformed yet. It really is a great interactive toy that is not only fun but educational. The price is extremely reasonable given the type of product that you are receiving. Caring for the caterpillars was not a hassle at all and a real joy to have in my home. I would definitely check this out and I would be willing to buy another set.

jacobken24

South Pasadena, CA

I bought the Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden for my kids last summer, and was SO excited to share the experiance with them.  What I didn't realize is that there is an extra fee to order the butterflies after you spend money to purchase the kit, which I think is really sad.  I went ahead and ordered them, and the kids were so excited to receive them.  They arrived quickly, and we followed the directions.  The caterpillars were all alive, and began to eat like crazy.  The kids watched them for about 20 minutes and then lost interest.  The returned to them from time to time, and within a few days we saw the first one begining to pupate- we were able to see the whole process and kids were mesmorised.  We hung the disk in the butterfly house, and waited for them to hatch.  Sadly my youngest (two years old) figured out how to open the zipper and handled three of the chrysalids and they never hatched.  The other two did though, and we enjoyed watching them for a couple of days, before we let them go.  Overall this was a great expericance and we would do it again, despite the added cost for the butterflies.

weareborgswife

Kent, WA

I got one of these Butterfly gardens last spring for my kids, a daugher age 4 years old and a son age one years old.  Of course, my little boy was a bit young to grasp the whole thing, but my daughter loved it.  Our catepillars came quickly in the mail.  We were going on a weekend trip to Grandma's house right after the catepillars arrived and we took them with us.  I was so glad we did because they grow so fast.  My daughter named them all and loved checking on them to see how big they were getting.  It was really neat to see them all go into their cacoons and then come out as butterflies.  My daughter also thought it was fun that she got to buy carnations and oranges for her butterflies.  We let them go on a bit of a windy day, and sadly didn't see them in our yard again.  I think the wind may have blown them away, so if you want to see them hang out in your yard watch out for the wind.  I highly recommend this product.  It worked great and was such a fun experience for the whole family.

Mom-mom11

Las Vegas, NV

It was an okay project, I still have the habitat in case we ever do it again. At 3, my son just wasn't that interested, so it was more a project for me. The caterpillars arrive in a jar with stinky food. They turn into pupas and hopefully hang from the delicate piece of paper in the lid of the stinky food jar. You then pick the paper off the lid and pin it in the habitat without damaging any of the delicate pupas. This is all done with paralyzing fear, if you are the sort of person who gets nerve wracked by the thought of your hands being covered in the guts of half formed butterflies. After the pupas had hung in there for a bit, the butterflies hatched. We even had one whose pupa attached to the wrong place, and it was no worse for the wear. However, we tried to follow the directions about feeding them sugar water and made the water dish too deep. At least one of them died because of it. At the end of it, 3 out of 5 survived to fly away, and we saw them around our house occasionally throughout the summer.

HelenV

Queensbury, NY

My daughter got the Butterfly Garden for her birthday.  We waited until summer to send off for the larve and grow the butterflies.  We really enjoyed watching them go through their life stages and turning into butterflies.  I have also done the Lore Ladybug habitat and I found the butterfly habitat to be a much cleaner process that was more enjoyable to watch.  My children enjoyed watching the catepillars make their chrysallis and then were amazed when they emerged as butterflies.  Now whenever we see butterflies in our backyard,  she is sure that they are her butterflies.  I was surprised to learn their lifespan is only 2 weeks and I didn't want to keep them the entire time bc I felt she was too young to watch them die so soon.  I found feeding them worked better with a cut orange or soaking a tissue in the sugar water solution worked much better than trying to put it on the provided flowers.

mtmamaof3

Littleton, CO