Insect Lore Raise and Release Butterfly Garden Kit – Caterpillar Habitat with redeemable Voucher – STEM-accredited Butterfly Growing Kit for Kids, Classrooms, and Homeschool Learning

I went back and forth on whether to give this 5 stars or not. I have used an Insect Lore Butterly pavilion for over 20 years and needed another to share with students in a classroom. I purchased this item here on Amazon on 12/10/2004. I used the listing from my order history to order a new one. However, I didn't carefully read the current listing. The original is 2' tall by 14" wide. This one is 12" tall by 10" wide. Very big difference!! You can go to Insect Lore and purchase the same one I have for $14.95 - with shipping and tax it comes to $28. (I know not everyone wants a large one, and taller means tippier if you have small children.) The habitat is an excellent design, sturdy, well made and just the right size to put on a counter or coffee table where everyone can watch them grow. The plastic feeder that comes with this kit is cute, but it's very tiny. The journal booklet is nice, but Insect Lore ought to make it available as a free download - or maybe for $1 - for those who want to print their own. They're charging $3.99 each on their site, supposedly marked down from $5. With all of that said, I've been growing butterflies with children for over 20 years. I've done this with my own children, at schools, home school co-ops, in our neighborhood and at church. (I can highly recommend Clearwater Butterfly for purchasing caterpillars.) I can't say enough about what a wonderful experience this is, and it's a lot easier than growing chicks - haha - take it from me! Praying mantises are also great and fascinating. Ants and ladybugs too - just do that in your garden/yard - not in the house! Try them all and teach your children and your friends' children to love insects and God's extraordinary creation. There is nothing like the touch of a butterfly on your hand and then watching it fly away, especially for a child. This is one of the best grandparent, aunt or uncle gifts - not to be left for the parents to-do list, though! Make it a special thing you do with them and make some memories.

What a fun summer toy, great way to teach kids interactive science! Easy to set up and priced right!

The Live Butterfly Garden by Insect Lore is a fun, hands- on educational experience that is certain to appeal to even the most stubborn, disinterested child. With the Live Butterfly Garden, children get to observe the process of metamorphosis, right before their eyes. Starting with caterpillars, children watch the little critters eat food, create a cocoon, and then transform into fully grown adult butterflies. The butterflies can then be observed in their habitat for a while before setting free. This butterfly garden is great for dozens of reasons, the most obvious of which is the educational value. Reading about insects and metamorphosis is one thing, but seeing the process live is another thing entirely. Kids get to learn how caterpillars/butterflies live, eat, and thrive; how to care for them; etc. They get to observe the caterpillars and butterflies at play and watch the butterflies eat their food, which is provided in the package. The caterpillars that come with the Live Butterfly Garden are painted ladies, which are not very common and will not be recognized by most children. However, most kids won't care- the fun of watching these small caterpillars transform into butterflies will have many kids gazing in awe, and prompt them to ask many questions. This educational toy is a huge hit and my kids loved it, but there were a few small issues. One was waiting for the caterpillars to arrive in the mail. To get the caterpillars, you have to mail in an included certificate, along with a check, and then wait. It seems like an eternity, especially from the perspective of young children, and it took longer than expected. Anther problem was parting with the butterflies. Once you have the caterpillars and they have transformed into adult butterflies, the next problem will be setting them free. Kids will grow attached to their small, winged friends and will not want to let them go. Another minor issue is with the transferring of the caterpillars from their small container- the one you receive in the mail- into the actual habitat. The container that the caterpillars arrive in has a paper area at the top, where the caterpillars will hang as they spin their cocoons. This paper section is fairly easy to remove, but the problem is that the cocoons are very delicately attached, and that means that some will fall off when the transfer is made. You will need to pin this piece of paper to the inside of the butterfly garden, but the kit doesn't include any pins. Safety pins or straight pins work, and it would have been nice if these were included in the kit. Still, when all factors are considered, the Live Butterfly Garden is worth the purchase and young children will enjoy the educational experience. Sure, it could be improved a little bit by making a few minor changes, but this is still a very good toy and considering my kid's fascination with the process, along with the educational value, it earns an easy recommendation.

I bought this for my 5 year old. Along the way he had lots of fun and he learnt a whole lot about the butterfly lifecycle. Though the lot doesn’t come with Caterpillars, they give you a coupon to order it. The Insect Lore Butterfly Garden is a great way for kids to learn about the life cycle of a butterfly. The kit comes with everything you need, including a habitat, food, and caterpillars. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and kids will love watching the caterpillars grow and change into butterflies. One of the best things about the Insect Lore Butterfly Garden is that it's a hands-on experience. Kids get to feed the caterpillars, water them, and watch them grow. They also get to learn about the different stages of metamorphosis. This is a great way for kids to learn about nature and science. The Insect Lore Butterfly Garden is also a great way to get kids interested in gardening. The caterpillars need milkweed leaves to eat, so kids will need to plant milkweed in their garden. This is a great way for kids to learn about gardening and the importance of pollinators. Overall, the Insect Lore Butterfly Garden is a great educational toy for kids. It's fun, educational, and a great way to get kids interested in nature. Here are some pros and cons of the Insect Lore Butterfly Garden: Pros: - Fun and educational - Easy to use - Comes with everything you need - Kids get to see the butterfly life cycle up close - Encourages kids to learn about nature and gardening Cons: - Can be a bit messy - Caterpillars can be fragile - Shipping can be expensive Overall, the Insect Lore Butterfly Garden is a great educational toy for kids. It's fun, educational, and a great way to get kids interested in nature.

Pros: This was cool. We bought it for our homeschooling, and it was fun to talk to the kids about the different stages and watch the caterpillars grow. They grow so much! Ours all made it to be butterflies, even one chrysalis that kept getting bumped by one of the other caterpillars and seemed weirdly half-formed. It was a cool experiment and cool to release them. They landed on the kids and walked onto their fingers, before flying away. Cons: - The cheap plastic things are cheap plastic things. It doesn't feel pleasant or beautiful. It just feels like junky plastic in my house. Growing our own butterflies felt less Montessori and more like a Happy Meal. - They poop a lot, and they drip blood-looking stuff when they come out, so having it on a counter in the kitchen felt really gross, really fast. It smells a little as well. - None of our butterflies came out during a time when we were watching, so they just were suddenly butterflies, which was a bummer.

This was such a fun project! My kids loved setting up the habitat and watching the caterpillars turn into butterflies. Its well made and a good size for keeping out in the house for children to observe. Having the voucher for the caterpillars makes it worth the price and rice it can be reused, we thought it was a great investment in our children's education and entertainment.

This set is genuinely one of the most impressive educational tools available for kids. It effectively demonstrates the butterfly life cycle, allowing children to witness the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly firsthand. The package includes an engaging workbook that is filled with fun activities and informative content, along with a variety of colourful stickers to enhance the learning experience. Additionally, the set comes with a valuable coupon that enables you to obtain live butterflies for observation, and there's the option to order extra ones if you’d like to continue the learning process or if you're captivated by the cycle. I’ve personally enjoyed this set so much that I’m now on my third round of butterflies, and I can wholeheartedly say that it’s worth every penny. This product is a must-have for any family looking to inspire a love for nature and science in their children!

Angry rant follows. I've used these cages (and several others by different manufacturers) for many years. I've probably purchased a dozen of this exact model, many from Amazon. These are, as the Amazon description says, "A family and classroom favorite for almost 50 years." They can be bleached, stored, and reused. From year to year, the dimensions sometimes change a bit or the fabric component has a different pattern, but until now, I have found the quality of this Insect Lore cage to be excellent. However, the two cages I just bought do NOT have the clear, vinyl lid still pictured, but rather -- for the first time ever -- super-crummy, lightweight, slippery, nasty, horrible, no-good MESH lids! This has been terrible for my monarchs and a real annoyance for me this season. Like many larvae, these little guys like to wander about, spreading their silk around the "roof" before settling down in earnest to place a serious silk button and screw in their wee cremasters for a good, safe hang before pupating. With the old vinyl lids, I never had a problem gingerly unzipping the flap to maintain my Late Johnnies who were still eating while their siblings continued to dangle safely and securely. No worries: the silk stayed in place. Insect Lore should know that a critical function of a semi-stiff, clear, zippable plastic lid is that you can DO such maintenance. It is essential to be able to remove frass or swap out fodder while leaving attached chrysalises secure. Unfortunately, this lousy mesh does not provide a proper surface for secure adhesion of the silk, nor anything else. The entire RAFT of silk has come unstuck on each of the new cages. A couple of chrysalises have fallen as a result. Now I must hang entire batches by pinning -- a technique I don't happen to prefer, but I guess it will do until the season is over. The new mesh lids do not allow me to tape up a fallen chrysalis, a method I like a lot when a cremaster cannot easily be tied by thread. The mesh is so slippery that I can't even slap on the adhesive office notes I use to track dates, numbers, and instars. They just fall off. I have to PIN on the bl**dy notes now. Agh! More pins! The original design allowed perfectly sufficient airflow, so I can't see that as an argument for the change. What on earth was Insect Lore thinking? Cost? Just charge me a dollar more, please. I'm returning these, but can't do it until the season is over because I need the real estate. I'll close by saying that if you've read this far (gosh, I'm sorry) AND if you only plan to use this cage once to rear a cup of Painted Lady larvae you got with a coupon, then you may be much happier with this new version of the product than I am. Your larvae, if they are of similar size, are likely to pupate at about the same time, and you're probably using that insta-food in the jar they gave you (it looks like yellow goo). You might be ignoring the frass (caterpillar poop), because it's so difficult to remove from the jar. If that's so, you won't be doing any real maintenance. You won't be hanging fallen chrysalises nor slapping on a dozen Post-It notes for record-keeping, as I do. So my advice to you would be to buy this silly thing and ignore my rant -- just DON'T mess with the zipper once you see those chrysalises hanging, if you let them do it on the cage lid, outside their jar.