Caterpillars are especially fascinating creatures. If you are lucky enough to live in an area where you can access a live caterpillar for a child to look at, you may be surprised how much fascination they hold, even for an adult.
Here’s the thing about caterpillars. They are really part of a life cycle stage of another favorite kind of bug — moths and butterflies. So even though they are different forms of the same animal, we’re going to learn about both. We’ll focus on caterpillars this month and next month, we’ll explore a little more to see what caterpillars turn into.
A Quick Confession About Caterpillar Crafts…
Now, before I continue, a confession. I had great plans for an engaging, fun craft project for my granddaughters that would keep them entertained for a significant amount of time. Armed with a pile of supplies, I set out for what I assumed would be a chunk of grandma bonding time developing small motor skills and adorable caterpillars.
But the girls had other plans.
The Craft Project “Fail”
The painting project, though they were engaged, exhausted their attention spans within 3 minutes. The caterpillar pom-pom string was cast off almost immediately because when Kate (age 3) watched me cut some straws into small pieces so we could glue them onto pom poms, she immediately lost all interest in caterpillars. She wanted to be the chief “straw snipper” instead. They make such a fantastic popping sound when you cut them!
Fortunately, Kate has had some experience with scissors before. I managed to find a pair of blunt-nosed children’s scissors after scrounging around in my kids’ craft cupboard. The result was that Kate invented her own form of entertainment that had nothing at all to do with my planned project.
And maybe that’s exactly the point. The beauty of play and a child’s brain is that the brain kind of seems to know what it needs to grow and develop. The hard part is getting the grownup with a plan out of the way.
Caterpillar Craft Projects
So with that in mind, I’ll share some simple craft projects we invented to go with the theme of caterpillars. Don’t get so focused on the end result that you forget that free play is probably preferable to a structured craft project. You are no failure, and neither is your child, even if she invents something that doesn’t even vaguely resemble a caterpillar.
Brooklyn’s painting project was fun for her, even though it didn’t last long. Kate’s not-a-caterpillar invention kept her entertained for the better part of 30 minutes, and she returned for more fun two more times before the day was over, then asked to get the straw snipping supplies out again the next time she visited as well. Her invention got her much closer to the goal of “developing small motor skills” than my carefully-planned project ever did. Kate’s brain knew what it needed.
If you’re ready to give small-motor crafting a try, here are links to details for this month’s caterpillar projects:
Here’s a sneak peek into this month’s caterpillar craft projects:
Caterpillar Painting
Caterpillar “Bead” Stringing with Pom Poms
And in case you are interested in knowing what else was inside this month’s BugClub shipment I will share: This fabulous butterfly habitat by Insect Lore has had me excited for weeks and I finally got to ship one to each of the granddaughters (affiliate links):
I added in a highly-rated book about caterpillars and butterflies:
