In the light of the moon…

…a little egg lay on a leaf. Sound familiar? Oh, it does to me! I’ve been reading Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar for a few years now. It was the first book that we read to Boo as a baby, and it quickly became a favourite, so, among many others, she had this one read to her every single day. Little Man still has it sometimes now, too. It’d be fair to say that we’re familiar with it here! Which makes it appropriate as the basis for this month’s picture book related activity, following on from last month’s Zoe and Beans post.

the very hungry caterpillar

We read stacks and stacks of books here. I like to think that as well as enjoying them, the kids are learning from them. But then I like to build on any learning by actually experiencing and seeing it, wherever possible. And so, if little eggs turn into caterpillars, then turn into butterflies, then off to a butterfly house we will go…

butterfly house 4butterfly house 2

butterfly house 1

butterfly house

butterfly house 3

Boo and I talked about the life cycle and the beautiful butterflies all the way round. There were plenty of gasps coming from her, as they flew around us, and she spotted different ones landing all over the pretty flowers and shrubs. Of course, she’s seen butterflies before, but never this many, and we saw the little chrysalis’ as we went in, so it worked perfectly for our chat.

It was a lovely trip. Oh, apart from Little Man freaking out about the swooping creatures – yep, that part wasn’t as good, so daddy whisked him out of there pretty quickly!

Is this a popular read in your house?

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35 thoughts on “In the light of the moon…”

    1. Jocelyn Reading

      It was handy that daddy was there to whisk him out so that Boo and I could at least have a look!

  1. Charlie has just saved up his money to buy a butterfly garden himself. We currently have 5 in their cocoons and are eagerly awaiting them resurfacing as butterflies. This place looks lovely and doesn’t seem too far from us x

  2. I adore this book. I remember reading it myself, as a child and was one of the first book I bought for my son. Beautiful pics and a lovely trip, hope your son isn’t too traumatised 🙂

  3. I think as children we accept the life cycle of caterpillars and butterflies quite easily, and yet things we as adults find simpler are much harder for them to accept! I wonder if it’s because of books like the hungry caterpillar which opens their mind up more to these things?

    #LetKidsBeKids

    1. Jocelyn Reading

      Very possibly. Books open their minds to all sorts of possibilities, I think, which is wonderful.

    1. Jocelyn Reading

      My kids learn lots from books, but taking it and experiencing it makes it so much more exciting and memorable, I think.

  4. This is a lovely post! So nice that such a great book makes them want to learn and find out more. Sounds like you had a great day out, love the photo of the last butterfly, so pretty x #LetKidsBeKids

    1. Jocelyn Reading

      I love that book, too, and it’ll always be special to me as it meant so much to Boo when she was a toddler. It was a great day, thanks x

  5. By George yes, it is popular in our house… and at pre-school (or at least it was, sob!) and at the child minder’s. Our little bear has been ‘studying’ the book and therefore the lifecycle at both settings, she’s had it from the library several times and I even wrote a little poem on the theme of the very hungry caterpillar for her pre-school key worker at the end of term. The poem’s on my blog. We also bought her a little ornamental hanging butterfly as a present to remember our little bear by 🙂

  6. Oh wow what an awesome post Jocelyn. POD loves the book too and we read it recently funnily enough. How wonderful to be able to experience the butterflies like this though and what amazing photos. Love that last one especially. Fabulous post thank you so much for sharing with #whatsthestory

    1. I love that last one, too. Enjoying nature photography, thanks to our fab tips! It was a fun thing to do together, thanks 🙂 x

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