I love, love, love ladybugs! They are such pretty little insects! I don’t mind looking or holding ladybugs and butterflys. They are welcomed in my home anytime! For the last couple of years, we’ve explored butterflys in nature and in our home using our Butterfly house made by Insect Lore. It was given to my oldest daughter as a birthday gift about 5 years ago. We’ve used it every year, either by purchasing new caterpillars or finding caterpillars in our yard. This year I wanted to explore a different type of insect. I love ladybugs and so do my kids so I figured we would try the Ladybug Land also made by Insect Lore. We ordered ours through Amazon.com and once we received it there was a certificated for a tube of baby ladybugs larvae. You can easily redeem your coupon online and within a week or so you will receive your tube and the exploration begins! I don’t want to spoil any of the exploring for you, but lets just say I learned a lot about how ladybugs become LADYBUGS! If you go to teacherspayteachers.com you will find tons of free ladybug activities you can download and do with your children. We used a freebie titled ladybug life cycle. To download your freebie all you have to do is set up an account. I’ve had an account with them for years and have never had to pay a dime for any of the activities I download. The free stuff is good enough!

The girls really enjoyed observing their little ladybug friends. My husband and I enjoyed learning about them as well! The girls each had turns giving them water and feeding the adult ladybugs. After we witnessed the entire life cycle of the ladybugs we worked on completing a few activity sheets and they each created a picture of what their own little ladybug looks like. Soon it will be time to let them go!

Lia proudly shared her ladybugs with her classmates. Her teacher, Mrs. Kathleen, had a whole nature exploration table set up with magnifying glasses and pine cones, pieces of tree bark. She had a butterfly garden too. Kids are just natural explores. It’s so fun watching the wonder in their eyes and listening to them explain what they see! My daughter Melina also shared the ladybugs with her classmates. The little ladybug home is so easy to carry around making it possible to share the ladybug experience with everyone!