Caterpillars anyone?

Recently, a colleague from work took orders for those of us interested in buying caterpillars. If you're wondering why would anyone BUY caterpillars? *laughs* Well, the kids in school learn about life cycle and what happens is when they buy these caterpillars, they also learn values like being responsible as they need to clean the container and feed the caterpillar twice a day. It was interesting to see the kids walking around school slowly (usually they would run from one point to another) with their containers (with two caterpillars inside) in their hands. They even brought the caterpillars to the canteen when they went for lunch because they didn't want to miss anything that the caterpillars might be up to *grins* Cute huh?

I bought four caterpillars for my nephews and delivered them to the boys the very same day that night. They were up so the two older ones were pretty excited to see the caterpillars. The older one knew what caterpillars were and talked excitedly about how he read about caterpillars before (he has the Very Hungry Caterpillar book so was probably referring to that). And his lil brother was excited probably because his older brother was excited *laughs*

But it was really awesome watching my 4 year old nephew totally engrossed with the caterpillars. Grandpa read to him a booklet that my colleague designed to be used with the caterpillars ... showed him the life cycle for a butterfly. And I told him that he must give me a call when the caterpillar turned to pupa. He named the caterpillars too ... I think at that age, he probably didn't realise that he could use other names because the biggest caterpillar was named after him, the smallest was his baby brother, the caterpillar with 'baby brother' was Daddy and the middle-sized caterpillar was his younger brother. Simple *grins*

And it was time for him to go to bed and he was determined to bring the caterpillars up to bed with him. It was really funny watching him trying to carry two plastic containers to bring up to bed and we had to convince him that caterpillars sleep outdoors. He relented when we said that he could have breakfast with the caterpillars when he woke up the next day.

And today, he called Grandpa all by himself (his first and even his Dad didn't know he made the call) to tell Grandpa that the caterpillar has turned to a butterfly (he actually meant to say pupa but I think it's an unfamiliar word). When asked if he has fed the butterfly, he explained to Grandpa that cannot feed anymore and the caterpillars finished eating!

Amazing how at such a young age they are so excited to learn and somehow along the way, as they get older, that sense of curiosity just some how disappear? I have wondered about this many a times. Parents and educators have important roles to play in ensuring that we continue to get our young ones excited about learning, curious about everything that happens around them and to question question question!

Am looking forward to visiting the boys tomorrow. Let's see if the pupa has turned to butterflies! :o)