Wings of the Night

Before I had kids, I would never, never, NEVER have touched this thing. I might have looked it up to see what it was or I might have killed it just to be on the safe side. I am not what you’d call a “bug lover.” Unfortunately, it’s mutual, and anything that bites or stings makes me slap all the pockets on the diaper bag, checking for the epi pen.

Nowadays, though, everything is an opportunity to feed the constant inquisitiveness that is early childhood. So, I picked this up for a better look. AND IT WIGGLED. Naturally, I promptly dropped it. I used the leaf to pick it up again and put it near the house while I looked it up and found out it was a sphinx moth chrysalis. (Turns out they overwinter in their pupal stage, so after we’d gotten acquainted, we buried him again.)

Once I’d categorized this as “harmless and therefore interesting,” I let the Little Dudes see how he wiggled when you picked him up and, of course, read them all the information about what they eat, why he was in “that brown thing,” and when he’d wake up. (My 5 year old was hoping we could keep it around until it did but eventually decided that six months was kind of a long time to take care of it. Phew!)

Inspired by one of my five year old’s recent favorite story books, we moved on to talking about one of this guy’s predators- BATS! Bats and moths go together like ice cream and pie, in my opinion- both are night fliers, and both open the door to all kinds of cool exploration about life cycles and navigation, and they fit in with the approaching Halloween season perfectly.

5 Great Resources for this lesson

• Bat & Moth Craft from Far East Street
• Bat and Moth Game (4 or more players)
• How moths get away from bats
• Bat Crafts for preschoolers
• Bat songs and rhymes

Have you got a great bat or moth resource? Put it down there in the comment box!