okay so today we're reviewing another toy that teaches children that are
elementary and preschool aged by Safari ology today it's a lifecycle of a
monarch butterfly this kit includes four components and we'll go over all of
those for you it has the caterpillar the butterfly the eggs here eggs of course
on a milkweed leaf and they look pretty cool and don't worry we're gonna take
them out caterpillar here one of the five instars States and chrysalis
hanging on a little twig and then of course the start of the show monarch
butterfly itself so these are tools that teach you can't get outside it's
wintertime ages four and above what a great opportunity to introduce children
to different animals and their life cycles this is a choking hazard for
children three years of age and younger although in this kit the parts are a
little bit larger than some of the other kits so I'm not so concerned it's hand
painted as are the others and here's the company that makes them Safari limited
Miami Lakes Florida Safari the limited calm I purchased all of these on Amazon
and full price so let's go over it these are some of the pieces the paintings are
pretty good the textures are very interesting and I'll show you those
individually in a moment and what a great toy for your child to display on
their shelf in their room and to share with their friends what they know about
these insects so let's take a look one by one here first we'll pull out the
leaf this is a leaf from milkweed plant we have an acre of milkweed plants on my
property so it's a lot of fun to go out and look for monarch eggs and monarch
caterpillars now it's easier to find the caterpillars by just looking at the
leaves and seeing that chewed holes and they have chewed holes on that leaf
there now we're into the caterpillar itself they go through five stages of
caterpillars before they spin that cocoon and become a chrysalis
this thing has all the little feet that it holds on to
the milkweed plant with and then the forelimbs there are six of those which
later will be the feet of the butterfly and if you don't know all ready because
they eat milkweed they're toxic and other bugs don't eat them and the birds stay
away this is the chrysalis now I like a lot of the textures that they've given
here but keep in mind these are hand-painted that was not so impressed
that they just took like paint and ran it along there if you've ever seen a
chrysalis they have little gold highlights on them
jewels and they're really shiny really dramatic and those are completely absent
here now let's look at the butterfly this is flexible rubber and the textures
are good there are veins on the wings and the coloration is pretty good and
the dots are pretty good thorax looks nice it would be fuzzy the tongue on
this butterfly is curled up antennae are there and they're interesting we have
six feet and the four legs are foreshortened and you could bend it you
can shape it you could toss it around I think this is going to hold up to
children handling it pretty well so overall this is a very interesting kit
and is among my favorites because it's so common and kids are likely to
actually see one later so it's always exciting if they have a toy that looks
somewhat like its natural counterpart and then when they do get outside and
can see them in real life they're gonna already have some pre knowledge
and they're gonna know what they're looking at and it's really gonna enhance
their learning experience out of doors so here's the whole set what do I think
of it well I think it's pretty realistic and it's a great learning teaching tool
and I think kids are gonna enjoy it these are inexpensive and I will
continue my series here on toys that teach I definitely recommend this one
thanks for watching and I hope you've benefited from this review