Author: Rachel Welch

This Easter, my children received 5 caterpillars and all the necessary bits and bobs needed to nurture them into butterflies. On arrival, the caterpillars were fairly lifeless looking little pellets, (as I would be if I’d just travelled by post in a dark box), and I was slightly worried they were dead. Not so. We watched them eat and grow at an alarming rate, no longer little pellets but huge hairy caterpillars and I wondered if they had any idea that butterflyhood was around the corner? Living in their warm little container, shuffling round together and eating the whole day...

We’re at the midway point of the Easter holidays, and like any parent I’ve been busy conjuring up ways to enjoy spending these days with my children. We’ve been on a bus, a train, walked, cycled and had many trips out in the car. We’ve been to two seaside towns (we live in Norfolk, so that’s pretty easy for us) been swimming, eaten doughnuts, watched movies, had ice-cream, played in the garden, and the children have also been taken to the circus by their grandparents. All in a week. Yet a few days ago my 4-year-old daughter Pearl threw...