Fostering curiosity in kids (and their parents) since 2011

Posts by Shala Howell

“Why are caterpillars so mushy?”

While we were doing the caterpillar-tickling experiment this week, the question of how to tickle the caterpillars had to be dealt with early on. I ruled out using our fingers on grounds of caterpillars being too mushy. That of course led to questions about why caterpillars are so mushy.

A five-year-old girl tickles a caterpillar with a flower.

“Are caterpillars ticklish?”

When my five-year-old asked her father, who was a Harvard researcher at the time, if caterpillars were ticklish, he laughed for about 5 minutes. What does being ticklish mean for a caterpillar anyway? Can caterpillars laugh? And if they do, how can we hear them? It’s the perfect setup for a Caterpickles experiment.