I donned my rubber shoes, a jar, and a ladle. The mosquitoes were fierce and the water slimy and cold, but we found a nice cluster of frog eggs.
The green jelly blobs floated in murky pond in our jar. There was even a bug swimming around in the bottom. We collected another jar of algae to feed the tadpoles when they hatched. I'm sure the girl will enjoy her mini-pond aquarium as much as her mother did as a child.
My own children had a jar of frog eggs on the kitchen counter every spring. We'd see them get darker in a week or so. Then one by one the tadpoles would break out of their eggs and start swimming about. Sometimes we'd have to put a few back in the pond, if we had too many. Also, we learned not to overheat them by putting the jar in a window. Every few days, one of the boys would get some algae to feed the little polliwogs.
When they were about an inch long and starting to form their back legs, we'd put them back in the pond. One year, we put a few in a bigger tank and saw them develop all the way to frogs, but only a couple survived and they were a bit stunted. It was best to let them go.
It's a great learning experience for kids!
2 comments:
Sounds like fun:) We have lots of frogs around here, too. Noisy, funny looking things. Just ask Mari. lol
My brother got a frog aquarium for Christmas year before last, one of the ones where you send away for "activated" frog eggs. The poor thing NEVER grew more than nubs for legs and after a year gave up the ghost. I'm thinking he was too genetically engineereed...
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