Our new house has a beautiful pool in the backyard!! There is no screen over it yet, so someone is constantly scooping debris out. A couple of weeks ago we walked out to find the top step covered with tiny black things. At first we thought they were buds from a nearby tree, or maybe tiny bugs. Two days later it was very clear what they were.
FROG EGGS!
Do you see all the little black dots? Those are thousands of frog eggs!
Hubby & I were grossed out, but the kids were beyond excited. Sad faces were displayed when we informed them that there was no way our pool was becoming a frog pond. They quickly scooped up a few to observe.
The excitement didn’t last for long, however …
It turns out our whole pool was infested with tadpoles, not just the top step!
Insert horror movie music here.
The kids’ wonder quickly turned to disgust, with the girls convinced that they had surely swallowed frog eggs the last time they went for a swim. Hubby & I had been planning on going to the pool store on Saturday to learn Pool Care 101, but we bee-lined it over and stocked up on chemicals to shock the pool.
Our cute little tadpoles are growing and changing each day. We learned some interesting things about tadpoles:
- It takes at least 6 weeks to go from egg to tadpole to frog.
- They will eat lettuce that has been boiled or frozen. (They will also eat eggs that haven’t hatched. Ewww!)
- Once their legs appear, they will need rocks or dirt to climb on or they will drown.
- A frog returns to where it hatched. We were told that at one time our pool was filled with nasty sludge – the perfect frog breeding ground.
Have some Froggy Fun with your kiddos!!
Frog Life Cycle Cards & Activities
Frog Life Cycle Animated Video
Tadpole Development Coloring Page
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Filed under: nature notebook, real life homeschool Tagged: frogs, homeschool, printables, tadpole
