Tadpole to Frog

I often just dive into things before gathering all of the information and looking at the whole picture.  I don't think this is always a bad thing.  But it sure does make for lots of surprises along the way.

A couple months ago I mentioned to my aunt that there are different type of hands on "animal kits" that can be ordered and sent to your house.  We both agreed that the frog kit for little boys would be fun.  She sat down right then and ordered them from Nature Gifts.  She didn't have to think about anything though because they were not coming to HER house.   It HAS been fun and a great experience for the boys to see the entire process of metamorphosis happen in our own home...in our kitchen to be precise, but there have been a lot of surprises too.

The tadpoles arrived in about three days in plastic bag full of water, they were complete with the habitat, directions and all the food they would need for there tadpole life.  When they become a frog however, you must go get them live crickets. Yep they go from plant-eating to meat-eating. As I write I hear chirping...cricket chirping.

 These are some of the books we read as we have been watching our tadpoles change.
-Tadpole Rex by Kurt Cyrus is a great book on the inside changes that happen during metemorphis
-From Tadpole to Frog  by Wendy Pfeffer introduces the fact that they hibernate during the winter
-The Caterpillar and the Polliwog by Jack Kent is a cute story and educational too

Both Tukker and Brekkon know the changes that happen outside and inside throughout the process of metamorphosis now.  They even role play the stages of the frogs and wrap themselves in blankets to be inside a cocoon also.

Here is a picture of a tadpole with back legs and a frog-let with four legs.  

                           

 I figured we would just release these little hoppers once they became, well, little hoppers.  There are plenty of options such as the pet store and re-homing them, but it is a little more complicated than just releasing them.  The most complicated part is that I now have a 4 year old that calls them his buddies.
For the experience it is pretty inexpensive, easy and doesn't take a lot of space and knowing what I know now I would do it again!! On to the next project!