Summer Science is Starting Early...

Our family amphibian and reptile binder.

Our family had talked about purchasing a reptile to observe over the summer and learn about while gaining yet another family pet. Since we are only a couple of months away from the end of the school year, we have been gathering flyers from pet stores and compiling them in a binder so we can make an informed decision.

Then, a friend from Pokémon league said she had a bunch of salamander and frog eggs and offered some to us. How could I pass up showing the kids the miracle that is frog metamorphosis! So, here we are. The salamanders don’t look like they are doing so well, but this morning we had a surprise with the tadpoles…

I had noticed last night before I went to bed there were little things which had sunk to the bottom of the frog container. Considering the luck we’ve had with the salamanders, I guessed they were dead tadpoles. This morning instead of one or two, there were closer to a dozen sunken eggs. A cat jumped onto the table we are keeping the eggs on and all the little tadpoles wiggled! Then I noticed one had wiggled its way up to the surface. Wow! I am super excited to see how they progress.

Here you can see some tadpoles are still in their eggs and others have hatched and sunk to the bottom.

See how many of the tadpoles are wiggling around?

The salamander eggs. This picture was taken a week ago. The salamanders haven’t changed much other than getting cloudy…which is not a good sign.

Our family amphibian and reptile binder.

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