Frogs

One Monday one of the children brought four frogs to daycare and enlightened us with stories of how and where she captured them over the weekend.  Apparently there were originally five frogs but one is 'missing'.  I put a plastic cover over the open top of the container to ensure there would be no more escapees while they were in our care.

There was some concern that although they had an adequate environment, they did not have any food.  That evening my 15 year-old son collected several flies and fed them to the frogs.  After the 'granddad' frog ate seven of the eight flies we separated him out of the container so the smaller ones would have a chance -- could have been a lesson in 'survival of the fittest'.

The next day, as the children arrived they checked on our guests and were intrigued by the tale of the frog feeding adventures.  They wanted to see the frogs eat.  When we went outdoors we brought the frogs with us and my son demonstrated how he captured flies and transferred them to the frog container.  The children were thrilled when the frogs snapped up the offerings.

For the remainder of our outdoor time the children scampered around the yard chasing flies.  Not surprisingly most flies do not sit still when a group of children descend on them.  Eventually the children learned to sneak up on the flies and mastered some fly catching techniques.  By lunchtime we had fed the frogs more than 15 flies.

When I announced it was time for our lunch the children seemed surprised.  "How long have we been out here?" they asked.  When I told them it had been a little over two hours they were amazed.  "It didn't feel that long".