FINALLY, today we were able to get back into our full home school studies!  Our first co-op meeting went really well!  Just little minor things to work out, but overall it was a huge success.  Thank you al so much for your prayers.  I've really needed them with the extra stress.  But, thank goodness, it is starting to settle down now.  Hopefully I'll be able to get ahold of the photos soon that were taken the first day to share here.

Over the last week, the Lord has brought new kinds of creatures into our home, via my son of course.  We have been thoroughly enjoying our new amphibians which took some time to identify, but I think we have finally accurately identified them as:  five (5) Southern Two-Lined Salamanders and one (1) Green Frog.

So, because we finally have the time, we spent a big portion of our school day studying them!

Here is a photo of one of the salamanders.

And also a photo of the Green Frog.

While studying and observing both of these creatures, we had to be careful to keep rehydrating them in some water.  Because one of the things we read was how they will dehydrate fairly quickly when not in or near water.  We got to feel this first hand as the frogs skin would dry out within just a few minutes of having it out.

Here are some other things we observed and learned about:

We carefully observed the eyes of the frog.  We saw that their shape was spherical.  The frog's eyes are their main sense organ for finding food and avoiding predators.  They have clear eyelids that raise up from the bottom to protect their eyes while under water.

Also in the photo above you'll notice, beneath and to the left of the eye, the circular Tympanic Membrane (external eardrum).  The Tympanic Membranes are the visible external structure of a well-developed internal sense of hearing. 

This photo really shows the beautiful jewel-like sparkling colors in our frog friend, and the length of the hind legs.

We also observed the frog jumping and the salamander walking and contrasted the two.  I LOVE the way a salamander walks, so cute!  We also reviewed the contrast between a frog and toad.  Here are a couple of videos discussing a few other things that we learned.

Did you know that you can hypnotize a frog?  Ok, well, you are basically just calming it down.  Alex wasn't so successful on the video with it.  But I was able to do it several times.  If done properly they will lay still and calm for over an hour!

While our little frog friend was relaxing, we observed his heart beating and lungs breathing.  It was quite easy to notice through the thin skin.  We also noticed movement in the bottom of his mouth.  In frogs, air is pumped in and out of the nostrils by the muscular action of the floor of the mouth.  Breathing, in humans, involves increasing of decreasing the size of the chest cavity to pump air in and out.  Frogs, lacking ribs, cannot enlarge the cavity containing the lungs.  They must use the muscles of the mouth to move air in and out.  Humans can breath through their mouth but frogs cannot.  We also tried to observe the breathing in our salamanders, but unfortunately they cannot be hypnotized. :)

We observed the skin on both of our amphibian friends.  An amphibian's skin is thin, smooth, and moist and only loosely attached to the muscles underneath.  Are amphibians slimy?  Yes, well at least when they are adequately hydrated.  Amphibian skin contains small mucous glands over practically the whole body.  An amphibian's skin, when submerged, can absorb water.  In the air, they constantly face the threat of dehydration due to evaporation because they have no physical ability to control evaporation off their skin.  Occasionally dead toads or frogs that are dry and stiff can be found around buildings, on roads, etc. due to dehydration.

We observed many more details about both of our friends.  These obseration ideas were found in Animals Alive, by Walter Dennis Holley.

We also took time to read one of our favorite books, The Salamander Room, by Anne Mazer.  And also learned some more neat information in Reptiles and Amphibians, by Bonnie Pettifor.  I had the kids take turns reading aloud from this.

Then they each made a Nature journal entry page.  Alex wrote about where he found our amphibian friends.

And Hannah wrote a very cute poem about our salamander on her entry.  And with her permission, I have shared it below.

Slippery Little Salamander

Slippery little salamander, run fast away.

Hide in the leaves where no one can see you.

Slippery little salamander, stay nice and warm.

Fall fast asleep, say good night to all the world

Stay warm in the leaves, "Good night little salamander."

At the end of our school day we took our friends down to the creek and wished them well, thanked the Lord for providing them to us, and set them free!

After our wonderful experience of hatching and raising toads, we were so thrilled that a couple of days ago Alex was able to find a medium sized American Toad in our yard.  I handed him some instructions on how to make an American Toad habitat that I found HERE.  He did a fantastic job of putting his new pet's home together!

 Do you see our camouflaged toad?

(he's in the upper left corner!)

He used our 2.5 gallon aquarium that has a screen cover.  This will suffice for now, but if we decide to keep our new pet for very long, we'll definitely need a bigger aquarium.  Perhaps it's because we had such a great experience raising the toad tadpoles, but I have to admit, the little fella has really grown on me!  He's very sweet!  We didn't get a photo of it, but can you believe he loves to have his tummy rubbed?  Alex has put him to sleep a couple of times doing this.  Too funny!

 Do you see the glands behind where his eyes are?

 Those secrete a poison onto his attackers.

We have to be very careful to keep him away from our cat and dog.

And wash our hands every time after handling him.

In the next photo he's taking a dip in his pool for a drink!  Did you know that toads drink through their skin?  And did you know that unlike frogs they really aren't that great of swimmers, and don't prefer the water.  They will only get in there for certain reasons, one of which is to drink.

Even though their feet aren't the greatest for swimming, their talent lies in the fact that they are excellent at digging with their little claws (frogs feet are more web-like for swimming).  And digging down deep to hide is what our little toad friend loves to do!

You'll have to look pretty hard to see him!

(Only his little head is sticking out, to the right of the moss)

Gabby has been so amazed with him.  She just sits and stares for the longest time at him, watching his every move.

And here is the neatest highlight of our experiences so far with him.  He has a preference for roly-poly bugs for dinner.  Take a look at this!!!  Cool!!

Wouldn't you know it, I sure did, that all but one of our toad tadpoles had turned into tiny toads by the time we got back from vacation!  But what a blessing that this one little tadpole held out for us!  My very good friend Kari was tadpole-sitting them for us and had to release them as soon as they transformed because if she didn't they, for some reason, would die very quickly.  I'm so thankful for her taking care of them for me!  So when I picked them up yesterday there were three in the container, two of which had just changed into toads.

Can you see the two little toads camouflaged on the rock (click on the picture to enlarge)?

Here's a photo of one of them swimming around.  As you can see he still has just a nob of his little tail left.  We read that the tail gets absorbed back into the body, it doesn't just fall off as some think.

So, after observing them for a bit, we immediately took them down to our creek and realeased them.  So now remains one little tadpole.  I couldn't get any good pictures on him because the water is too murky.

I also wanted to share some pictures from a couple of days before we left on vacation.  The kids and their friend Danny were checking out the small pool of water and mud over next to our lot and found lots of little baby toads hoping around.

This one is a bit slow in absorbing his tail!  I just think they are so cute!

A quick glance over to the watery part revealed lots more tadpoles in various stages of changing.  It's hard to see it in the photo, but several were just moments away from coming out of the water.

The whole process of watching this transformation from eggs to baby toads has been priceless for us!  The kids and I have learned so much, especially an even deeper appreciation for God's magnificent creation.  To think that something can start out as a little black blob swimming about breathing underwater with gills and then transform into a little toad crawling out of the water with legs and having lungs to breath out of water is truly breathtaking to me.  But when we take the time to stop for just a bit to truly observe His creation, this is just what happens.

I look forward to collecting more eggs next Spring!

To see all the posts from our experiences click on Amphibian Study.

One more photo before we leave!  You can see their legs now!  Click to full size.  Back to packing!

The update for our toad tadpoles is coming a little early this time because...we have LEGS!  Several of the tadpoles, seemlingly overnight, grew little tiny back legs!  I so wish I had a HD camera so that you could see the little "paper-thin" legs swishing around when they swim!LOL  But I think you may only be able to see the little "nobs" where they come out from (you'll notice them at the back of the body, front of tail).   Also, I noticed that on some of them, particulary the ones that are turning a brownish color, you can see their eye bulges starting!  And in these pictures taken with my new camera :), you can really see details of the tails well.  When watching back the video below, I noticed that a couple of times when they would swim, I could see a very quick glimpse of them, I hope you can too.   You can click on any of these photos to see full size.

Now here's the bummer, just as they are starting all these changes, we are leaving soon for vacation!  WAAHHHHH!  Perhaps, maybe, they won't change very much more until we get back!

All the original posts and updates are under this link:

Amphibian Study

For our tadpole update this time, we have a special host, Miss Gabby Rose!

We definitely do not have as many tadpoles as when we started, so I know some of them haven't made it.  Since moving them outside on our deck, we've not been watching them as closely, so I'm sure we've not noticed.  But the ones that are still alive are flourishing quite well.   We just changed the water (always using water from our creek), and they seem even more active since then.  We also added a very large rock to the water just in case any of them start growing legs.

I've noticed lately, especially on the bigger ones, that their sides are bulging out a little more.  All the sources that I've read from say they take a total of six to eight weeks to turn from tadpole to toad.  We are just a little over four weeks.

Our little baby toad tadpoles are still coming along just fine.  Their growing rate seems to have slowed down now just a bit, but still going.   They've definitely gotten a little longer and a little wider since my last photos.

 Here is a quick camera video.  The waterfall-like sound in the background is the torrential rain!:

My kids came in the other night begging for my camera to take a picture.  They had went over to one of the areas close to where they originally found our tadpole eggs and this is what they saw (click on the image and hit full size):

Yes, there was hundreds maybe thousands of them!!!  Toads anyone???

Now of course they also noticed lots of them washed up on the mud and dried out too, so we discussed that's why they have to lay so many eggs, so many don't make it.   And as a funny side note, my dear daughter got herself stuck in about 2 feet of mud while she was over there, and Dad had to come rescue her!

Our little toad tadpoles are still growing like crazy!  We can now see the little gills on the sides of their bodies that will later be feet.

Here you can see their size in comparison to a dime.

I just checked out a great book from the library:

Toad by the Road, by J. Ryder

~ A Year in the Life of These Amazing Amphibians

It put the life cycle of a toad through the four seasons into beautiful and sometimes funny poetry verse, giving facts at the bottom of the pages.  Great!

For all my posts on our toad eggs and tadpoles click Amphibian Study.