Well, it finally happened...he has hunted since the beginning of spring, he has sought out almost daily to find one...and today, with his heart beating faster than a hummingbird's wings, my son swiped his trusty frog net through the creek waters and came up victorious with his first American Bullfrog catch!! He has caught several less challenging to catch Green Frogs, but this was the first Bullfrog.

A couple of weeks ago he caught a huge Green Frog that he at first thought was a Bullfrog, but after doing research we knew he once again had himself a Green Frog. Turns out that Green Frogs and American Bullfrogs are similar in some ways, so we have to be keen on our observation skills and armed with research and information to find out the differences between them. So, when he caught his frog today he knew right away that he finally had his prized catch!

So, just what are the differences?

In the above photo that I took you will see the main identifying mark. The American Bullfrog has a ridge which wraps around the tympanum (eardrum), the Green Frog has a ridge which travels straight down it's back. Here are a few other differences:

- A full grown Bullfrog can measure as large as 8";  full grown Green Frogs measure up to 4"

- Bullfrog's eyes are more encaved; Green Frog's eyes are more pronounced, almost like they are little balls sitting on top of their head

- A Green Frog's tympanum is more noticeable than the Bullfrog's

Obviously the Bullfrog he has caught is very small, measuring only about 31/2" which tells us that this one is very young and still has lots of growing to do. And the Green Frog is already 4" which tells us that it is at least 4 years old and fully mature. Both of these frogs that he has caught are females. The Bullfrog is female because the tympanum in the male is much larger than the eye versus the same size as seen on this one. The Green Frog is a female because males have a yellow throat and again a tympanum that is MUCH larger than the eye versus the same size as seen on ours.

If you'd like to hear the calls of both the Green Frog and the Bullfrog, you can visit the following sites:

American Bullfrog

Green Frog

Admist the Bullfrog hoopla, he has also been catching frog tadpoles faster than I can house them! But we are keeping them all for a bit in hopes that we can observe as many as possible turn into frogs.  We've been blessed to do just that with one of them. I posted about it previously, and here is an updated photo of our tadpole turned frog. It has just about fully absorbed it's tail.

It is amazing how quickly it has absorbed it's tail! We are fairly certain that it is a baby Bullfrog. We also have three other large tadpoles and two smaller tadpoles that we are uncertain of what type they are yet. Here's is Alex with our tadpole habitat.

Which brings me to my next photo of our critter stand. With all the various "catches" being brought to me, my back deck floor was being taken over by them! So my very supportive husband took his son and they cleaned up an old shelf we had and made him a special place to temporarily keep and observe his pets. What a good dad to do this on Father's Day!! Thank you Honey!

The large blue container on the floor is for the Eastern Box turtle which he will be setting free in a couple of days.

I've also written a blog post on the Shining Dawn Books website titled Frog Metamorphosis, check it out if you have a chance!

I keep saying it, but it's worth saying over and over again that nature can be used to teach SO many things! The more we do nature study and observation the more opportunities I see.

We've been focusing a bit on learning more about the human body lately. We've studied the human body in the past, but it had been awhile and we needed to go over things a bit and elaborate more. So this past week we started reading from an encyclopedia of the human body, which we had gotten from the library, about the respiratory system. We've also spent a lot of time the past couple of weeks observing frogs and toads and learning all about them too; so it presented a unique opportunity to contrast the human respiratory system versus the respiratory system of frogs and toads.

Before we released our Green Frog Misty back into the wild we closely observed how the area under her chin expands and shrinks every time she breathes in and out. The following website gave us a demonstration of how that works: Frog Respiration. We also watched the lungs video at the following website to learn even more about the way we breathe: How the Body Works - Lungs Video.

The kids divided a paper in half and compared and contrasted the two different respiratory systems. A couple of the differences that were listed are how we have our diaphragm below our lungs which does the work that the muscles in a frog's throat does and frogs can take in some air through their skin which of course humans cannot. They also listed some things that are alike such as we both have lungs, and breathe in good oxygen and send out carbon dioxide.

In addition, we talked about how the frogs/toads breathed when they were still tadpoles, opening up a discussion on how animals breathe underwater through gills.

We also used the following website to contrast the respiratory systems of birds and reptiles as well:  Vertebrate Lungs.

I plan to use this contrast/compare method throughout our lessons on the human body. Such as when we learn more about the digestive system we'll contrast that as well with one of our latest "pets" from the wild! It is truly amazing how much more interested my kids are when things are made hands-on!

I admit my house has been a bit like a zoo lately. Creatures are beginning to take over. So even though I will miss them greatly it was time for our tadpoles turned toads to catch a wave back home today. For two days now several of them have been coming up to the surface of the water and even coming out on dry land to try out their new lungs, so it was time anyways for them to head out into the great big world on their own. We'll let them finish the final stage of absorbing their tails on their own. We must make room for new creatures, which I will feature in my next blog post! So, this morning I took the final photos of our American Toad friends and we loaded them up and took them back out and set them free in the vernal pool where we originally found the newly hatched tadpoles. They have been SUCH an amazing learning experience! It's absolutely priceless to see something start out as a speck of black with tiny gills turn into a lung-breathing ground dwelling toad. We have done this two years in a row now; and as long as I'm able I will do it every year! Here are the final photos!

I admit that the more experiences my children and I have with frogs and toads, the more we love them. This last week has been a goldmine of opporutnities to observe both. First, we visited my parents who have a beautiful garden pond. And it was simply alive with toads! We estimated that there must be at least 10 American Toads in this small garden pond along with Koi fish. We could hear them singing the entire day; it was such a fun experience!! I managed to take a few great photos and a very neat video of a toad singing. Here are the photos and videos from our day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, Alex finally caught a frog yesterday; frogs can be pretty hard to catch in comparison to the ease of catching toads. He came running into the house holding his prize; Alex was shaking with excitement. He caught a Green Frog; we have lots of those living in our creek.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, both of these experiences have afforded lots of opportunities for learning as well, we've done several of the activities from our new NaturExplorers Frogs and Toads unit study e-book which will be officially released VERY soon!! Cindy and I are so very excited and cannot wait to share these awesome resources. I'm also super excited because the creation of these unit studies is going to make preparation for schooling for us so much more simple. I'm already enjoying the fruits of our labor on a personal level in using them.

Stay tuned, we both will be announcing their launch very soon!!!

Yep, we're at it again. We were diligent in looking almost every day, and this time when we found them they had just hatched in a vernal pool near the creek. We gathered some up and took them home. They are only a few days old, but my have they grown already!

 

 

 And here is our latest toad friend the kids caught. He just loved posing for photos!

 

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.