Homeschool Science Lesson

Joshua firmly decided that we did not need pets while our brood is so young.  I agree with him wholly.

Until I see a cute little kitten.  And then I am weak.

Until I remember the maintenance a pet is.  Loving and fun and all that, but still work.  And I certainly have plenty of that on my plate.

However.... the kids and I were at a friend's house recently and we spotted her three little pets.  I giggled as the little critters leaped about, pell mell and roly poly around one another.  

So I promptly went out and bought pets for our home. 

And that is where they live.  I scooted the picture frame over there so you could see how very ginormous their little habitat is.  That's a 4x6, y'all.  Our little babies don't take up even as much space as a picture frame.  Wanna know what's in that there habitat?

African Dwarf Frogs.  Two of them, to be exact.  The children named them Spot and Dot.  Their both male (that's what the papers say, anyway!) and they have all they need to thrive right there in their little cube.  We feed them twice a week.

I know.  Even we can be that responsible!

I don't know who is Spot and who is Dot, but Thomas assures us he knows the difference.

Now the thing about these little frogs is they shed their skin occasionally.  We have watched as one's skin got lighter and lighter.  He was beginning to look quite sickly, but I pretended that he was supposed to do that.

Turns out I was right, thank the Lord!

Today Thomas came bounding through the house shouting that the frogs were wrestling.  No, wait, they had their mouths stuck together.  Now one is eating the other one.

It was all very dramatic.  Apparently, they kind of help each other out during this whole molting process.  Spot was helping Dot shed his skin and there was much activity in that little cube.  The kids all stood around laughing and groaning and being disgusted while enjoying every minute of the action.

Things settled down after about half an hour or so, but the scene was not forgotten.  Thomas and Sarah Grace read up on our little critters and are now armed with all kinds of information about our froggie friends.

I stood back and dusted off my hands after all the hard work I'd put into that lesson.  I might have even popped an extra piece of chocolate.