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Was just checking back in the archive - last year I posted on 8th March that our little pond was seething with froggie activity, and full of frogspawn. Yesterday the pond was seething again (and today - by gum they have stamina, even tho it is only once a year!)... the exact same days! How do they do that?

Our next unit with the five year olds includes habitats and life cycles. I'm really hoping the pond at school produces some frogspawn after Novrus and we don't miss it. I want to get some tadpoles into the classroom so they can watch the change. I'd love if we could get some butterfly cocoons as well but the chances of that are pretty slim. :(

Anyone have any ideas what else we could use? Eggs would be good but rigging an incubator would be beyond our abilities, I think. So would finding fertilised eggs, I think. Maybe. I'd have to ask around.

We had 2 great blobs of frogspawn in the pond yesterday. By this afternoon there were six, and several very lively frogs. I don't think they're done yet! Last year we put a chunk (glob?) in a spare fish tank in the garden, with escape wood at the sides, to spare a few from the fish. I don't think we need have bothered! Someone in your area is bound to have some spare frogspawn.

Be careful with the butterflies, Patti - many are protected species. You'd be ok with cabbage whites, if you can find any caterpillars.

An alternative project for five-year-olds might be an ant farm...
Or breeding giant salamanders..
Or cuddling the Madagascan Aye Aye...

Pete wrote: "An alternative project for five-year-olds might be an ant farm......
Or breeding giant salamanders.. ...
Or cuddling the Madagascan Aye Aye... ...
."



or Worms.

Yes, why not...

EOL!

(that means Eeeeek out loud)

Yeah, you could have a wormery compost thingy (technical term). Do the kids grow stuff?
Or perhaps a bee hive. Or is that a bit too advanced.

I am just looking into getting Evie a butterfly garden, they come complete with all you need to grow your own butterfly's, not sure how you would go on over there Patti, as far as I'm aware, the ones we can buy are British species.
Pond dipping and rock pooling is a great favourite in young children and me
too.
I also get a lot of questions about the ants we have from the younger children and Evie would stay watching them all day if she could.

EOL only just covers that Pete !

Yeah, we could buy butterfly kits if we were in the UK.

Think I'll have a look at ant farm kits while we're home.

Just check what you can and cannot bring in with you. Different countries have very different phyto-sanitary regulations. You might be able to bring in UK butterfly kits or ant farms or you might not

I suppose the airline should know, otherwise it would probably be whatever passes for the ministry of agriculture

No frogspawn here yet. Himself notes it down in his field notebook every year.

We have two frogs living in our greenhouse. And some pesky mice who believe the tulip bulbs were laid on as a buffet.

Jim wrote: "Just check what you can and cannot bring in with you. Different countries have very different phyto-sanitary regulations. You might be able to bring in UK butterfly kits or ant farms or you might n..."

From past experience and conversations with friends, they're only concerned about electronics.
Personally, I'd rather not bring in critters of any sort. I might try buying a formicarium or four and fill them with local sand and ants. I'll do some research first.

Ooh, I must check next time I walk the dog. We generally get quite a lot of frogspawn round here.

Did I mention the caviar? Mmmmmmslimyeggsontoastmmmmm

... day three and they are STILL at it! Awesome stamina