Frog and Toad

We've been running another theme parallel to the Asia thing which I didn't plan but that's fine... homeschooling thrives on flexibility, right? Well, actually, it doesn't -- there's such a thing as going in too many directions at one time -- but I thought this one was fun and it's nice for Leah and Rebecca to be able to experience something which is closer to home for them. I guess you can say that our Kindergarten "unit" is Asia and Preschool is Frog and Toad. It all began last week when we went to a "Make a Toad House" nature program at Kings Landing Park. N and L came home with little clay pot toad houses which we set under the large root ball of a fallen tree in our yard, facing North (as the teacher recommended) and in a shady cool place which is often damp. By the way, if you are doing this, you don't have to break a chunk out of the pot to make a door, which is what I had always thought. You can just set the pot ajar so that the toad can squeeze under and in. Surround it with a bank of dirt except for the little opening. Our Park Ranger told me that she gets a lot of her activity ideas from a book called Fun With Nature: Take-Along Guide. I bought a copy of this book and it's actually pretty neat. The project ideas are few and far between; the bulk of the book is a nature guide for small children which helps them identify all different kinds of animals which they may see. Categories include Frogs, Toads, Turtles, Lizards, Salamanders, and more. No birds. I guess there are plenty of bird guides out there! But if you're in a habit of seeing a caterpillar and wishing you knew what kind it was, check out this book. It also has blank journaling pages after each category so you can make your own sketches and notes.

During the Nature program, the teacher read a chapter called "The Garden" from that perennial favorite, Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel. I pulled out the books, since I have most of them, so Leah could look at them and she really liked the chapters we read. I wasn't planning on doing much with the theme, but it keeps coming up, like when we saw lily pads on the surface of Lake Anne during our Nature walk to look for bamboo. Then there was the fact that one of the gifts my mom had brought back from her trip was a set of frog drums in different sizes, one for each child. So we played with those and enjoyed their different sounds. Finally, yesterday Steve and I were walking around in the yard yesterday and I practically tripped over a large toad which I promptly captured and he just as promptly peed all over me in retaliation. The children hadn't been able to see a live toad as part of the nature program because it was an unseasonably cold day and they were all in hiding. So I thought they would enjoy this one. Luckily, I have a very nice LARGE terrarium which has a heavy wooden lid with a mesh screen insert from when I had Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches in my 4th grade classroom. :-) So toad went in there, we named him Guiseppe, and set him up with a house, some dirt, and a few dishes of water. That means that this morning I got to -- in addition to feeding three children, myself, the dog, and the cat -- wake up and go dig worms for the toad! It took me right back to my childhood, actually. We had a pet toad when I was growing up which my mom had found during a fishing expedition. Danny Dunn (our toad) had only 2 1/2 legs, presumably because he had been attacked by an animal and mom didn't feel he would survive in the wild. So she brought him home. And I can't count how many times I heard my mom say, "I have to go dig some worms for the toad." I guess it's true... you really do turn into your mother! :-)

Actually, I don't plan on keeping this toad forever. I just want to have him for the duration of The Adventures of Old Mr. Toad. This is one of the books by Thornton W. Burgess. Natalie had been getting chapters from The Adventures of Grandfather Frog as her bedtime story last month, to follow up on us seeing tadpoles in the pond at Battle Creek Cypress Swamp. I know that these books are usually part of the 2nd grade Waldorf curriculum but I thought I would try it for bedtime, especially since I was looking for something to follow up on frogs. Well, right when we finished that one came the Make a Toad House Day so I told her we'd do the Adventures of Old Mr. Toad next. And now we have a Mr. Toad living at our house so we'll keep him for the duration of the book to be sure and then probably let him go. Right now, though, the children are fascinated with him and every hour or so I hear little feet thumping down the hallway and voices shouting, "I'm just going to go look at the toad, Mom." Leah was especially interested in watching him catch and eat his morning worm and thoughtfully remarked to me, "When I have cereal for breakfast, Old Mr. Toad has worms."

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