Frog Life Cycle

We successfully witnessed a frog's life cycle, from egg to adult frog!  It was an enjoyable learning experience.  It is a leopard frog (Northern leopard frog, to be exact), and supposedly they take three months or around 12 weeks to complete metamorphosis.  Our frog took eight weeks.  I wonder whether it was nourished extremely well or whether that is supposed to include the frog growing in size.

Past life cycles we've learned about and witnessed can be found on this blog on the following pages:

Bird Life Cycle

Wasp Life Cycle

Butterfly and Pill Bug Life Cycles

Human Life Cycle

Most of the pictures I took of our tadpole are not good quality.  It would have been optimal if I'd have taken all the pictures when I had the tank in the bathroom to change out its water, but in the earliest stages I didn't even walk that far with the tank, but poured half the water into a bowl.  Also all were taken with my iPhone, as I could not get my digital camera's flash inactivated.  I do not know what the deal is.  It lived its tadpole life out on top of my dresser.  The most important thing, of course, was that we were able to watch and enjoy.  Jaden William and Elizabeth especially enjoyed it (as did I).  Liv liked it, too.  Trusten didn't seem to care a whole lot.  Nathan thought it was pretty neat and watched Tad's transformation, too. 

At arrival, most were embryos; there were some eggs.  The second day all but one died.

See the little back leg, at just over five weeks vs. the supposed sprout at six weeks.

Bathroom picture came out better with better lighting.

Front legs!  And they grew completely over one night, I swear!  I don't know how it would have hidden them, as I was daily watching closely for sprouts.

I placed a piece of wood in the tank for Tad to climb upon.  Its tail is hanging in water.  Second picture is underwater photo, as it was frightened.

Chin propped up on wood, tail shrinking quickly!

Short tail and practically no tail

Dirty little creature; picture on right taken in boys' room where it now resides.  We've not seen it eat any live moving insect, yet, but that's what it's supposed to do.  It's certainly not for lack of providing them.

A Kindle book borrowed for free with our Amazon Prime membership:

Boys' journal entries on tadpoles/frogs:

 Trusten's illustration cracked me up.  Remember, he's the one who was "not that much" interested in the life cycle of the frog.  The way he depicted the tadpole growing and then winning a race (rather than transforming into an adult frog) makes me think he's likening it to the story of Willy the human sperm.  Hahahahaha!  I love this boy!

I love William's colorful picture!  Do you see the frogs at his feet?  And then he drew the life cycle.

This was fun!  I highly recommend teaching life cycles by seeing the real deal.  We've always enjoyed seeing the various stages of life in different species, whether it be plant or animal or other.  

Brought to you by Lifestyle of Learning.

Until next time...

What We... (Roman Month of April 2014)

I've got a lot of catching up to do.  We all caught whooping cough somehow.  It is realized in retrospect that Nathan was first, though he only had three nights of bad coughing.  The oldest three kids and he had caught a cold not long before that, and so at that time we though it was that.

When I started having problems, it was so much like when I had asthma that Nathan suspected we had another mold problem (which we did have a minor one, and he replaced part of the kitchen counter because of it), and when I started improving immediately after, it was almost confirmation.  William started coughing at that time, but he'd been around the mold when it was removed.

I started taking oregano oil, but at that time it was too late to change anything for me, since we learned that antibiotics don't change the course of the illness by the time it's realized what a person has, though it can prevent you spreading the illness to others.

Eventually all the kids got sick, Elizabeth being the last one, and it was scary and exhausting when she got it.  Many sleep-deprived nights and stressful days.  The kids are still coughing a bit, and Elizabeth still has usually just two bad fits at night, but everything has improved a lot.  I'm still keeping the kids away from everyone.  I don't think they're contagious, anymore, but they are vulnerable to secondary infection until their lungs have healed. 

This post contains pictures from the Roman month of April:

What Kids Did for Fun...

So much fun in the rain puddles!  Poor William has outgrown his puddle pants.  I don't think those particular ones are made in a size for him.

Trusten often is found jumping on the rebounder, but here he's playing on his iPod with Baby Love snuggling beside him with her stuffed seal (one of the stuffed animals she inherited from me that I loved as a child).  I took this beloved shots before getting Trusten to sit up.  I don't like when they lie down like that with such devices over their hearts.  

Elizabeth enjoys pushing Sister's dump truck:

I love when my sweet babies all play nicely together, like they did here in the sandbox:

What Loving Gestures We Shared...

Olivia putting Baby Sister's shoes on her feet:

 Aren't they so cute with their ponytails?

I walked into Olivia's room one day to find the following picture on her wall.  It is very much Olivia's signature person.  I immediately felt a mix of frustration and amusement.  I couldn't help but smile.  When I saw Olivia shortly thereafter I asked her about the drawing on her wall.  She said, "I wanted to make it bootiful."  That she did.  It's quite beautiful.  LOL  I explained to her she needed from then on to draw only on paper, and then we can hang her pictures on her wall or mirror with tape.  She has not drawn on the wall since but has requested a few different pictures to be hung in her room.  :-)

We got pizza to go one night, and Nathan went in.  While I waited, I drew him the following picture with my finger on an app on my iPhone.  He's my Love Bug, and I always use a lady bug to symbolize that. 

Jaden William picked some phlox/sweet Williams and surprised us by sneaking them and a note into our bathroom.

Nathan has intended on redoing all our counters in due time, as finances allow, but when he thought I had asthma again, he came home with wood and got started right away.  

Baby Love covering her ears while a saw was going:

Can you believe it's just plywood??  It turned out looking very nice, I think.  Pictured below before installation of more knobs/handles.

My Livi-Pie helping me get groceries:

What We Ate...

This first one is from when we ate out at Red Lobster:

Some yummy stuff I fixed:

 My fruit, grain, and seed bars with cream cheese frosting.  Kids always get excited when I make these.

 Last stew of the season, used rice for only the second or third time, and it's so good that way!

 Chicken, salad and wild rice with carrots and onions; Nathan's birthday dinner of steak, asparagus, wild rice, and some store-bough white garlic-butter bread that he'd bought at some point (a rare thing around here but tasty).

Cheesy broccoli and rice casserole; lasagna with beef

What We Did for Special Times...

I Partook of the New Covenant Passover:

We enjoyed the memorial of creation on the Sabbath day by exploring and playing in our top/back pasture:

 

We had good times together and learned plenty.

Until next time...