Family Fun: It’s Tadpole Time!

Do you remember tad-poling as a kid? It was huge fun!

Have you done it with your kids?

Sound too hard?

It’s really not!

You don’t really need all that much to do it but getting the right gear certainly makes it easier and you won’t go home with disappointed kids!

So off to my favourite store for all things awesome… Cheap as Chips!

First all I had to pick up for two young girls to go tad-poling was a bucket and spade set, an aquarium net and a black plastic tool tray that was handy to take our note pad and pen in to record our findings.

Tadpoles like fairly still water with some shade and some handy rocks to hide under.

Where we live the predominant frogs are Banjo Frogs and they get really big, fat and easy to spot in the dark water.

So Annie and her friend CC and I trotted down to the creek in our search.

It was a beautiful afternoon and the girls had an awesome time trying not to make slashes and trying really hard not to fall in (not very successful at either)

We caught our limit (imposed by ME) and sat down on the creek bank to record our first findings. We noted where we found the tadpoles, so that we could release the frogs into the same spot, how many we caught and what state of the life cycle they were in. we found that we had a mix of plain tadpoles and a few that were already beginning to get some legs!

We took them home carefully in our bucket, and put the bucket down carefully in the shade where the dog wouldn’t get too curious about it.

When Dad got home he was despatched back to the creek for some water, rocks and slime for our house guests.

We had an old aquarium that used to house our turtle but we quickly realised that we were really going to need something with a lid as the little blighters would be all over the house before we knew it!

Luckily only $15 at Cheap as chips saw us the proud owners of something a bit more suitable with a sturdy lid!

So we have set he tank up with a nice ledge for the emerging frogs, some lovely hiding places and a nice tight lid.

Some lettuce pooped in the freezer makes great tadpole food and we will change half the water for fresh water every day or two (don’t use tap water as any chlorine will kill the tadpoles)

Now we will check on our guests every day and record what happened to them as they develop.

Annie is doing some drawings in her notebook and being very scientific about the whole thing so in terms of an activity for the kids it ticks a huge amount of boxes

• We have had a great fun time playing together in the creek
• We are learning about scientific recording
• We are learning all about the life cycle of frogs
• We are learning to take responsibility for another living creature
• We are helping to preserve the health and vitality of our local creek.
• I got to go shopping.
• Tick, tick. tick

I will let you know how they go!

When was the last time you walked barefoot in the creek?

Try it!

It’s awesome!