Adventures with Frogspawn

Source: samarawheeldonphotography.com.au/

One of Harper's teachers from pre-school posted this on their Facebook page after a little boy took some frogspawn in to show everyone - and that was it, a spark ignited in the Harper's brain and we absolutely HAD TO go and find some frogspawn and watch it grow. Great. I really need smelly pond-water in my house, of course.
But I obliged and off we went to where this little boy found the frogspawn, we were warned 'you will NEED wellies!' Did I listen? No. I did not listen, we went straight after preschool in her lovely shiny school shoes. I regretted it immediately and now I have a pair of school shoes to run under a tap. Part of the fun though...I think?
Unfortunately, despite the perfect muddy shallow water conditions, no  frogspawn was to be found, so with a disappointed Harper we left to go home, have dinner and have a bath. But the call of the frog's life-cycle was too strong and she relentlessly asked when we might go somewhere else to find some. So, the next day, we set off for a park a little further away, certain that there would be some there... Despite knowing that the pond smells particularly awful. Lucky me, we found some, in that bog of eternal stench, we found 'SO MUCH!!' frogspawn and dutifully I collected some up for her to look at properly. For those who don't remember doing this in their childhood (I remember doing it once and I loved it) frogspawn is revolting, and sticky?? But Harper was happy so carefully-carefully I carried it on my lap in the car on the way home. Not carefully enough, I got smelly pond water on my trousers because we have pot-holes that could engulf our little car in our roads but STILL, Harper was happy. She kept a diligent watch over them for a while and then went off to play with her cars and seemingly forgot about them for the rest of the day, and so did I. That was until bedtime, when we heard a screech of excitement 'THE DOTS ARE BLOBS MUMMY!' wondering what on earth she was talking about I followed the excited squeals to find her peering into the spawn-container to see that what were once dots in the middle of the masses of jelly-eggs were indeed now blobs.

Imagine the squeal that we got the day after when one or two of them were in the process of hatching! They were on their little way, wiggling out of their eggs and sticking to the outside of them instead.
As sceptical as I was about them, and their smelly pond-water, I have to say with each change it gets a little more exciting and I remember how much I loved seeing the tadpoles change when I was a kid. Seeing her get so excited every time she looks into the container (as they seem to be developing very very quickly, which is holding Harper's attention brilliantly!) is great fun, she's learning about how eggs work and how tadpoles change and grow and it's fun to watch. I'm looking forward to seeing how quickly we'll need to return our little froglets to their pond!