Tadpoles

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“Now that it is spring,” said Mother, “We shall go to the pond every week to watch the tadpoles become frogs.” Mother explained that frogs lay eggs which grow into more frogs. “Today we will look for the eggs,” said Mother.

Ben and Meg live a short distance from a big pond. They walked down to the pond with Mother. Chip came along. He sniffed at the many new smells of spring. At the pond, Mother saw a lot of eggs and showed them to Ben and Meg. The eggs looked like balls of jelly.

Mother explained that the jelly covers the frog eggs to protect them. Some frogs lay thousands of eggs, but only a few of these eggs become frogs. Ducks, fish, and insects eat many of the eggs.

In a short time the eggs which are left will become tadpoles. At first a tadpole has a long tail and looks like a little fish. But it changes and becomes larger. As it becomes larger, it begins to grow legs. Over time, the legs get bigger and stronger, and the tail gets smaller and smaller. After the tadpole grows legs and lungs, it becomes a frog that can eat live bugs and flies.

Frogs can live as long as fifteen years. They eat insects, worms, and spiders. They have sticky tongues to catch their food.

“We will come every week to watch,” said Mother. Ben and Meg were busy looking for more frog eggs. It was very exciting to think that these little eggs would soon be frogs.

Meg leaned over the pond to see the eggs more closely, and guess what? She fell in! Mother ran to help her. Meg was wet and cold. Mother said they would go home right away so Meg could take a hot bath and get into dry clothes.

On the way home, Meg and Ben asked lots of questions.

Have you seen tadpoles? It would be fun for you to watch them grow into frogs. Be sure to write about it in your main lesson book.

Mother explained that it was much kinder to leave the tadpoles in their pond and not move them. Some children like to take them home, but the tadpoles can’t find enough food to eat when they are taken out of their home. It is much nicer to visit the pond to watch them grow in their own home. Mother promised they would visit every week.

When Meg and Ben got home, Mother ran a hot bath for Meg and got some dry clothes for her to put on.

At last Meg and Ben were ready for school work. Mother took out the main lesson books and asked Ben to decorate a page in his book with form drawing.

“Tomorrow you will be ready to write about the frog eggs,” said Mother, “And your page will be nicely decorated.”

Meg drew a picture of the pond with the frog eggs. Mother asked her if she wanted to draw a picture of herself falling into the pond! Meg frowned. She did not want to draw that. Chip came and licked her face, and she laughed.

Ben likes form drawing. It is a lot of fun to play marching music and to draw square forms. Sometimes Mother plays harp music when Ben does rounded form drawings. Music makes form drawing easier. Ben made a form drawing border around his pages. Then he said, “Mother, look at my main lesson book. It is so beautiful!”

Mother said, “Ben, your pages do look very beautiful. You have done a good job. Now they are ready for when you write about frogs tomorrow.”

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