Exploring Outdoors – Frog hunting

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We’re back out in our garden this week for our Exploring outdoors post and venturing beyond our safety gate to the wilderness that is our back-garden. This week it’s the wildlife pond and J’s favourite creature of all time (his obsession really) FROGS!!!!!

His obsession started shortly after T was born last March when to keep him entertained whilst I fed T Rainy Day Dad and various grandparents would take him to look at the frogs, frog spawn, tadpoles and froglets in the pond. His birthday cake and cupcakes were Frog themed last year as well.

Well this week we’ve been back to the pond as whilst gardening we spotted that the frogs were back. So last weekend in the glorious sunshine we headed out to hunt for frogs (it’s been repeated at least 3 or 4 times a day since) and looked for frogs.

Rainy Day Dad and T supervising J's hunt for frogs whilst I take the photo

We only ever go past the gate supervised as although the pond is very shallow it is still dangerous especially for toddlers and babies, but the joy and exploration of nature that it brings each year is worth the -sometimes- hassle of yet again go looking for frogs. The pond is full of different native plants which we let form a cover but each year cut down and thin out. It is also shaded to provide protection from the sun which can get quite intense in the summer as the area faces south. We’ve planted native plants and bog plants around it and at the moment have native spring plants popping up their heads behind it making it a lovely area to go and visit.

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J hunting for the frogs

We take the opportunity to talk about how many frogs in the pond – one of the great things about frogs early in the spring is that they come in pairs so we can start to introduce counting in 2’s.

Our frogs are a little behind the ones on the field near us which have already laid Spawn but I can’t wait until they do as then we can start to investigate the life cycle of the frogs properly and not just from books. Flights of Whimsy has some great advice on keeping tadpoles and frogs in preschool classroom but these would apply equally to the home.

This was an unbirthday present for J from Nannie and Grandad Frog (yes he’s actually nick named his grandparents Nannie and Grandad Frog!) and is a great story of a frog that hits his head and forgets who he is and tries to be lots of different animals on the way to finding out who he is.

We really like the sound effects in the book and the pop up’s as well.

Cerys Parker

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Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, high school teacher and mum. Realising that life doesn't have to be put on hold and you don't just have to survive whilst the kids are young she shares ideas to inspire you to LIVE with the kids, with activities to do together, recipes to cook and enjoy and family travel to make memories to last a lifetime.

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