Fun with frogs

For the last couple of weeks, I have been busy with our foster puppy (I'll update on her soon!) and garden, filling out enrollment forms for schools and spending lots of time getting my frogs sorted out. Yes, frogs. I have two White's tree frogs, two tiger-legged monkey frogs, and three Vietnamese Mossy Frog tadpoles that are in the process of morphing into frogs. In the last month one of my tanks began leaking water, two pumps stopped working, and I have had a heck of a time maintaining humidity in another. Thankfully I seem to be getting a handle on all that now!

My real point is that I like frogs. I think they are very cool. So when I came across a paper frog toy in a very old craft book (my grandmother's), I just had to try it! Then I just had to try to make it better. I ended up with thin wooden frogs that bob up and down when you race them. I could not stop! I spent hours trying out different strings (really good kite string had the fastest time, and a thick cotton had the slowest) and trying to perfect my movements. Then the kids got involved. Below is a video of a race that they had. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I think the kids ended up learning quite a bit about friction without even knowing that they were learning. I think we may end up bringing these guys out at the next party we have, perhaps a wizard party... They might also come out for a physics or a probability unit. So many possibilities!