I am so excited about Frog Trouble Times! I have always loved animals. Because my father grew up on a farm surrounded by them , he made sure we had many opportunities to learn about them firsthand even though we lived in the city. He raised canaries, quail, and mallard ducks so we got to watch them hatch . We also had many different pets throughout my childhood, including at least 4 bird dogs at all times, a border terrier, a king snake, a bull frog, flying squirrels, a rescued baby squirrel, chipmunks, lizard, and a rescued baby rabbit. Most of our pets were actually cared for my brother, Sam, who was an animal enthusiast from birth. Still it was thrilling to be around so many different types of animals and to be able to learn about them by witnessing their habits, habitats, diets, traits, and behavior.
It looks like you grew up with a lot of animals! Do you find animals now, on hikes near your house of in the woods? Do you ever not know what they are? Mamie thinks our froglets are leopard froglets.
I see deer in my backyard every day eating my flowers and always see them when I am our walking in my neighborhood. I also see lots of rabbits and chipmunks in my backyard, owls sometimes, and hawks in the trees I my backyard. There are chameleon on our back deck all of the time. Once I saw a red fox running down the sidewalk in broad daylight when I was driving on the road that you turn off to my house and I saw a coyote once behind my backyard fence. Although it is thrilling to see so many animals, it also very sad because I live right in the middle of a big city so I should not be able to see all of these wild animals but they have no place to go because we have taken all of the land they used to live on and cut down the woods to build our houses. These animals are not at all afraid of people because they are so used to seeing them.
When I saw the coyote, I had to look up coyote pictures to make sure I had really seen one because I just could not believe that there could be one practically in my backyard and I have a dog who weighs 8 pounds so it really scares to think if coyotes and red foxes who could get him because they might not be able to find anything else to eat.
Great post! My daughter is obsessed with dinosaurs, so talking about how the climate changed after the impact event has been one way we've stepped into discussing climate change (and death on a general level). As a parent, I don't want to hide truths from my kids, but I also don't want them to be anxious or fearful. When we talk about climate issues today, I try to discuss problems and potential solutions. We talk about steps we can take at home, and the cool work other people and scientists are out there doing.
That's a really good point about using dinosaurs--existing fascination--to connect to really hard truths, like death and change. It's not "oh well, an asteroid might kill everything anyway," but something about pondering the vastness of time and space is helpful. Plus dinosaurs are cool and we're always learning new things about them.
I am so excited about Frog Trouble Times! I have always loved animals. Because my father grew up on a farm surrounded by them , he made sure we had many opportunities to learn about them firsthand even though we lived in the city. He raised canaries, quail, and mallard ducks so we got to watch them hatch . We also had many different pets throughout my childhood, including at least 4 bird dogs at all times, a border terrier, a king snake, a bull frog, flying squirrels, a rescued baby squirrel, chipmunks, lizard, and a rescued baby rabbit. Most of our pets were actually cared for my brother, Sam, who was an animal enthusiast from birth. Still it was thrilling to be around so many different types of animals and to be able to learn about them by witnessing their habits, habitats, diets, traits, and behavior.
It looks like you grew up with a lot of animals! Do you find animals now, on hikes near your house of in the woods? Do you ever not know what they are? Mamie thinks our froglets are leopard froglets.
I see deer in my backyard every day eating my flowers and always see them when I am our walking in my neighborhood. I also see lots of rabbits and chipmunks in my backyard, owls sometimes, and hawks in the trees I my backyard. There are chameleon on our back deck all of the time. Once I saw a red fox running down the sidewalk in broad daylight when I was driving on the road that you turn off to my house and I saw a coyote once behind my backyard fence. Although it is thrilling to see so many animals, it also very sad because I live right in the middle of a big city so I should not be able to see all of these wild animals but they have no place to go because we have taken all of the land they used to live on and cut down the woods to build our houses. These animals are not at all afraid of people because they are so used to seeing them.
When I saw the coyote, I had to look up coyote pictures to make sure I had really seen one because I just could not believe that there could be one practically in my backyard and I have a dog who weighs 8 pounds so it really scares to think if coyotes and red foxes who could get him because they might not be able to find anything else to eat.
Thanks so much for including me, Belle. Love this! Shared with my teacher friends and on social media. Can't wait to see resources and lessons, too.
Thank you, Amber! We're definitely tuning in to the Save the Frogs "Amazing Amphibians of India" presentation tomorrow (Bea is in school today).
Great post! My daughter is obsessed with dinosaurs, so talking about how the climate changed after the impact event has been one way we've stepped into discussing climate change (and death on a general level). As a parent, I don't want to hide truths from my kids, but I also don't want them to be anxious or fearful. When we talk about climate issues today, I try to discuss problems and potential solutions. We talk about steps we can take at home, and the cool work other people and scientists are out there doing.
That's a really good point about using dinosaurs--existing fascination--to connect to really hard truths, like death and change. It's not "oh well, an asteroid might kill everything anyway," but something about pondering the vastness of time and space is helpful. Plus dinosaurs are cool and we're always learning new things about them.
My very favorite New Yorker article in recent years is "The Day the Dinosaurs Died" by Douglas Preston (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died). Sometimes I take long articles for adults and read the exciting parts to the kids. We did this with the Kathryn Schulz article "Why Animals Don't Get Lost" (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/04/05/why-animals-dont-get-lost) and now we have some great weird facts about lobster navigation to share.