Welcome to the Frog Trouble Times
in which we use the little stuff (like tadpoles) to talk about the big stuff (like climate change)
Hi! If you’re reading this you’re either a subscriber to the Frog Trouble Times (print, snail-mail edition) or you’re an educator or parent or person I admire. Welcome to the Frog Trouble Times: Substack edition. Happy Earth Day.
The Frog Trouble Times is a co-written newsletter featuring essays by me, and nature-focused lessons/tips/observations created by me and Beatrice, my witchy seven-year-old.
I probably should have started this newsletter thirteen months ago, when we started at-home learning. I was still learning at-home learning then, figuring out my main objectives. These can be summed up as:
1. keeping my kids busy and reasonably content while getting my own work done.
2. feeling good about the time we spend together (I’ll say more about this, but a newsletter is a great tool for remembering stressful times with fondness).
I have added a third goal, as we inch closer to fire season and what’s predicted to be a more-active-than-usual Atlantic hurricane season:
3. figuring out what to say to my kids about climate change and other scary environmental problems.
I’m still learning, and I’m looking forward to learning from you. The FTT is a space for us to do that.
Why the Frog Trouble Times?
While we do have “frog trouble” (human activity is causing a massive amphibian die-off), the Frog Trouble Times takes its name from a newsletter Beatrice and I started after Harriet was born, which takes its name from the Sandra Boynton song “Frog Trouble.”
Beatrice’s newsletter has jokes, nature stories, and usually some reports about our cats.
The Substack version of the Frog Trouble Times will also have jokes, nature stories, and maybe a cat update or two.
But more importantly, it will be a community for parents and kids to talk about what it means to live on the earth right now, in what is expected to be the hottest decade on record.
How do we talk about scary but inevitable climate events with elementary-age children? How can we engage our schools and communities in a way that is age-appropriate and impactful? How can climate change be a window into worldwide issues as well as the question of environmental justice?
The FTT is also about your home life. It’s a useful resource for kids’ books, science learning, and projects (the first ones will focus on our interest in frogs and tadpoles). I’ll tell you about our projects, the minimal but useful tools we keep on hand for exploring and documenting our environment, and you can tell me about yours. Beatrice and I will also interview teachers, kids, and writers whose work engages young people with nature and the environment.
It’s a repository of good news and stories of kids making a difference--like Lilly Platt, a 12-year-old writer and environmental champion who started “Lilly’s Plastic Pickup” at the age of seven. Lilly has picked up close to 150,000 pieces of plastic so far, and through her writing and public speaking works to educate people about the impact of plastic on animals. Or Mari Copeny, who at age 8 convinced President Obama to visit her hometown of Flint, Michigan, to do something about the city’s contaminated water.
It’s a weekly, easy-to-follow lesson, sometimes a writing/drawing exercise and sometimes an experiment. Subscribers will have a chance to post work and be in community around the work that others post. From my years as an educator and Beatrice’s reaction when I told her about making this Substack together, I know that audience is as important to kids’ self-expression as it is to ours. The FTT’s subscribers will be a built-in audience for each other.
How often will you publish?
The FTT will post three times a week—a Sunday essay from me, an activity/lesson post on Tuesday, co-planned and co-written by me and Beatrice, and a Friday roundup of news, links, and conversation. Every week will have a chance for you to be in conversation, and for your kids to post their observations and responses (if they want!) to the activity posts. This week I’ll start with a Friday essay—that’s tomorrow!
How much does it cost?
Nothing for now! There will always be a free essay/links version, but in the future I will open up a subscriber service to people who would like to be in tighter community with us, including the ability to ask questions and post and get encouraging feedback on your work. Subscriptions will raise money for environmental causes. Right now we’re considering The Coalition for Rainforest Nations and Jane Goodall’s Roots and Shoots, but we would love to hear suggestions. The full FTT will always be free to educators, parents who are students, and single parents.
How do I sign up?
It’s easy—register here for free, and you’ll get new posts (starting tomorrow) in your in-box!
What else can I do?
Please tell your friends and family, send them a link to sign up! Or give a gift subscription. We’d love to meet them. Look for the first post tomorrow.
About Belle
I’m a writer and educator. I live in North Carolina with my husband Richard and our two daughters, Beatrice and Harriet, ages seven and almost-three. My nonfiction book, The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood, is about the long journey to our daughters, and started with an essay for the environmental magazine Orion. I direct the MFA program at North Carolina State University, but have also taught first grade, fifth grade, high school, and continuing education classes for nature-loving people of all ages. I’m an avid forager, kayaker, and reader.
About Beatrice
I’m seven years old, and I live in North Carolina and am in first grade. I love reading, nature, and the woods. I live near the Haw River and I am writer of the Frog Trouble Times. I have a small sister named Harriet, a two-year-old cat named Coco, a nine-year-old cat named Julius, and a we-don’t-know-how-old cat named Randy. I love going on long walks to find animals. We currently have ten tadpoles.
Today’s joke:
Q: What do you call a famous bird?
A: A celeb-birdy!
I love your cats’ names. Why are they named what the are and who chose the names.
Your grandfather, Papa ( Haynes) and my mother are siblings. Because of this Mamie is my cousin, your mom and Uncle Sky are my cousins, and you and Harriet are my cousins. My daughters, and grandson, Miles are also your cousins. My name is Anne Robinette, and your Mamie is my cousin, and bestie! We grew up together and had the best time. My brother is Sam.
Miles, my grandson, lives in Raleigh and his mother( your cousin, Beth Robinette, works at NC State like your mom. Miles and I love to take nature walks together. Last week when I visited him, he had found a bunch of tadpoles in the creek behind his house which he had scooped up with a net and put in a tank. We both love watching them change every day little by little.
I am so excited about Frog Trouble Times. I can’t wait to tell Miles about it next time I see him!