Frogs.... who knew?

My youngest daughter is all about messy, dirty, creepy crawly things. Since the start of the school year she has grown increasingly interested in fish and frogs. Was I surprised that she saw the frog habitat kit in her teacher's closet? Not really. Was I surprised that her teacher said she could bring it home to look at? (I owe you big for that one, Mr. F.) Not really.

The kit came with a phone number that you call to have your tadpoles shipped once the habitat set up. Except they don't ship to Wisconsin when the temperature is over 80 during the day or under 40 at night - they do realize that leaves only one week in the middle of June, right?

No problem. We'll go to the pet store, spend $5, and have tadpoles to put in our habitat. Yeah, um, no. Pet stores don't sell tadpoles, neither do aquatic stores, or bait shops. Too many people buy them, raise them, then release them into the wild where they damage the ecosystem.

Fortunately for us, there is a science supply store an hour away that another teacher uses frequently, and they ship same day in any weather. When you order, you get 10 tadpoles that will either be African Water frogs or Leopard frogs, but you can't specify which, and they say to allow for about half to croak (ah ha ha) before they mature. Total cost, about $8 a frog. Release them into the wild - are you kidding me? The best part? We got African Water frogs, that can't even use the habitat....