When I was little, I loved to catch toads! In my Midwestern backyard, I would often find them burrowed in the cool dirt behind the shed, trapped in window wells, or huddled under the ferns on the side of our house. I would gingerly scoop them up, and keep them in a little aquarium for a week or two. My mom would bring us to PetCo to buy crickets, and my siblings and I would sit and stare in amazement as their lightning-fast tongues snapped out to grab them.

Fast forward 30 years: now here I am, with four children of my own, three of whom also love to catch toads! (My oldest is not a huge fan of them, and is typically more concerned with when we are letting them go! :)) Each summer, I let them keep a toad or two in a large “habitat” that they construct. And it’s the easiest summer pet of all time!

The Easiest Pet for Kids

Here are a few reasons why toads and frogs are the easiest summer pet for kids!

• They are free / inexpensive! In many places in the U.S., you can find frogs or toads right in your backyard.
• They are also inexpensive to feed and keep. I have an old fish aquarium I got for free in my city’s Buy Nothing group. (Buckets or other containers work well, too!) If you have bugs in your yard, and kids who like to catch them, you’re in business! You can visit a local pet shop for crickets or grubs, but if your kids like catching bugs, you don’t have to.
• They require no fancy equipment: since their habitat is your yard, you don’t need to purchase any fancy heating equipment or special toys for them. They are perfectly happy with a wet spot, a dry spot, deep soil to borrow in, maybe some grass and leaves, and plenty of bugs to eat!
• They are easy to release, when you are ready! If you feel the toad needs to return to the wild, it is as easy as releasing it back into your backyard (or somewhere close by).

Toads & Frogs Provide Hours of Entertainment

The disclaimer with this one, is: make sure your children are well-versed in how to treat animals! We talk about gentle hands, giving the toads their space, and observing, instead of poking or prodding them. My two-year-old is gentle with the toad, but we still make sure we are right by her when she is playing with him to make sure she is careful.

The main frog & toad lover in our family, is my eight-year-old daughter! She loves the Frog & Toad book series, and even did her Student Showcase project last year all about frogs & toads. We have raised tadpoles from this site, which is the same site we’ve used for raising caterpillars. (Mom note: I would recommend the caterpillar kits over the tadpole kits, we had much more success with those!)

With that said, she is the one typically instigating the toadie habitat, every summer. I think this is our fourth or fifth summer doing it! Here is how toadie offers us hours of entertainment:

• She brings toadie on “walks” around the yard (which means, she follows him as he hops around the grass
• She brings toadie “swimming,” which means he glides around in the water table, or, after we’re done, in our inflatable swimming pool
• She brings toadie to eat: a particularly good bug buffet tends to be underneath some large rocks, or woodpiles we have in our yard! It is so fun to see his tongue zip out and snap up insects, particularly if they’re on the bigger end. Toads actually blink and use their eyeballs to help them swallow, and that’s a fun thing to watch!
• Toadie goes on adventures, like slowly riding my son’s skateboard (ha!) or doing an obstacle course of toys in our grassy yard.

Pet Toads Enforce Science Concepts

There are so many science concepts that your kids can naturally learn, through owning a pet (even better, if it’s a free pet! Or as I like to call it, a temporary pet!). Here are some of the concepts we have talked about over the years, that now my preschooler and even toddler are latching onto, as well!

• What is a habitat? What type of habitat does a toad need?
• What is a toad’s diet? How do toads find and capture their food?
• What is the anatomy of a toad? Why is its body designed in that way?
• What behaviors do you notice in the toad?
• How are toads similar to other animals in our yard? How are they different?
• Why is it important for toads to catch bugs? What would happen if they didn’t?
• Where are toads in the food chain? Are they prey, for something else?

The list is endless! Depending on what you do for summer schooling, you could also extend this activity many ways. You could get some supplemental books at your local library, and read even more fun facts about toads (or compare them to frogs!) You could search Teachers Pay Teachers for fun free worksheets–I love this one based on a Frog & Toad book, and this free life cycle of a frog sheet!

How about you? Does your family have a pet, or are you more of a temporary-pets-make-the-best-pets mom, like me?! 🙂

With love,

Cait