wandering visitors

This little guy was found in our front yard by Kaitlin while she was playing with Dixie! I was moving sheep and she called me over to see something which she thought might be a turtle?! Sure enough it was a tiny turtle all huddled up and very sleepy. We could tell it was alive once it blinked it's eyes. Of course the kids brought him in the house and once he warmed up became very active. So where did this tiny turtle come from? Well we do have several ponds on the property that do have turtles in them, so we are assuming this one's mother buried her eggs in the gravel road or lane way and this little one hatched.

The kids played with the turtle all night and were convinced they wanted to keep it. But, if you can't tell by the picture this tiny turtle is actually a baby snapping turtle! I explained to the kids that he was going to grow very big and would eventually bite. Poor Dawson was most upset. We let the turtle stay for a few days before eventually letting him go.

Before that though we brought the turtle into school to let the classes see him. (it's not that often you get to see a baby turtle!) All the students loved seeing this tiny creature and had lots of questions. Some of the teachers however weren't so turtle loving! I was shocked when a few of them wouldn't go near him or god forbid touch him!! You would have thought I brought in some scary animal not a baby turtle! I just had to laugh....Here is the perfect learning opportunity for the kids and the "teachers" are freaked out. Forget about the books that the kids are reading here is a live (and safe) piece of nature that the kids were excited to learn about. From this Dawson has been on You Tube watching lots of videos on how to take care of turtles and all about them. How are we going to get the next generation to appreciate and take care of nature if we don't show them that it's special and amazing. I have once heard someone say it drives him crazy that the schools do complete units on Dinosaurs. The kids all know the types, the names, what they eat ect. But ask these kids about some of the nature that's alive and endangered now and they can't. There are so many spices of reptiles, birds, mammals that kids don't know about, but yes they can tell you all about something that doesn't live now. I thought that was interesting.

So, the little turtle is gone now. We let him go back into a pond on the property. The kids were sad, but it was a great experience for them. (and I enjoyed it too!) One of many I hope they take with them in their future.