In message , joevan
writes

As a child in Virginia in the 40's I remember catching them from the
ditches and putting them in glass containers and watching them morph.
Seeing the tiny fins become legs and such was and awe inspiring thing
to me as a young boy. It is still a fascination today.

I haven't watched frogspawn grow up since I was in infants' school about
1960. The school had three old shallow stoneware sinks let into a bank
beside the playground, letting us get right up close to tadpoles in a
fairly natural environment.
"Close" could mean noses actually touching the water!

I'm told the infants of today are just as spellbound (except the one who
put salt in the bucket with his class' tadpoles to see what'd happen -
they died, but the class learnt something.)

--
Sue ]