Took the kids up to their swimming classes at the Y today. They had a good time as usual. The group they are in has 6 kids in (I think) and they all enjoy the pool. Of course, they’re all around 4 or 5, so that’s to be expected. The instructors had them jumping through hoops today- literally. They brought out some hula-hoops and laid them on the water and had the kids jump through the hoop. I guess to reinforce having them jump AWAY from the wall as opposed to straight up- which results in a nerve racking close encounter with the wall for anyone watching. My daughter was guilty of this enough for even me to remind her to jump out into the pool. They also used the hoop vertically so the kids could practice gliding through the water. After this exercise it was more of the usual laps back and forth practicing their swimming strokes.
So on the way home, I spied a turtle on the side of the road. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was the same stretch of road I had spied a turtle last week. That one turned out to be a baby snapper turtle (about 6″ long or so). I showed it to the kids, then set it back in the grass on the side of the road and let it continue on its way. Today’s turtle was not a snapper but a painted turtle. An Eastern Painted Turtle if I read the Wikipedia description correctly. I brought it over so the kids could see. I explained that it would not bite and that even though it had claws, it would not scratch them- they were for digging.
The boy wanted to hold it immediately. I handed it to him and after an anxious moment when it’s claws came out as it sort of flailed in an attempt to escape capture, he settled in with the turtle. The daughter was intrigued, but happy to be so from a distance. At least I didn’t have to worry about a fight over who gets to hold the turtle. The rest of the ride home was uneventful, though filled with little comments like “Don’t be afraid little turtle” and the like.
As we got out of the car, the wife had worked her way outside to say hello and see how swimming had gone. As we were getting out of the car, the boy handed the turtle to me so that he wouldn’t accidentally drop it as he unbuckled himself. So as I was getting out, the kids were excitedly telling Mom how they had seen a turtle. To which here reply went something like this:
“OOOOOOOOOO, YOU SAW A …” and she simply muttered “turtle” as I held up the little reptile for her viewing pleasure. Obviously, the thought of turtles was a lot more fun for Mom then the reality of them. I explained to her that the plan was to let the kids observe and interact with the turtle for the afternoon (notice I didn’t say “play”) and then set the little guy free at the end of the afternoon. She didn’t raise any objections.
So, we’ve got a water table thing that the kids have been playing with since they were old enough to walk. It has served multiple purposes as they’ve gotten older and, this day, we added one more to the list- turtle observatory. We filled it with some cool water, then got some decent sized rocks and stacked them up in such a way as to create a little cave at the bottom plus create a spot for the turtle to sit out of the water, if it wanted to. After that, we set the turtle on the rock and let it do it’s turtle thing- which it turned out was to immediately go into the water and then scoot into the cave portion of our rock stack.
Turns out even a little turtle can hold it’s breath a long time. Probably about a half hour or so. Of course the lack of turtle action made him somewhat boring for the kids. So, while the turtle hung out in the water, I checked the fridge to see if we had anything a turtle would want to eat. I figured the prospect of feeding the turtle would peak their curiosity. The closest thing we had was some cucumber, so I cut a couple of slices off and placed them on the rock. The kids resumed their lookout for any attempts on the cucumber by the turtle.
This too wore thin with the kids as the turtle did not make any attempts for the food, so they went and jumped into the pool. I was given instructions to let them know if the turtle did anything food related. While they were in the pool, they kept shouting questions about whether anything interesting was happening, and I diligently informed them that “No, nothing was happening.”
Since the turtle was hanging out at the bottom and not doing much, I decided after an hour or so to let the kids get it out and put it on the rock with the cucumber pieces to see if it would eat. When it poked its head out after they set it down on the rock, they tried to encourage it to eat with excited “Come on little guy, there’s some food for ya” type stuff. The turtle, of course, was having none of this and after deciding that the coast was clear (enough, anyway), it waddled back into the water and into the “protection” of the cave.
The boy continued to pick it up and try to get it to do something. When it would swim up to take a quick breath, it would sort of pause and check things out. The boy thought it was playing some kind of game with him as a result. They both liked watching it swim, so this encouraged more handling of the turtle when it would go hide. By the end of the afternoon, the boy was trying to figure out a way to convince me to keep the turtle. He also, at some point, decided that the turtle was “his.” All in all, the little experiment worked out well. Even though she watched it all afternoon, the daughter never got interested enough to pick it up. She was content to touch the shell and, at one point, the tail. Otherwise, she left the rest to her brother.
We have a stream at the back of the yard and when it was time to set him free, we took the turtle there. The boy carried him, and asked me questions about whether the turtle would remember him, and if the turtle would like the stream, and if we could do this again with another turtle. He answered all those questions himself before I could offer my own, which was just as well- at that point I didn’t want to inadvertently offer an answer he didn’t want to hear. When we got to the edge of the stream, the boy insisted on being the one to let him go. He set the turtle down facing the water, and it took advantage of the situation by scooting into the stream without even a look back. He was gone in a couple of seconds and the boy was happy.
I couldn’t ask for more than that.