RD’s Science lessons now form a part of a unit called Life Science. Among other things, it is here where he learns the differences of living from nonliving things. To emphasize the fact that living things go through changes throughout their lifetimes as opposed to nonliving things, we were supposed to observe the metamorphosis shrimp brine goes through. However, we did not have shrimp brine, so I decided to use frogs as our subject. So one morning, RD and I collected frog eggs from a stream nearby.

A week later, the tadpoles began to wriggle out of their egg sacs. His sister I were so excited to see what RD’s reaction would be when he saw tadpoles in real life.

Me: “RD! Come here! I have something to show you!”

(RD comes running up the stairs to the deck where we kept the frog eggs in a big bowl.)

“Look! The tadpoles are already out of the egg sacs!”

RD looks at the tadpoles through a magnifying lens and nonchalantly remarks: “…then they’ll grow legs, lose their tail and become grown-up frogs.”

Surprised at what he knows, we asked him, “Where did you learn that?”

He matter-of-factly answers, “Mr. Bean.”

Ah well… so much for my excitement. Thanks, anyway, Mr. Bean.