Plus wild species have the risk of carrying disease. I don’t know about toads, but I know for a fact that turtles often carry salmonella, making it extremely dangerous to handle them at all. They’re illegal to own in many places for that very reason. Especially if you’re dealing with children who might touch them and eat, rub their eyes, or pick their nose without washing their hands first, it’s not a good idea.
I see that you do still have a live toad. Hereis a PDF containing instructions on how to make and use a sweep net.
Seconding this.
I know you’re trying to teach your kids about nature and stuff, and an up-close view of critters is the way to go with that … but please, please consider wild-caught animals to be very temporary. Visitors to your home, not pets.
Captive-bred animals are accustomed to the environment you’re providing. Wild-caught animals are not, and the shock of change is usually too overwhelming, and they die - and not quickly and painlessly, either. What you’re talking about doing … even people experienced with amphibians would have trouble keeping them alive.
I don’t know how to soften this: trying to keep the toads long-term (like, more than overnight) is a death sentence. Plain and simple.
Please consider buying an inexpensive, captive-bred something-or-other (fish, dwarf frog, gecko, turtle, puppy). It’s tough to find thorough info when you don’t even know the name of the species in question.
Thanks for the advice on buying a toad. I think these guys just might be too tiny to survive. My daughter caught a larger one during school, and they put it in an aquarium with leaves and sticks and stuff, and fed it crickets and it did just fine.
If this one dies (and in all seriousness, I don’t dismiss their deaths, I do feel bad about keeping/killing them) then my toad murdering spree will be over.
Also, I am pretty sure I have an American toad.
In my opinion, the best way to interact with toads is to visit them in their own home. They’ll cheerfully do their little toad jobs, finding and eating live bugs for you. The toads around my place are my friends. Mr. Toad (they’re all called Mr. Toad) likes it in my moist flowerbeds and in the shade of my lawn. Aside from occasionally pausing to let them hop out of the way of the mower, and trying not to step on them, I don’t have to do anything to maintain them. They take care of all that.
Any time I want to go chat with Mr. Toad, I know where to find him. 
I tried that. But, Toad Hall was filled with weasels. They said they’d traded a car for it and were the rightful owners now.
Poop! Poop!
lightning bug
Since this is an old thread that has been bumped for no good reason, I’m closing it.