September, Week 3

Last week we went to a Not-Going-Back-To-School Homeschool Picnic at a local park that houses an old pre-civil war fort built to help protect the busy harbor.  These events are often held on the first day of school for the rest of world as a way for us to meet-and greet, and celebrate our joint bucking of the system.  It also symbolizes the beginning of a new academic year for many families.  Shaun got quite a kick out of exploring the grounds and wanted to know why grass was growing up on the roof.  There was also  a "very cool" playground on site.

A peak inside the fort through a hole in a side wall.

More of our language arts curriculum continued to trickle in last week as well, Ell was over the moon to find out some things were just for her.  This little 'phonics activity pack' is by far her favorite.  Pretty much just toys in a box.

This week we have been juggling many subjects and activities.  We continue to do our inquiry study on whales; so far our research has taught us more about the two types of whales: toothed, and baleen.  Their diets, methods of feeding,  and methods of echo location differ significantly from one another.  Shaun really enjoyed listening to whales using echo location on the internet.  He preferred the songs of the humpback over all the rest, and was very upset to hear they are critically endangered.  This in turn led to some investigating and learning on the topics of endangerment and extinction.  Having a vast home library really pays off sometimes!

Nice progress is being made in our core subjects.  Shaun was independently spelling words on the dishwasher with letter magnets the other morning, I was so proud of him!  The new electronic ETC really seams to be a good fit for his learning style.  He also continues to push through his dreaded math work and is grasping the idea of number bonds wonderfully.  I have found that I need to take him away from the page and re-create the problem with manipulatives and a dry-erase tablet.  Ella is keeping herself occupied with lots of Kumon books (tracing, cutting, gluing), coloring, and manipulative play.  She is also trying to master the letters of the alphabet.

(Here she is doing a worksheet I made on monarchs and their life cycle.  We all learned they only see in three colors: red, yellow, and green.)

We had a field trip this week to a water treatment facility in the next town over.  It was all a bit reminiscent of Mike Row & Dirty Jobs.  Dirty.  Smelly.  And incredibly interesting.  We saw the different stages of purification of the wastewater and learned that solids are screened and sent to a landfill.  Sludge is removed and composted with mulch.  The liquids are purified utilizing many steps before being released into the ocean.  We saw and smelled the various tanks, biological filters, screens, mulching areas, composters, the lab, and the plant managers office.   The official lingo is "pumping, screening, grit removal, settling, aeration and UV disinfection for liquid treatment and thickening, chemical conditioning, dewatering and stabilization for solids treatment, and odor control."  Here are some photos:

A full screening tank shown above, a peak into an empty tank below.

Here the effluent is being aerated and cleaned via anaerobic "bugs".

UV sterilization

Something to think about the next time you pour a chemical down the drain, treat your lawn, go for a swim, or buy plants and a bag of compost from a nursery.   We never truly rid ourselves of the waste we create, it merely changes form.