Field Trip: Tide Pools

 Our little co-op has been having great fun learning our way through history this year. Ruby and Henry have made great progress; Ruby is reading chapter books as fast as we can give them to her it seems, and Henry is reading his first sight words. They both love learning, and for that I'm thankful!

This month's field trip was to the local beach, where a European couple who teach science here generously offered to take our kiddos for a guided tour of tide pools near their house. Our family loves exploring these constantly changing treasures wherever we go here, and it was an extra special treat to have the Smits along to answer our many questions.

Capturing creatures isn't my thing, as I prefer to observe (and teach my kids to observe) animals in their environments. However, the kids each had a small net and were encouraged to see what they could discover. Ruby was pleased to find a large sea cucumber.

 There were also dozens of assorted crabs, including this one I hadn't seen before, with hairy red legs:

 Henry found a starfish, but Ruby put it back in the water (without telling her brother), "so that it could be healthy and live." I love that sensitivity about her. In all fairness, she put her sea cucumber back as well, but we had to have a little family meeting about communicating important life events, like when you put your brother's treasure someplace he can't find it, without his permission. It was a really cool one, school-bus yellow with long, thin legs and grey tips.

Here is our friend Emmett with a cute starfish he found:

 One thing I like about beachcombing is that twice a day, with each tide, you get a totally new set of discoveries. And I like to think we have at least that many new beginnings each day. Each morning bring a new day with no mistakes, only opportunities, right? Still, I need a couple of restarts most days. When I'm near the ocean, I sense that God is big enough to handle all of my 'even though's".

I'll leave you with what was by far the coolest find, a sea turtle washed up on shore...it was over a foot across, dead less than a day. The kids really enjoyed checking it out. Hopefully, it can be cleaned up in a few days and used for older science classes.