Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Homeschool Field Trip

Princess and I recently joined our homeschool group for a class called
Happiness is a Horseshoe Crab at the NJ Sea Grant Consortium.
The instructor read a book about horseshoe crabs, passed around some "sheds"
for the kids to look at and some mysterious substance in a bottle that looks like the famous blue horseshoe crab blood! That was a big hit with Princess. He went over a life sized model of a full grown female and took questions as well.

Then it was craft time!
Off we went to the bay side to Seine . The kids all helped carry the above equipment.
Have I ever mentioned how much we LOVE Sandy Hook?
Down to the bay side we went.

The tide was especially high due to a new moon, so parent volunteers were requested
for the seining. I am the one in the Farm Aid hat. ;-)
The gear kept us warm and dry and it was fun. (Special thanks to one of my favorite HS Mom's Michelle O. for taking pics while I waded out into the bay with the net. )
The high tide made it harder to get any good catches, but the kids enjoyed the jellies,
and hermit crabs and such. Putting anything "alive" into a bucket of sea water to be studied.
These were all returned to the ocean before we moved on.
Then we had a beach walk and learned about all the shells and creatures and plants we came across.



Our time ended as the rain began. Nothing beats a great day at the beach!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a fun learning experience! Horseshoe crabs still freak me out a bit. Heh. But I think it's cool to learn more about them.

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My homeschool buddies and I are all posting pics of our "home schools" as part of our idea sharing.

Plato said...

Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child's natural bent .