TABITHA AND THE WATER CYCLE

Sometimes it's fun to be the Grandpa. This is especially true when a busy Mom is overbooked, or the other kids are ill, or the crowd is going in different directions and the Grandpa gets to go along on a Home Schooler's Field Trip. My favorite is chaperoning train trips to Seattle, but this outing was a kick too.
This exploration with a bunch of youngsters (including my Tabitha) was to the Water Resources Education Center, a complex along the river in Vancouver. A dozen and a half K-2nd graders were investigating the Water Cycle and how it affects the environment and the health of fish populations. (Shhhhh. They didn't know that; they were just having fun!) The instructor seemed comfortable working with this age group and easily adapted to the random questions and individual behaviors. The "other moms "along, more accustomed to the individual learning styles of their children helped herd the students from station to station and the lessons proceeded quickly from point to point.
Wow! The words were BIG, but the kids learned them first by manipulating illustrated cards into the right order and then by making a "memory bracelet" with a colored bead for each important term: .

Sunshine, Surface Water, Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, Distribution, Percolation, Transpiration, and Accumulation.

It was pretty amazing to hear the tiny voices carrol out the scientific vocabulary, loudly correcting each other and delighting the teacher. At the final station the class got to sit near one of the huge aquarium tanks and learn about some of the fish which live in the Columbia River and its tributaries. The favorite was the odd looking sturgeon which can grow to nearly 20' in length and over a hundred years in age. Several of these odd looking, boney, armored young fish were quite active and showing off in the clear water.

After the "lessons" time was allowed for exploring the many hands-on displays and colorful discovery & experimental teaching gadgets.

Each child seemed to find a favorite and everyone enjoyed "learning" without realizing it. I enjoyed watching individual kids finding a display, investigating its purpose and finding the simple truth being presented. You know the child "got it" when he carefully and patiently explains the science involved to his mother. Tabitha told me how to tell one tree from another and I was pleased to learn how to do that with the "magic marble machine". Good Times!!