Salt Water, Sand, and Sneaky Science

This is our first official week of summer break.

Many homeschool year round and this very idea sent my kids off the deep end. “That is just cruel!” they cried in dismay and my husband joined in.

Inside I laughed really hard but kept it cool. Why?

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Because I make sure my kids continue learning all summer. You might call it “not learning” learning or sneaky learning. 😉

I do this by giving them many opportunities to think about what they are seeing, ask great questions, and discover the answers.

Getting outside and using what you have is the best thing because you are just hanging out and having fun. There is no pressure, no reports, no quizzes.

In fact, our very first weekend with “no school” we learned a ton.

Let me share it with you.

We live on Canada’s East Coast, Nova Scotia which has beautiful beaches with ice-cold water only the brave attempt before mid July.

I convinced my husband since our Cape Chignecto hike that I wanted to start hiking on the weekends. This was my first one since my injury.

The day was warm and I knew in spite of much protesting from the teenagers it would be good to feel the hot sand beneath our feet and chill out.

This was our view. Beautiful isn’t it?

The first thing we noticed was the tide was out. We discussed how far it would go out, when it would come back in and recalled what they learned about the moon’s impact on the tide.

Not learning, just having a conversation.

Next we found this cool rock with seaweed attached. I mentioned a friend that uses seaweed in her garden. My daughter recalled it is sometimes found in ice cream. Which we decided maybe we didn’t want to know what was in our food. 😉

Not learning, just having a conversation.

We found a few shells and chatted then the fun really kicked into high gear.

The Digging Clam

I have lived on the coast my whole life and have never seen this happen.

My son noticed water squirted up from the sand and asked what it was.

We showed him that he had stepped on sand where a clam was. To prove it we dug it up. You can see us holding it in the photo. Very rarely have I held a calm. I don’t dig for them because I don’t eat them. They kids started asking lots of questions, “Why was he down there?” “How did he get buried?”

We set him back in the water and witnessed exactly how he did it. It was so COOL. I have never ever seen one do this. I forgot to grab a video I was so excited. The clam rocked back and forth spitting out the sand it was digging. Within moments-gone!

Not learning, just having a conversation.

The “Wet Sand Effect”

One kid noticed sand was getting lighter when you stepped on the wet sand but was gone when you lifted your foot. We guessed what might have been happening but had no concrete answers.

Not learning, just having a conversation.

Side Note: We researched this when we got home. I looked it up to find out for myself, because *not learning* and the kids came to see what I found.

This is caused by the pressure your foot exerts on the sand momentarily squeezing the water out. When you lift your foot the water comes back. It even has a name, “Wet Sand Effect”. (You can learn how to recreate this at home here)

The Cranky Crab

We hiked on and the sand turned to rocks, we found a few shells and discussed what might have been living in them, how the birds drop them from the sky to break them open and eat whatever was living in there.

Discovering a few floating spiders was not a highlight for me, ew ew ew. Nor was the dead fish.

We turned around to hike back and found a crab. When the tide is out this poses a problem for him but not the seagulls. We got a close up look at how many legs and claws they have and discussed how some people like to eat them.

We moved him back to deeper water but needless to say he did not say thank you!

Sneaky Science

That day was a perfect first weekend off with “no school”. As you can see we can learn a ton just by taking a hike, being observant, asking questions and digging deeper if we find something that catches their attention.

Did you notice the phrase I used over and over again? Not learning, just having a conversation. 

As moms we can seriously get caught up in labels or stressing that our children aren’t learning enough. Please stop. Instead focus on having fun and having real conversations. Enjoy your day, your kids? They are learning anyway.

I’d love to know, what amazing conversations have you had so far this summer?

Take care,

Jen

PS. If you want to learn more about how you can get outside and learn in your backyard, I highly recommend this book, Backyard Science: Easy Activities for All Ages by Marci Goodwin. A great resource that offers an opportunity to observe and study animals, plants, weather, soil, rocks, and more in your very own backyard.

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