Beach Cleanup _ Essex
A couple of weeks ago Rainy Day Dad, J, T and I went to the beach to help with the Marine Conservation Society Big Beach Clean Up. As I mentioned before I have spent time in the past cleaning beaches, surveying them and working on them for most of my early 20’s so I thought this would be great.
However, beach cleaning with two toddlers is a lot different than beach cleaning with adults. Instead we turned it into a “Does it belong game” – we have been reading some books about the sea shore and one of our favourite cartoons is the Octonauts (well it’s mine anyhow) so J is learning about the under water world quite a bit.
While Rainy Day Dad cleaned the beach, J, T and I walked along looking at what was on the shore and occasionally shouting to Daddy to come and get it when we found something that didn’t belong.
J loved finding the sea weed that marked the high tide line on the shore although I must say I was dismayed to see the large amount of cotton bud sticks (q-tips) on the beach as the only way that they can make their way to the shore is through the sewage system.
When we found some rubbish – like the cotton buds, rope, plastic bottles, lids and rubbish bags I explained why they didn’t belong and how people hadn’t thrown them away. I explained about how sea turtles eat plastic bags that are floating in the sea because they look like Jelly Fish and that it hurts them and makes them sick. J increased his calls of RUBBISH Daddy worrying about the sea creatures.
I decided that instead of a book we would do some online literacy as although we don’t use the computers a lot with J and T (apart from to speak to grandparents and aunts and uncles) it is something that they will need in the future so we visited the http://www.school-of-fish.co.
You are right, a little creativity in labeling the activity and you can get any kid to participate.
I love that you had J help clean the beach!
Our family helped clean up our shoreline last fall, and we plan to do it again this fall. What a great experience and so educational for kids! You did a great job making it age appropriate! Thanks for linking up to the Outdoor Play Party.
I think we are going to turn it into a yearly outting with the children – I’m sure they will get more out of it the older they get but if we start now then hopefully it will long continue
What an important lesson (and it looks fun too!) We were eating a picnic yesterday and I finished a granola bar and my four year old said, “Mom, you can just throw that package.” It was a windy day and I think he realized that the wind would take the package but he didn’t think about it littering. I really thought he would know better at four, but I guess he didn’t. So we had a little teachable moment about why we shouldn’t just throw our trash out. He had been enjoying the clean outdoors all day, so he could appreciate keeping it clean. I think when kids have those wonderful experiences with the great outdoors, they are more likely to respect nature and clean up. You’re doing a wonderful thing with your son! 🙂
Your family is a great example to follow! I wish all family will teach their children about our ecosystem and recycling.
Sounds like you taught a good lesson whilst having fun.
Have you seen this post by knittymummy :O)
http://knittymummy.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/my-children-are-both-obsessed-with.html
Thanks for linking to the mermaid project, looks like you guys did a great job tidying.
Thank you 😀 I love your mermaid
Wonderful lesson! Thanks for sharing. 🙂