School at home

Tom has read Little House in the Big Woods and is currently reading Farmer Boy to Lukas.  I've read Lassie Come-Home, Black Beauty, The Wizard of Oz...and other classic chapter books to Lukas.  But I have more time to read to Lukas than Tom does, so I go through books faster.  Anyway, I decided to jump in and read Little House on the Prairie, since I hadn't found another book that didn't have language that was too difficult.

Lukas (in his never-ending interest in water, where it comes from and where it goes) was quite interested when Pa dug the well next to their house.  After we read that chapter, he had a lot of questions about how the water was below the ground, how they dug to it, and how it came very quickly once Pa reached the water table.

I suddenly realized it was time to "make aquifers!"  Before Lukas was born, I worked for the groundwater management agency in our county and one of the fun kids things was to make an aquifer to show a child how a huge lake can exist below the ground.

As you can see in the picture, the crushed ice in the cup represents the sand and gravel below ground.  The apple juice fills in the cracks between the sand and gravel and represents the water.  The ice cream on top (French Silk flavor...perfect color!) represents the ground on top of the aquifer that Pa had to dig through.  And the straw represents the well that goes down to get the water out of the aquifer.

I drew the whole concept of the aquifer on paper first, then we made the aquifers together.  Lukas was quite excited, and told Tom all about it when he came home that night.  And I was glad that we finally got to do that fun activity that I watched so many other kids do six years ago!