Caleb's Robot

Caleb created this robot today out of blocks, Dixie cups, toilet paper rolls, and yarn. If you look closely at the head, you can see where he drew a face with a highlighter. I thought it was pretty creative, so I had to take pictures of it, of course!

I've Got Worms!

My much anticipated Can-O-Worms arrived yesterday from Our Vital Earth. Unfortunately, I was way too sick with a stomach bug to assemble it, so I waited until today. The Can-O-Worms is a composting system that uses worms to convert household organic waste into fertilizer for plants.

We have been to Our Vital Earth for two field trips. I wrote about our second trip here. I had never heard of vermicomposting before our first visit there but was intrigued the more I learned and read about it. Once we got our container garden going in January, I knew that I wanted to get a worm bin. It was just a matter of when I could get it.

This is what the Can-O-Worms looked like when it arrived.

The first step was to soak the coconut noir. It acts as a bedding and food source for the worms initially.

After assembling the bin's legs and drainage spout, a large piece of the cardboard label was placed in the bottom tray of the worm bin. This was to keep the coconut noir from falling through the holes into the collecting tray below. I love that the packaging was minimal and that some of it was reusable.

Once the coconut noir had soaked up all of the water, it was placed inside the bin.

Caleb volunteered to pour the worms into the bin.

Eli acted as supervisor to make sure the worm bin was assembled properly.

This is a close up of the worms before they burrowed into the coconut noir. Worms have no eyes but are light sensitive. They prefer the dark.

This is what the finished set up looked like.

Because the noir and worms came up to the top rib of the first tray, we were able to place a second tray on top. It will take some time for the worms to do their work, but when we harvest our first worm castings and tea, I will be sure to post about them.

If you want to learn more about worms and vermiculture, check out Worm World, Herman the Worm, NIEHS, and Journey to Forever.

Recycled Castle

When Caleb and I woke up from our nap today, we lay in bed and had a long discussion about castles. He told me he wanted to get a toy castle with knights and horses. He recently played with a castle at a birthday party and really enjoyed it. We have been talking a lot about gratitude for what we have and about how much things cost lately. It is a hard lesson for a four-year-old who wants lots of things to learn. I told him that he could put a castle on his birthday or Christmas list and that we were not going to buy one today. He was upset about this for quite some time and argued for why he needed a castle right then. I, of course, was not going to budge. Instead, I suggested building our own castle, and he was resistant to the idea at first. Then he came around and decided that we needed to build one immediately.

As I collected recycled materials for building, he sat down with crayon and paper to design his castle.

I cut a box to be the main part of the castle with an opening on top. Caleb drew a drawbridge on one side.

I cut it out and attached yarn so that it could open and close. Then I added towers made of toilet paper rolls, applesauce containers, and pudding containers. I attached a foam produce container on top and made a ladder.

It was nothing fancy, but Caleb enjoyed playing with it with his knight and dragon figures.

Our Vital Earth Worm Farm

Today we went to Our Vital Earth for a field trip. Our theme this month in Roots and Shoots is worms. This was the second time we visited the farm to learn about worms and vermiculture. After learning all about worms, the kids got to make their own mini worm farm to take home.

This is a picture of Caleb with his mini worm farm.

I am hoping to get a worm bin soon so that we can compost our food scraps instead of throwing them away. The worm castings (poop) and worm tea (pee) are great for gardening with. Plus, composting will cut down on the amount of trash we throw out each week.

Grandma Bernie and her husband are featured in this video about the work they are doing at Our Vital Earth. Be sure to check it out.

Recycled Crayons

Caleb loves to color and has lots and lots of crayons. In fact, he has so many that his crayon box is overflowing and almost impossible to close. I got so tired of trying to force crayons to fit into the box that I decided we needed to do something about them. I remembered that I had seen a neat craft idea in Family Fun magazine for recycled crayons, so we tried it.

We started by finding all of the broken crayon pieces. We took the paper off, broke them into smaller pieces, and put them in molds.

Before

After

We then baked them in the oven. The crayon pieces melted together to make some really neat swirly crayons. Once baked, we let them cool for a while on the counter. The new recycled crayons came out of the molds much easier than I anticipated. The finished products were great.

Here are some things I learned while doing this:

• A number of different types of crayons can be used including cheap ones from local restaurants. I was afraid that they might not melt well together, but they did.



• You should keep a close eye on the crayons while they are baking. After the time alloted on the instructions, I noticed that some of the crayon pieces were not melting. I then baked them for a bit too long as many of the colors melted together too much.


• These crayons make great gifts. Caleb gave some out to friends and family.