Tuesday morning's activities in the back yard were a Home School composting tour and teach-in.  Lisa Lotte Hardiman brought adults and youth (all ages) to learn about bokashi cold composting.  Mike did the explanation about how bokashi composting works and MJ did the added attraction of spreading the "worm family" out on the picnic table so that everyone who wanted to could see and pet the worms.  There were a few EWWWW!'s in the crowd, but after we all washed our hands with dirt, it was OK to dig around in the coconut coir and find the worms, being very careful not to upset their natural aversion to light.

We gave them all the option of taking home a few worms or a small bag of compost --- most deciding on worms unless the parents there did the quick shaking of the head that signified "thanks, but NO thanks".  We're careful not to insist that worms go home with a 5 yr. old.

As we were talking about the finer points of composting with a couple of the adults, out of the corner of our eyes, we see 3 of the boys drinking handfuls of water............hmmmmm, where could they have gotten water??  Thank goodness, I had just scrubbed the bird bath yesterday after all winter and filled it with fresh water, because there they were -  dipping their hands in the water and drinking!  Mom's weren't too upset, telling us the kids had "strong immune systems".  We do know how good dirt is for us, but I hadn't investigated bird bath water - I guess we'll wait and see if we hear back from them.  Hopefully, like playing in the dirt makes us stronger, so does drinking bird bath water!

Enjoy the pictures - we so love having kids get excited about composting and worms......

Here's a link to a powerpoint called Seeds of Greatness:  Dirt Enhanced Learning