It’s World Oceans Day! I actually didn’t know this existed until this morning and I saw it on Instagram. The things I learn from there. Anyway, how appropriate that we are having an ocean unit this month! Let’s pretend I totally knew and planned it.

Last week I posted about our first week of our study, which was pretty fun. We focused on smaller creatures, like seahorses and crabs and jellyfish. Yesterday we started with sea turtles, a favorite of mine. We did a bunch of stuff, but we also read a few picture books, one of which was very traumatic for all of us. Turtle Tide, which is a very good book, full of honest, truthful information – but too much for our sensitive crew. In the book the momma turtle makes her way toward land, digs her nest, lays her eggs, heads back to sea. The babies are born, and make their way to the ocean. Now most of us know that the majority of these babies never make it. And the book illustrated that for us, with them being attacked and killed and eaten on their journey. True facts but I guess our kiddos were not ready for it to be so in their faces. My mom and niece were watching the read aloud on YouTube and Dino Girl was very unhappy with it and started yelling for my mom to turn it off – while I was reading Wyatt got very anxious as well, so I skipped some pages. We are apparently very sensitive over here. I didn’t even want to read about these little babies getting plucked up or the eggs eaten. Nature does what nature needs to do though.

However, the kids were so upset and wanted to know what they could do to help. We don’t live near a beach with sea turtles so we can’t do anything hands on, so we decided to adopt a sea turtle from The Sea Turtle Conservancy. We decided to make it a little service project, one that is easily attainable. It’s pretty simple. The kids will have to do a daily chore that is picked out by mom and dad and for that they will earn a dollar. When each kid gets to seven dollars which would be almost half the price when put together, then we the parents will kick in the remaining money. It looks like they might get a tracking number as well, that allows them to check in on the turtles and see where in the world they are, which is really neat!

I made the kids these little trackers so they can see where they are with their goal. (and I see there is a typo but I had a cat licking my hand the whole time I was typing…lol)

Neither one of the kids have been to the ocean, something that all of us plan to rectify next spring. We are planning a family trip to Chincoteague Island for a week long visit, something that is long overdue for all of us. My brother and his family are big beach people, so I am sure they will spend a lot of their time in the water and on the beach. The three of us are more trails people so we will probably do some beach mornings followed up by trail hiking. And we will all do the sightseeing and of course, all the pony stuff! I remember visiting Chincoteague as a tween before it was called tween, and I loved it there. It made a huge impression on me, and on my brother as well and we have always talked about going back. I am so excited it is in the works! We are taking our mom and also my sister-in-law’s mother as well, and I think it will be a wonderful time. Living in the Great Lakes State, we have giant lakes that you can’t see across, the go on and on. But the ocean is something entirely different.

I plan on adding some fun additions to our lessons that I found on the World Ocean Day website! They have a whole searchable database of lessons and activities that makes it easy. You just plug in the age range, duration of lesson, and learning area that you want to concentrate on and they will supply the lesson. There is a lesson on music inspired by the ocean that looks interesting. Even if we don’t actually do the lesson part, I usually play music throughout the day and I didn’t even think to add any ocean inspired music. And now, my mind is going to sea shanties too… They also have book lists, which you know I love!

Let me know if you do anything for World Ocean Day, whether it is taking action (like choosing to use reusable straws from now on or signing a petition), listening to music inspired by the sea, reading a poem or a book – anything at all! I would love to hear. Maybe you will even get to walk along the beach today!