My Seaside Naturalist

D is taking the Seaside Naturalist class offered through the Fieldtrip Research Center this year. This is a monthly class run at Northeastern University's Marine Research Center in Nahant. We've taken many homeschooling classes over the years, and this is by far the best class that D has ever been a part of it. It is well-organized, interesting, challenging, and super fun. The homework is interesting but not overwhelming and D has learned so much these past four months. Marine Science is his passion so I'm thrilled that we found a program that offers him so much new information in a fun and engaging way. During the past four classes D has learned about tides, currents, micro-organisms, algae, sponges, and jellyfish. They even collected sea moss and made their own carageenan, a thickening agent used in many food items. Then they made egg nog using their own carageenan! It looked quite interesting and I had to bribe D to try it. Although it was an awesome experiment, I don't think sea-moss egg nog is going to become a staple in our home any time soon.

Checking out cniderea and sponges under the microscope.

Some pressed algae D made.

One of the coolest things about Northeastern's Marine Research Center is that the lab is basically in a bunker, which is built into the hillside, right on the ocean. Every time we go there I feel like we are on the set of 'Lost' and I keep waiting for the doors to open and for someone in a brown Darma Initiative uniform to greet us.

Nahant is absolutely beautiful and I was able to snap some pictures while the girls and I were exploring the area on Monday.

For information on FRC, click here: http://www.fieldtripresourcecenter.com/
For information on Northeastern Marine Research Center click here: http://www.northeastern.edu/marinescience/
And to check out the Seaside Naturalist Book that they are using in the class, click here: http://www.amazon.com/Seaside-Naturalist-Guide-Study-Seashore/dp/0671765035/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323265176&sr=1-1

Memorial Day Weekend

Our weekend, in pictures:

Summertime

We have settled in to our summer home, our favorite place in the world, and one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen. This is where DG and I met, where we fell in love (awww) and where he proposed. We were a bit late settling in here this year, but now that we are finally here we've been boating, building castles, staying up far too late with friends and family, catching crabs and minnows, digging sea clams, toasting marshmallows by the bonfire and reading lots of good books. The water has been shockingly warm (let's hear it for global warming! wooohooo - that's sarcasm, difficult to pick up via computer so I just thought I would clarify) so we've all been swimming lots and lots. It's rare that I put so much as a toe in this ocean, but I'm loving it this year. D and DG have been fishing up a storm, though so far they've only caught sand sharks and small cod.
We've been barbecuing, making fruity summer drinks and eating drippy watermelon. I've realized that my true calling in life is laziness, slothdom, and mastering the art of doing absolutely nothing. Ahhhhh, summer. I love it. And I feel so fortunate to live in such a beautiful place, where I can fully enjoy it.

playing hooky

Today was 80 degrees and so very beautiful. We grabbed our books, towels, and yummies and spent the day at the beach swimming (D even dunked!), playing wiffle ball, and searching for treasures. D found a big crab and spotted some piping plovers, endanged birds that nest here during the spring. It was blissful :)