I Need Water!

Maybe living in Texas leaves me thirsty and missing all the beautiful waters of Colorado but there has been no short supply of water in our school lessons lately so that is a plus.  We are almost finished with our unit on water and famine.  I know that sounds depressing at first but hear me out.  In order for the kids to really understand the importance of water, they must first understand what happens without water.

This then, is where our unit started, with education about what a famine was.  We read about famine in the Bible and discussed major famines that have happened in history and why famines happen, what can be done to help prevent famine and the importance of conserving water.  It is easy to forget how privileged we are here in the United States.  Back at the beginning of the year we had well problems where our well froze.  We were without water in the house for a week or so while we first waited for it to thaw and then fixed the parts that had been damaged in the freeze.  Of course it was a major pain to have to either go to the rec center to shower or to do a sponge bath with water we purchased in town.  Taking all of our laundry to the laundromat in town was expensive and time consuming.  Heating water on the stove to hand wash dishes took awhile.  Purchasing water in town to put in a huge tank to bring home to fill the horse troughs took planning and effort.  Overall, we were so glad to have water back when the well was fixed.  Here is the thing though.  We still had plenty of access to water.  We may have had to go to town for it and it may have been inconvenient, but it was still available for us.  To teach on famines and help them understand that during a famine, water just plain isn't available is so eye opening for them.  I think this is important for all of us to remember and to realize not only how blessed we are living in the United States but also how there are still many people today living in harsh conditions.  With Lent always having a theme of going into the desert, these lessons fit right in.

While learning about the lack of water was important, of course we needed to learn about water in all forms as well, which was a lot more fun!  We started out with the water cycle and clouds which was fun to talk about and learn about.  Then we moved on to study in depth ponds, oceans, lakes and rivers.  It was so much fun to learn about all the different life in each and how each is so important to our survival.  We checked out close to 30 books from the library and two very cool movies about the Oceans.   The kids loved this unit of study as did I.  We are 2 days away from being finished with the unit and our biggest project for it is yet to be finished so I will have to share pictures of our Ocean mural later.  Fun, fun, fun!  Here are pictures of the water cycle.