7.15.2012

Kid's Wonders of the Beach Program

Yesterday, Taft and I went to another great program at Gamble Rogers Memorial Recreation Area at Flagler Beach.  Of course Taft didn't care what the program was about, he was just thrilled to Ranger Lauren.
The first park of the program was at the pavilion.  She had skulls from birds, sea turtles, and a dolphin.  The kids got to guess what they were from.  She also had a great project set up to show the kids how beach erosion happens.  She had sand and water with little plants on the "beach" and then each person got to take turns using a sponge to make "waves".  It showed them why they should not play on the dunes and pick plants there.
 Taft enjoyed getting to listen to the "ocean" in a conch shell.
The second part of the program was on the beach itself.  The first stop was one of the sea turtle nests on the beach.  Ranger Lauren told them how the sea turtles lay lots of eggs during the night and the Ranger's have to be on the beach very early each morning to look for new nests to mark in order to keep them safe.
They dug for clams and then they all looked around for things for a little show and tell by Ranger Lauren.
 A nice local fisherman brought over some live sand flees and clams that he used for bait.  The kids loved seeing those sand flees moving around.
 They also loved hearing Ranger Lauren tell them about the items that they found.  I was pretty impressed with Taft.  I was helping him look and completely walked past what I thought was just trash.  He picked it up anyway and it turned out to be mangrove seeds.  He also found a nice piece of drift wood that he brought home.

It was another great day with Ranger Lauren.  I also found out the that charter school we have looked into for Taft goes on field trips there.  I am sure that he would love that.

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