Project: Oil Spill

I was recently introduced to a very cool blog of a mom/photographer who educated her young kiddos about the BP oil spill in a way that was age-appropriate, hands on and ultimately even helped the rescue effort. (Blog: www.ashleyannphotography.com/blog - thanks for the link, CB!)

This afternoon, we re-created Ashley's project with great success. Daniel is an animal lover and currently is (very) infatuated with sea animals. He is sensitive, so I was worried about this affecting him too deeply. But his interest in "playing doctor" kicked in as well, and he really got into the project. We just used some of his current favorite toys (two turtles and a shark), a couple plastic food storage containers and whipped up makeshift oil from soy sauce and vegetable oil.

First we talked about where the oil spill was located and as always, he loved looking at the globe. I told him that lots of animals were sick because of dirty water and I was impressed and surprised by his immediate response: "Mommy! I can help them! I can go there and clean the animals! I have an idea - those towels can help us!" I hadn't even launched into our plan of attack for helping the animals. Pretty darn cool, little man.

Next I showed him a few photos and brief video clips of affected animals and the rescue efforts to save them. He responded surprisingly well, staying very serious and focused and continually talking about how the animals are all "so sick and so dirty" and need our help.

Then the fun part... we put our animals in a container of clean water, made our "oil" mix, poured it in, and Daniel actually was upset that his animals were sick now. And even though he just turned three, he actually seemed to grasp the concept that there were REAL turtles who were sick like this.

He picked up each animal, lovingly telling it, "It's ok - I will clean you and you can go back to your Mommy". He scrubbed it with clean water and patted it dry.

We busted out the markers and paper and together drew a thank you card picturing a turtle telling the rescue workers "thank you" (Daniel's idea!). We'll head to the post office on Monday to drop off our package of wash clothes for the Craft Hope project that inspired all of this.

I love that Daniel is at an age where his little brain can wrap around concepts bigger than himself - this opens up a whole new world of projects, causes and fun.

The options are endless - my brain is on overload!