you say toe-mato, I say to-mah-to

I really, really want to try this - recycling wine bottles into planters. All you need to cut the glass is a little yarn, some acetone [aka nail polish remover], a bowl of ice water, and a match. My fingers are itching. 

We've been talking in 1st grade about recycling in social studies - and we will be again in science in short order here. I'm glad we're talking about it, because they need to see the connections between the different disciplines, but honestly, the PC stuff is getting on my nerves... how about we actually talk about earth science? Perhaps expounding on natural resources. For example, glass comes from sand... we can recycle glass [yay!] And this is what we do with clay... yay pottery and other things... Minerals are not just in our coins, we need some for our bodies, to be strong and healthy... alas, no. Let's not even get into how we can recycle our coffee grounds, egg shells, vegetable peelings and the like! Woohoo, compost! Because that is recycling! And reusing! And it's great for the earth!

We talked about sand, clay and humus last week. There wasn't even an explanation of how to say humus in the book. [You say it like hu-man. Say it with me: hu-mus.] The children know how to say clay and sand; it's probably been in their vocabulary since the time they were six months old and were putting everything in their mouths. But words like humus aren't even in most adults vocabulary, unless they happen to either pursue higher education in the geosciences or botany fields, or are really wild about gardening [or have dads that fill all those categories...] For the record, I am not any one of those people.  The book that the kids use show people picking up trash, putting plastics, glass and paper in the recycling bins, and wrapping yarn around cans for pencil cups. Which is nice. Dont' get me wrong. Because in parts of my section of town, they aren't up on all of that. I'm dodging dead bicycles and baby dolls, and worse. 

Also,  I've learned two things being in first grade: at the end of the day, the trash bin and the recycling bin end up together in the same container. So... why are we bothering?

The second thing I learned in first grade is what humus is. It's Latin, literally "earth, ground". I already knew what hummus is. You can ask Miss Honey. I make a pretty darn good hummus. Om, nom nom. 

So. Let's review:

HUMMUS                                            HUMUS 

The one on the left you eat. The one on the right... no contest. You aren't eating dirt. Who would do that? Truth be told, I know a few kids that would do it on a dare, but wise cracks aside.
It's like dessert and desert. One is something you want to eat. The other is full of sand. 

"I'd rather eat two desserts and walk through one desert"

No one wants to eat sand or dirt. Eat your double SS's and MM's.  And M&M's.