Hayden's preschool celebrated Earth Day by visiting a local landfill and recycling center in Hutto, TX. I volunteered as one of the drivers and we caravanned our way to the dump. Once there, the speakers had created a space for the kids to sit on the floor...out of an old trampoline (the stretchy jumpy part)! Then our speaker (who was very engaging with the kids), showed everyone various objects and had the kids decide if they were recyclable or not. She talked about reusing and reducing and then explained how the landfills are created. It was pretty interesting, and I learned a lot. The trash that is buried in the earth creates methane gas, which when harnessed can create energy for electricity. Very cool! After the talk, we drove the kids up a hill (of trash) and saw some of the big dump trucks with all the trash in them. We also saw several bins of various objects: tires, composting material, roofing material, and cardboard boxes. Hayden asked some great questions, one of which was, "How big is the engine that creates the electricity from the gas?" The answer: "Bigger than this building"!
Parker had an impromptu visit at Hayden's preschool which did not go well. When I picked him up, the teacher asked, "Has he ever been away from you?" Um, not really...I took both boys to see the movie "Earth" and it was beautifully shot and not nearly as gory as the Discovery Channel (whew!), but life with 2 kids (one of whom is a baby) meant that we did not get to finish the film. We got a solid 45 minutes, so that was good. And long enough for me to recommend it!
Hope you all enjoyed your Earth Day...what do you do to take care of the earth?
