Homeschool Composting

I am one of those homeschoolers who try to use kinesthetic activities to improve learning, and I am always looking for creative ways to connect our learning to real life. The other day I was thinking about all of the waste that leaves my kitchen every day and how to reduce that. The it occurred to me that we can make our home more eco-friendly. Even though we recycle, there is a lot of organic waste that goes down the drain. I would rather put it to good use and since we are growing a garden this year, it dawned on me that we should start composting. Children can learn more about being “green” by maintaining a compost pile than from reading books about it or simply recycling. They also find out more about all of the science concepts involved in the process of composting. What a fun way to learn!

Since I myself have a brown thumb, I know nothing at all about composting – or gardening for that matter. I started researching it and found some great information which will get us started. Hopefully this will help you out, too!

Cornell University has a wonderful website filled with information about composting called Cornell Composting. It is a great place to start your composting journey. It is a thorough website with photos to help you. You can also check out The Organic Gardener to learn about compost containers that will make home composting easier.

If you are not new to composting, but you are looking for a new approach to try out, you can attempt the Berkley Thermophilic Compost method. This video gives you plenty of information about this method and even shows you what your compost should look like.

If you want to delve deeper into the topic of permaculture with older children, you can go to Permaculture Reflections, a blog all about the topic. It would be a good jumping off point to help you find topics to research.

I also plan to start a science journal just for our compost pile. The kids will be able to chronicle the process in it, and we can reflect on the changes that we see. We can even include any research that we do about composting. Another part that I like about composting is that it is an ongoing project. We will spend quite some time working with the compost pile. Our learning and understanding of the topic will deepen over time. Then it will simply become part of what we do together.

There is so much to find out about composting. Find a place to set up your compost pile and get started especially since fall is just around the corner and you’ll have plenty of leaves to add to the pile!

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