My very first review :) I'm a tad nervous :)
Northern Worm Ranch. has given us the opportunity to review their new Medium kit! The Medium kit included two medium totes, coir, sand, shredded paper, a pound of worms (Red Wigglers), several large sheets of paper, a 45 page Unit Study on CD, instructions, fun facts sheet and a welcoming letter :) As they live nearby they dropped off the kit on their way to 'town.' They are willing to set up meets with buyers or even bus the kits right to you!! Worms, we found out, can live for several days in the little containers they package them in. Jennifer, the head worm wrangler, told us a story about a batch of worms that got delayed for 4 days and were happy and healthy when they finally got to their new home!
We had some fun setting up the kit.. the instructions were easy to read and follow and I'm pretty sure J and L could have set it up alone with very little trouble. We all pitched in and got in on the action.
The first thing you do is put your paper in the bin and then mix the sand, dampened coir (which is sort of super worm food if I understand correctly.), and some shredded paper together in the bin. You have to add a lot more water then you think to get the coir all damp.
Then you mix it up. When it's all mixed up you get some nice soft worm food as worms don't have teeth, we used a mashed banana, and you put that in your bin. The worms go into the bin next, close to the food so they can find it, and the kids had a blast opening the containers and gently dumping the worms in. Then you cover the whole thing with shredded paper.
(R watching the worms dive away from the light!)
This next part was the hardest part of this WHOLE FUN PROJECT...
you have to WAIT!!!
Worms take a few days to make themselves at home and you have to give them a few days to get comfortable. You also have to leave the light on in the room the bin is in or they might try and find a more hospitable home!!! This involved me leaving tape over the light switch so I would remember! Worms don't like light and will not try to escape unless it's dark!
While we waited to do more of the hands on worm stuff we went instead to our Unit study to learn more about these amazing animals.
We learned neat worm facts..
Did you know?
Worms move by shifting water through the sections of their bodies?
They have 5 hearts and 1 brain?
OR
Worms don't like garlic or salty foods??
We also colored worm pictures,
looked up worm related words,
learned what to feed or not feed them,
did worm word searches,
learned what day God created worms on and
copied out verses about creation and doing the best we can,
drew worm pictures,
learned how worms can defend themselves,
and we didn't even get to do the whole study!! YET :)
The unit study is aimed at kids between 5 and 10 years old and has things for bigs and littles.
All of our kids enjoyed it even R who is only 4.
J3 even had some fun watching worms dive from the light.
We did over 1/2 of the study over the last 2 weeks and plan to do more as time allows.
I THINK if we were doing school full time and I actually planned ahead we could easily do the entire study in about a week while only doing school a couple hours a day. As it was we did it piecemeal as we had time and it worked nicely for that too.
I think you could take as little or as much of it as you wanted depending on the age of your kids and your time.
We also learned that worms can eat between 50 and 100% of their body weight PER DAY!!
If L ate half his body weight in food in one day he'd have to eat as much food as R is heavy!!
That is a LOT of food!!
When the worms had gotten used to their new home we took some out and had a good look at them.
I forgot to take pictures but even R held a worm and enjoyed it!
J can talk of nothing but fishing with worms and
L and E are both a bit leery of the worms but like to show them off :)
They all handled the worms and they all take great pride in showing visitors 'our worms.'
About two weeks into our vermicomposting (composting worms) we noticed that the shredded paper on top was damp and nasty and the worms weren't really moving to the other side of the tote. SO we shredded up some more paper for them. Now just a few days later they are looking much happier :)
And when the bin is full we will have a bin full of worm castings which are super good for gardening and plants!!
I do have to say though..
That I HAD NO IDEA HOW COOL WORMS ARE until this study.
I'm pretty sure I learned more than the kids.
Forgot a few things :)
If your interested but unsure come on over and take a look see :) We love visitors :)
And THANKS Jen and Andrew and those cute little junior worm wranglers
for giving us this opportunity to try out and review your vermicomposter. :)
