Microscopic Exploration

This afternoon, we have been using ... *drum roll* ...... our microscope!

About a week ago, Kole had an assignment in Science to put some dry grass or hay in a jar and fill the jar with water. He was to leave the jar sitting for several days, then examine drops of it under a microscope. We were looking for tiny animals - he's been studying all kinds of animal families.

So, today, we ventured into the unknown. And boy, did we find some cool stuff! Little snail shell shaped creatures that swim around with seemingly nothing propelling them, inchworm type organisms that shrunk and stretched their way across the slide, and tiny little tubular racers that darted across so fast you might miss them if you weren't careful. It was fascinating for us all.

So then, the wheels in my head still turning, I decided that I'd like to examine a couple of drops of our tap water. See, we live out in the country... WAYYYY out in the country. Nearly 10 miles from the nearest small town. So, needless to say, we're not on city water supply. We have our own well, from which we get a generous supply of cold, fresh water.

We have never added anything - including chorine - to our well. It doesn't need it. We have it tested on a semiannual basis at the local water conservation district office just to be safe, but it's never needed anything except perhaps a reduction in the mineral content.

So, I got curious. Before I placed my droplets under the lens, I did stop to realize that depending on what I found, I might never take another bath here or ingest another sip of our well water again. Not that I actually would know what I'm looking at, but if there did happen to be something in there, squiggling around, the least I would have to do in order to maintain my sanity would be to run and have it tested as quickly as possible. I can't imagine drinking little squiggly things.

You can imagine my enormous relief when, after thorough and multiple examinations, I did not see anything squiggly in my tap water.

Homeschool is quite the adventure, I must say.