A teaching walk in the rain

Mon, 02 Sep 2019 22:50:44 GMT

I took a walk in a strong rain with the kid today under an umbrella so that we could follow a stream of water down the road. (Me: "Where do you think that water is going?" Her: "I don't know, maybe it goes on forever" Me: "Let's follow it and find out!") We found the storm drain and stuck our feet in the cold water, and I talked about storm sewers and how they take the water out to the river or the ocean so it doesn't build up and flood the roads.

Then we went back to the porch and I asked her why the water isn't building up in the garden and making streams, and why the garden doesn't need a storm drain. She didn't quite get it, so I talked about what happens when we water plants, and how the water soaks into the soil, and that water *doesn't* soak in to the roads and sidewalks (that they're "impervious surfaces") and asked her to find other big things that the water didn't soak into. I had to give her a hint about the porch we were sitting on, and we talked a bit about how water runs off of houses too. Some day, when she has developed a little more capacity for hypotheticals, we can talk about what happens as you add impervious surfaces to a city.

Out on the porch we were getting a bit of mist from the rain, and she eventually wanted to go in to get warm. Right now I'm feeling appreciative of how water doesn't soak into my house, and that it's a very dry and warm place I can retreat to. I take that as a given far too often.

Now the sky has turned a beautiful yellow and the rain is tapering off.

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A teaching walk in the rain