Hey there!
Happy Belated Earth Day and Happy Wednesday! We've blinked and are already approaching the year's halfway mark.
My 5-year-old has recently entered what I call her "gross to me" phase and in the spirit of practicing what I preach and not "yucking her yum," I'm fully embracing it. This means we're immersed in extensive jokes about bodily functions. We're even developing an e-book of all the fun ways we express bodily sounds in Kreyòl, as she's keen to learn the Haitian Creole equivalents of the English onomatopoeias she's picked up. Stay tuned because I know I'm not the only parent with a child who loves this genre of yuck.
While I adore her curiosity, and I find myself clutching my invisible pearls less, I did wish to direct some of her curiosity elsewhere. Like any active Caribbean mom, I'm connecting the dots, marrying her love of all things slimy with our Caribbean heritage.
Did you know about the phenomenon of slime covering the Caribbean coral reefs and the serious threat it poses to their continued health?
The organisms on the coral reef produce slime that normally is eaten by sea urchins; however, these sea urchins are dying at an alarming rate. Scientists have pinpointed a parasite as the culprit. Something similar happened several decades ago and resolved itself, but now, scientists predict that the coral reefs could potentially die within two decades.
This made me think about our access to information, what we understand, and how we steward the earth. I would have expected this to be a very important and large conversation in the Caribbean community, not something I stumbled upon randomly because I wanted to honour my daughter's obsession with " the yuck." It always feels like we are the last to know about issues that impact us the most.
We took a day and did this activity, and she loved it. We made slime, and then we practiced empathizing with the animals impacted and how the slime interacts with the coral reef.
Seeing her navigate her concern shows me the complexity of our role as stewards of the Earth and the importance of passing on this care to future generations.
As caretakers, we play a vital role in shaping the habits and values of our children. I hope that by engaging them in meaningful experiences like this, we're fostering a lifelong connection to the natural world and empowering them to become advocates for environmental conservation. Especially when we consider how low-resourced many of our communities are. And how the ever-changing world and over-consumption impacts our beautiful region.
If you try out this activity, please let us know!
Ak Solidarite,
Régine
Co-Owner
Isse & Lo LLC
P.S. We need your help deciding on our next pattern for our instruments, scroll to the bottom and vote, please!
