Composting with Kids
Arts Education, Tumbleweeds
Take a Worm to Lunch : Vermicomposting lets kids explore nature's cycles while creating good dirt!
In nature, composting is occurring every moment all around us—on forest floors, in grassy meadows and even in the dusty desert. Composting at home takes just a little work to manage in your own backyard. It’s a wonderful way to engage the whole family in an activity that is educational and environmentally responsible.
In simplest terms, composting is the decomposition of plant matter into usable nutrients and soil. From old leaves and tree twigs to banana peels and apple cores, organic matter is broken down during the composting process and turned into soil by nature’s team of hard-working helpers often referred to as “the natural F.B.I.:” fungi, bacteria and insects.
Although compost happens naturally, it is exciting to know that humans can help that process along and benefit from it as well. Composting at your own home is a great way for children to learn about biological systems, waste management and natural cycles, while also making soil for their own gardens. Moreover, composting helps keep millions of tons of garbage out of already crowded landfills.
Composting is not only a natural process and a good idea, it is also fun. Compost piles are full of creeping, sneaking little creatures that are busy working away. Children love digging in the dirt to discover the activity beneath. With a simple magnifying glass, kids can get a closer peek at all of the amazing organisms that are an important part of our ecosystems yet are often overlooked.
By digging and watching in compost piles, children can track the decomposition process to learn which things break down faster than others and notice that some things never break down at all. Composting also provides a rich, interactive opportunity for children to learn what biodegradable means in their own backyard. Adding nontoxic, non-biodegradable things to compost piles (like plastic, for example) provides a fun, important lesson in what decomposes and what simply never will.
How to compost?
You will be surprised how easy composting is. There are dozens of ways to make compost piles by creating a simple, healthy space to gather kitchen refuse and other organic garbage you might otherwise throw away. The book Let it Rot by Stu Campbell recommends bins, barrels or boxes and offers guidelines for a variety of techniques incorporating sheet composting, worm bins, hot piles and even chickens.
At the Santa Fe Children’s Museum, our favorite kid-friendly composting method is called vermicomposting. A working example of vermicomposting can be found in our Earthworks garden. This indoor composting installation is managed by red wigglers—worms, that is. With a little help from our visitors and interns who give them water, these worms actively decompose all kinds of organic matter and make rich castings for our garden. The outdoor worm compost is designed to handle more food scraps and garden waste and is inviting to other critters that help the process along: sow bugs, centipedes and fungi.
Putting the worms to work
Worms eat half their own body weight in food everyday and can produce offspring every week. To inspire worms to eat your organic garbage, you will first need to provide a nice home.
Shelter: Choose a nice shady place in the yard to place your compost pile. Arrange four straw bales to make a sealed square, or use a wooden box or plastic bin. You won’t need a cover for your compost pile, as that will just invite other creatures that are looking for a good hideout. A nice top layer of two to three inches of straw or shredded paper is important to cover up food scraps and keep worms cool.
Air: Worms take in oxygen and produce carbon dioxide through their skin. If their environment has too little air they won’t be able to breathe.
Water: Particularly important here in New Mexico, water is vital to a worm’s life. The bodies of worms are 75 percent water, and in order to breathe, they need an environment that is about 75 percent water as well. Water your compost pile to keep it moist like a rung-out sponge, and add carbon materials (like straw or shredded newspaper) when it is too wet.
Temperature: Red worms are happiest in climates of 55 to 77 degrees. If they get too cold, however, they will just dig down into the ground to keep warm. To keep your worms from getting too hot, keep your compost pile in the shade or cover it with an umbrella.
Food: Worms will often like eating things humans do not enjoy, including old bread, rotten fruit, peelings, greens, vegetable stems, teabags and even coffee grounds. Worms, however, cannot eat meat, dairy products or oil, so make sure to leave these out. Worms will take a long time to digest avocado pits, citrus rinds, corncobs and other extra-sturdy plants, so you might want to leave those out as well. Worms also enjoy good carbon such as newspaper and straw, which can be added by the handful with every couple of bowls of kitchen scraps.
Through composting at home, families can create a simple biology classroom in their own backyard. This little ecosystem of decomposition is a great way for children to explore ecological waste management and reconnect with the cycles of nature. Happy composting!
Jennifer Case and Erin O’Neill are members of the Green Team at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum. O’Neill serves as Garden Manager and teaches Earthworks environmental education classes. For more information contact Earthworks@santafechildrensmuseum.org or visit www.santafechildrensmuseum.org.
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Rotting Resources:
Ÿ Earthworks at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum: Features live compost piles and monthly family workshops in environmental education. 1050 Old Pecos Trail, 989-8359.
Ÿ Sam McCarthy: Local compost expert, teaches classes at Ecoversity and the Children’s Museum and sells compost at the Saturday Farmers’ Market in the Rail-yard.
Ÿ Let it Rot: The Gardener’s Guide to Composting by Stu Campbell (Storey Publishing, 1998).
Ÿ Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up & Maintain a Worm Composting System by Mary Appelhof (Flower Press, 1997).
Ÿ Worms Eat Our Garbage: Classroom Activities for a Better Environment (Flower Press, 1993), coauthored by Appelhof and two other educators, offers a vermiculture curriculum with over 150 activities for children in grades 4 through 8.
