Setting up a Decent Fishtank

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We never set out to have fish, but it happened anyway.

We learned enough on our path to a healthy tank that I thought would be good to share. I also know fishtanks are popular in Montessori classrooms or for Homeschoolers, so here we go…

  1. It will take up to 6 weeks to “cycle” the tank. That means you will have a boring, empty tank with water and a filter running for over a month in your house. This is not a quick hobby.
  2. Read this Peta thing before you dive into fish tanks. It may make you want to look on Craigs List for unwanted fish to house your tank (many people will give you free fish.)
  3. Start with a nice large 20 gallon tank. Anything smaller will make you long for something bigger.
  4. Some fishes put out more waste than others. Each goldfish, for example, will need 10 gallons of water. Each guppy will need 1 gallon. The rule is usually 1 inch of fish per gallon of tank, but goldfish are an exception.
  5. Use live plants. Dooo eeet.
  6. Buy your stuff. You will need:
    • A tank
    • A filter for the right size of tank, probably a Penguin 100.
    • Extra filters
    • A heater for the right size of tank
    • A thermometer for the side of the tank
    • A hood with an upgraded light (the neon lights the kits have are lame, we upgraded to a T5, but they are costly.)
    • A net and some kind of siphon to filter your sand or gravel
    • Sand or gravel (Gravel is a good first choice, sand is harder.)
    • A safe table or aquarium stand
    • Magnet to clean inside algae
    • Aquarium Salt – they need a bit of salt even though they are freshwater fish
    • Aquasafe – Makes tap water ok for freshwater fish
    • Testing kits (Optional, you can just bring samples in to a store and they will check your water for free.)
  7. Set up your tank by attaching all the equipment, the biowheel with a filter in it and the heater set to the temperature that’s right for your fish. Rinse your gravel and put it in. Turn on the filter and heater. If you already have a goldfish, you can put it in the tank to help get some ammonia going. Otherwise you can buy a fish for cycling (ask your local fishstore) or you can buy ammonia and use that for cycling without a fish.
  8. For 4-6 weeks your tank will cycle. You will need to do a 10-15% water change every few days (this means using your siphon to suck out some water and put some new water back in.) After 4 weeks do a water test. You can bring water to a store or buy the testing kits. This is great for older kids to see how bacteria works.
  9. Once your nitrite and ammonia are at 0 you are ready for fish! I recommend a guppy and/or tetra tank. They are peaceful fish that won’t eat each other. They will however eat their babies if you don’t give the babies a nice floating plant. Remember, one inch of fish per gallon unless you have a goldfish. I recommend buying your fish at a high quality small local shop. Type “Tropical fish” on a google map near your house.
  10. Maintain the tank by doing water changes every couple weeks or so, and clean the gravel at the same time. If you get a snail outbreak you can get an Assassin Snail or a Clown Loach to eat them. I just try to buy my plants from a local shop with high standards and hope for the best. You can also paint the outside of the back of your tank black to make it look nicer, we have yet to do this on the new tank. You could also put blue film back there too.

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A decent fishtank will cost about $150-$400. We got most of our stuff from Aunt Betsy and her many aquariums. Just this weekend she was taunting us and our lack of a salt water tank. She also had a hole in her 90 gallon tank and had to destroy it with a sledgehammer to get a replacement. It’s a whole new world, this hobby.

My favorite site for fish advice.

Cycling your tank.

How we ended up with a fishtank, and images of all the supplies you will need.

The Family Farm

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Peter’s family owns a farm a few hours from us. Since Oma and Opa were in town we thought we would visit. That’s the farm up there, in the right corner surrounded by trees.

I spent the first 30 years of my life in Southern California. My idea of a farm usually involves a little fruit stand or cute animals. But this farm grows just two things: Corn and soy. America’s major crops. If a field grew corn last year, this year it grows soy and vice versa. They store their goods in large silos and wait for them to dry out, and for the market to be just right.

This farm was owned by my kids great, great, grandparents. German immigrants that got one of the best pieces of land a farmer could hope for. The soil is amazing. Pete’s other side of the family have a farm too, also in Illinois, but it’s soil is not as good. It makes a big difference.

That’s not to say this farm didn’t have a few animals on it. The younger cousins have projects too, which include ducks that will NOT be eaten, yet they do not have a plan for what they will do when they grow up. An impulse purchase you don’t see much in the city:

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And a hen house of 24 chickens for eggs:

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They like to peck feet.

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But the best part were the tractors.

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How many kids get to play with little tractors and then go out with dad on the real thing?

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That’s Ero and Pete on the back tractor there. They went on many, many tractors all day. They did not however go on the Couch-Mobile.

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That arm is Oma getting out of the way. One person has to steer the Couch-Mobile, and another person does the throttle. It goes very fast.

We also picked berries, and the family even left the pepperoni out of the pasta salad for the vegetarian from California.

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There was something so natural about the kids here.

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They were so comfortable.

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I understand why people move off the grid.

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Sculpting with Reference

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While sculpting the other day, Lou asked for a ball of clay. I rolled one. She began shaping it into a triangle. She said she was making a Totoro (A catlike creature from the movie My Neighbor Totoro.)

She looked a little deflated that it wasn’t looking like Totoro. I said “Let’s get a picture of Totoro so we can see what he looks like.” I got the box. We looked at it together. I asked “What do you see?” She said “Little ears.” She pulled off some clay and stuck ears on. I asked what else she saw, and she began making a leaf hat. Then after we got a few items I would say “Hmm…are we missing anything?” And she would compare. Arms, feet, nose, whiskers….

After a while, Lou says “Nope” to the “Are we missing anything” question which means we are done.

This way of creating from reference really works for us. I feel like it’s teaching her to see clearly. She may not become an artist, but she will be able to analyze!

We love reference:
Drawing a plane from reference
Drawing birds from reference
Collaborative drawing from reference.

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Sorting Nature

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On our walks we collect sticks, leaves and weeds. I read in one of my Montessori books to collect a bunch of twigs of different sizes and let the kids sort them by height. I have not had much luck with sorting. The kids love to sort, but they love to sort when it’s their idea. So instead of doing an actual adult led activity we just did our usual collecting, but this time we brought the flora inside.

When we got home, we put the nature stuff on a table in a heap. I walked away for a moment and came back to this:

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I expected Lou and Ero to have fun with the nature things, I just didn’t expect sorting. Go figure.

This nature stuff was entertainment on and off all day. Later, a towel was laid on the table and new arrangements were made:

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Little Botanists.

Optimism

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The other day I found my copy of Becoming the Parent You Want to Be after it was lost somewhere in the house for a few months. I opened it up while I was hanging out with the kids and chapter 3 stood out to me. I read it months ago but this time it really hit me. “Cultivating a Spirit of Optimism About Your Children.”

It reads “…our job as parents is to hold a vision for our children of the people they are becoming. They’re pushing and shoving now, but we believe that, ultimately, they are going to learn to share.”

It’s a brilliant chapter. After reflecting on what I read I realized that this optimism is almost as important as respect for us, and that’s saying something. This optimism can be applied to all relationships, just like respect. And not a nauseating optimism. It’s more like a strong, positive outlook.

Becoming the Parent You Want to Be

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Milk Clouds

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It’s a pretty cool special effect they used to use in old movies. We did this type of stuff when I was doing a claymation video game. High tech.

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Pour or drip, either way it’s great looking. I’m sure teaches some kind of science, though I am not sure what. Do tell if you know.

Here is a neat video on a much grander scale.

Making Montessori Objects for Reading

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We have our sandpaper letters, our movable type and a little carpet. Lou is eager to kick reading in gear. Now all we need are some Montessori Objects for reading.

These are usually things Montessori moms hunt for all over, or they can be bought from Montessori Services. But I didn’t have the patience to hunt like that, and I didn’t think they would have all of the correct words that we wanted. I did however have a big block of Sculpey laying about.

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A while ago I made this list. It collected dust on my desk for months. It’s day had come. We began sculpting.

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The kids were eager to help, but in their own way. Sometimes contributing to the characters, sometimes creating flowers…

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I made the bulk of the objects, with Lou poking eyes into them or decorating them. Our “hen” got about 50 holes poked in her, which only enhanced her look. As I sculpted I wrapped all tails against the little bodies so they wouldn’t break off:

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It took a couple hours to do them all, spread out over a couple days. Then we baked them and painted them.

Painting them was chaos. I did not get any photos because there was paint everywhere. We just went with it, and after painting like crazy the kids moved on to other play while I finished them off. We put them in an old box:

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Some of the words were hard to sculpt, like “hot” which we made a fire for. Ham was also an odd one. Lou had never seen an actual leg of ham so she made a flat blob which we painted redish-brown. Appetizing. (above the fan, middle right)

My favorite however was the Ant. He’s got an indifferent smile and lopsided eyes.

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Here’s a much bigger list that we shall tackle one day: Montessori For Everyone’s Words

And here’s how they use them: Setting up Pink Series Work

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    The Sharpie Helps Again

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    Coming up with the title for this was entertaining. I decided to play it safe.

    Lou was playing chase and scraped her knee pretty bad. I told her we would go get Super Boy and a band-aid. As usual she was unhappy with it being a boy and asked for a Super Girl instead, but the stores don’t have Super Girl spray. So out came the Sharpie. Lou opted for low down ponytails. She was pleased.

    More Sharpie goodness.

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