My little Earth-child

Asher's 1st grade had been studying how to take care of the Earth.  Reduce, reuse and recycle!  They had created a compost pile to use in the spring.  They had also learned about how things are recycled and how we can make an impact with very little effort.  Then, a few weeks ago, Asher came home with an assignment.  He had to make something useful out of material he could find here in our home.  No buying stuff. 
He immediately had the idea to make a car out of a milk jug.  We had a brainstorm about what materials we could use for wheels and how we could make the car go faster.  Asher had his plan and was waiting for his daddy to have a day off of work to help him make the car. 
In the process of waiting, Asher came up with a new plan.  He wanted to make flip-flops.  Don't know why he ditched the car idea but he did.  (He is the middle child so we stopped trying to figure him out long ago!)  The flip-flop idea took off!  He began experimenting with different things he had found.  He first decided to use some old composite edging that we had from a flower-bed we put in this summer.  He figured out that he could twist plastic bags together to make straps for the shoes.  He and his daddy tried out the idea and it failed.  The edging was just too hard to cut.
Round two was just genius in my mind! Asher and his daddy found an old tire in the back of Matt's pick-up. So they, with much trouble, cut out a sole for the shoe. (Those steel-belts are not easy to cut!) They Asher and I came up with the idea to use strips of his old shirt to make the straps. We had a lesson in braiding so Asher could make the braided straps. Then they put it all together and this is what we had...

He was so proud of his hard work!

Classmates checking things out.

The close-up

Some of the other inventions we pretty ingenious!

Cute piggy bank

I've done this!

Brilliant!

Sometimes we just need a little beauty!

One of the administrators who came to see the display commented that Asher could probably sell the flip-flops as a business.  Then the expert that they had come talk to the kids said that people in other countries make the same thing except they use the tubing inside the tire for straps!  So cool.  We are proud of our little boy and know that this type of learning is right up his alley!