The Merimbula Aquarium

Jellyfish...taken by Lewi

Some sort of fish!! Taken by Lewi

The big tank.

Today was a fun day for our natural learners' group. We met at the aquarium in Merimbula for the feeding of the fish and a talk given by a wonderfully enthusiastic, knowledgable and passionate marine life expert whom we have met with on other occassions. He has a wonderful way of connecting with the kids and making his talks so interesting. Today his theme was 'strange things about fish'. Lewi was in his element...listening intently and taking photos and videos of his favourite creatures. He's a marine life enthusiast to the max!

Some interesting things we learnt today include:
* Seahorses suck their food like we slurp up spaghetti
* Pineapple fish have 2 sets of eyelids - the bottom ones are red and glow in the dark and encase little headlights for better night vision.
* Octopus have to 'feel' to learn things.
* A crab that once lived at the aquarium dropped it's claw and it measured over 50 cm in length. It had been known to crush a glass jar with its claws.

After the talk we all met together at Spencer Park for lunch and a play. The kids spent lots of time trading Pokemon cards (potential stock-market careers ahead of them, maybe???), playing and swimming in the pristine water. The water was the most gorgeous greeny-blue today and it was a nice temperature for swimming. I wished I'd brought my swimmers!

These days are lots of fun. We're so blessed to have a really wonderful group of homeschooling friends who we can hang out with and enjoy life with. We always look forward to the fun our next week's natural learners group get together will bring.