Today's Geography question was.....

"What is the name of the Earth's four oceans?"

I don't know how this topic ever came up in conversation, however, sometime last year, my wife - always the science teacher - was saying that there were 5 oceans. I looked at her with that - oh, you silly rabbit - type of look. She was adament. I was adament that there were four. I googled it to prove her wrong......... looks like I was wrong :(

OCEANS

The planet is approximately 71% water and contains (5) five oceans, including the Arctic, Atlantic, Indian, Pacific and Southern. Their borders are indicated on the world image in varied shades of blue.

For many years only (4) four oceans were officially recognized, and then in the spring of 2000, the International Hydrographic Organization established the Southern Ocean, and determined its limits. Those limits include all water below 60 degrees south, and some of it, like the Arctic Ocean, is frozen.
from worldatlas.com

So, this afternoon, when your child comes home from school, ask him/her - how many oceans are there? In your infiniate wisdom, you can now correct your child as we will only be going over the answer tomorrow morning. We parents have to watch out for one-another!

Who knew there were 5 oceans? It would have been nice if the International Hydrographic Organization put out some public service announcements so we wouldn't look so clueless in front of our children!!

Get the word out - 5 oceans!!