Early Learning in the Garden

I admittedly have a “black thumb” when it comes to gardening.  I have never been able to keep any kind of houseplant alive.  However, I really love the idea of growing our own food, and urged my husband to get on board with the idea of planting a few vegetables this year.  Luckily, once he was invested in the project, he built a raised bed and remembers to water the plant regularly.

Most of us have heard that when children help with growing fruits and vegetables they are more likely to eat them!  I am going to take it a step further and give a few activities to engage little ones in the garden.  If you are not growing your own garden, these ideas can still be used at a farm or farmer’s market.

• Give them their own tools and their own space to dig!  This can be as simple as letting them use the plastic containers that your seedlings came in (which is what we did) or actually making them their own space like this one from The Imagination Tree. Bottom line: if you want to be working in the garden, give them something similar to do to keep them engaged.

Roo collected sticks from around the yard and used the empty seedling containers to create art!

• Go on a color scavenger hunt—find every color of the rainbow in your garden/backyard/farm/market. Pick the red tomatoes, find a yellow blossom, point to the green zucchini….etc

finding the red, ripe tomatoes and picking them!

• Count your harvest.  How many tomatoes did we pick?  We’ll need ___ lettuce leaves for our salad.

• Sort your harvest. You can sort by color, fruit or vegetable, shape, sweet or sour, etc.  You can use hula hoops or buckets to sort the produce into.

• Introduce descriptive vocabulary that engages all the senses: talk about textures, tastes, shapes, smells, and noises that they make when dropped into a bucket.  Possibly the most fun activity related to gardening is the taste test!

smelling... 

tasting....

Once they are a little older, they can help with the planting and maintenance as well.

We have been successful (so far) with lettuce, basil, zucchini and tomatoes.  Our strawberries keep getting eaten and aren’t quite flourishing.  I know that our garden is small by some standards and we didn't grow from seeds, but for our first year of gardening, I am proud that we are producing anything!!!  I absolutely LOVE picking fresh food to use in my recipes and to serve/eat as a healthful snack.

Following in her mama and dada's footsteps….

 I have yet to post much about myself….and this one will only be partly about myself ;)  After nearly ten years of running at the same pace and mostly the same distance, I decided to actually train for a half-marathon last year and increase my speed.  Last year’s training was dream-like: I had a friend to run and chat with, I didn’t get injured, every new milestone fueled me to go faster and further (there was only one super hot and humid long run that my watch wasn’t working properly so we couldn’t even see how many miles we had been that didn’t go so smoothly)!! This year I decided to tackle the marathon….I am six weeks into the training plan and have gotten shin splints for the first time and feel like I am on the verge of getting blisters, and the runs aren’t quite as dreamy!  With that being said, I have also PR’d for 5Ks and 5-milers this year, which feels great. 

Most of the time I run in the morning before Little Roo wakes up, but on occasion I take her and the BOB stroller for a spin (a worthy investment for anyone who wants to run with baby in tow).  Yesterday I decided to run to the local high school track to do some speed work.  She enjoys riding in the stroller while I am running, even asks for more “running” when we slow down or stop.  The plan was to run there, then have her play, look at books, and have a little snack in the field while I ran around the track.  We had done this once before, when my husband was able to come along.  At first, she was content eating her snack.

Once her snack was gone, she was more interested in clapping for me and bringing me my water bottle. I think her "coaching" is one of the sweetest acts…when her dad was there, he was doing that and it amazes me that after seeing him do it once, she followed suit!  What a testament to modeling the behavior we want to see.  While I also realize I am modeling healthy habits, I would rather her see kindness in action and apply it than have her be a runner!

Eventually, she wanted to run, too!! Training for the next Kid's Fun Run?!

Firework-inspired art for toddlers

Inspired by the shape and color of fireworks, we created some patriotic art work!  We used the “doodle paint” recipe (flour, salt, water, paint) in squeeze bottles--- the girls (Little Roo and a friend) were able to squeeze and drip paint onto coffee filters.  We talked about how to turn the bottle and wait for it to drip or squeeze it, as well as the colors and the shape of the coffee filter.  I mentioned the colors of the American flag and we can see one out the window.   They don’t know what fireworks are yet, and probably won’t be up late enough to see them this year.  For them it was about exploring paint in a new way, on a new paper. The texture of the paint is also different because of the salt, when it did get on their hands we talked about how it felt rough, not smooth like finger-paint.  I like to keep projects open-ended, but get inspiration from holidays, seasons, interests, etc. When this paint dries, there is a bit of a sparkle to it from the salt!

w

two hands!

waiting for the blue to drip!