Happy Earth Day, one and all!

Before I continue, I must confess that I didn’t do these activities specifically for Earth Day. But I wanted to showcase some of the growing we’ve been doing and this seemed like the perfect day to do it.

On to the green!

Back at the end of March, the little homeschool co-op that we belong to had an Easter activity. Part of that was planting seeds to grow our very own Easter grass–how fun is that? We didn’t actually use our grass in our baskets–the logistics just didn’t work out for us this year. But planting the seed, tending the soil, and watching our grass grow was so exciting! Pearl just loved watering the soil and watching for signs of growth.

Our two containers of soil and seed with a spray bottle for watering. It was all at Pearl's eye level and she loved coming in to check on her grass and water it.

Ta-da! Isn't it magnificent? It took about a week and-a-half to grow this tall.

And extra bonus feature with our clear tupperware--you can see the root action.

Pure joy.

This was such a great project. Pearl’s glee and excitement at every step of the process was just fantastic.

So fantastic, in fact, that when the grass started to fail (I think the small tupperware was to blame), we ran out and got some more green goodies.

A miniature pot set. Isn't this darling? I got all of this for $4. Thank you, Target $1 section! This is all set up where the grass was with the water bottle always there in case Pearl wants to water the plants.

Yay for Spring and the smell of wet soil and sprouts of happiness poking up to greet the world! (Can you tell I’m glad Winter is past?)

So, what does all this teach our children (and us)? Here are just a couple of thing:

• Patience–The miracle of life can take a little time and I think this is a lovely way to teach children the value of patience. It gives them a very concrete example of how certain things take time, even if we wish it weren’t so, and that, often, the end result is well worth the wait.
• Stewardship–Choosing the containers, filling them with soil, carefully placing the seeds, watering the seeds, making sure they have enough sunlight, and checking in on the plants frequently–this all teaches the child how to care for something. They learn that they need to remember to do their job, or the plant might fail. Pearl has really taken this to heart. She is ever-eager to check on her plants and water them. She understands the correlation between her actions and the success of the plants. I really believe that children want something to take care of. They desire to be stewards. This is a wonderful way to give them that gift.
• A Respect for Life–I hadn’t quite expected this, but our little growing efforts have really had an impact on Pearl. Our in-house efforts have translated into an appreciation for all plants. The other day, I picked a little flower for her because I thought she would enjoy it. She thought it was lovely and admired it for a minute. But then she said, “Mom, you probably shouldn’t have picked this. It needs to grow.” And she was right! Then I had the task of explaining that once it was picked, I couldn’t re-plant it. I did try to teach her that sometimes it’s okay to pick flowers–they are a lovely treasure to admire and nice gifts. We just shouldn’t pick them thoughtlessly or too often.

Even Monkey runs to check the plants and tries eagerly to help water them. I think we are all really enjoying this season of growth.

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