On A Clear Day

Today was a beautiful day in the garden. We were greeted by two new portables in the field, and although they are not very aesthetically pleasing, they will be great for the school and the kids. I’m actually pleased to get more kids out in the vicinity of the garden – hopefully they will see it and get as excited about it as we are.

The weather today was gorgeous, the cool blue of the clear sky mimicking the last of the cold front from this weekend. And not only was the weather perfect, but we had a wonderful group of second-graders come out for our observation lesson. In the community circle we talked about our sense of hearing, and played a game to get them to start thinking about the garden in terms of their senses. We had them sit down, close their eyes, and quietly listen to the sounds around them. They were to count how many sounds they heard around them. Though toward the end they got distracted by the presence of a frog (probably a stray from the pineapples), I was surprised as to how insightful some of their answers were. We then divided them into groups and talked to each of them about how to observe like scientists, and took them to different beds to observe using a different sense each time. The kids in my group were great – very attentive and curious, and they seemed happy to be there. All the kids seemed to enjoy it quite a bit, and they were able to answer our questions quite well.

After our first group of kids we spent the rest of our time watering and weeding, since we didn’t have a second group of kids come out. For a little while we spent time spreading out some of the radishes and planting the eggplant that was in starter pots, but most of the time we were weeding. Though it feels like we weed more than anything else in the garden, I’ve noticed that when we weed, we have an opportunity to talk to each other more than we usually do. Its one of those nice things about being with a group of people that is working towards a common goal – during the downtime, we find commonalities that allow us to come together and work together in a positive way. So, maybe weeding isn’t that bad after all.