Mud slinging

Yesterday was a day of fearlessness and adventure! No, we did not go to the carnival (which has been parked in town), though there were squeals and shrieks of the I’m a little scared but also having fun variety. Though we did not leave our yard, there were numerous discoveries, which, judging by the awe and delight of my three and five year old daughters, seemed akin in awesomeness to those of Magellan or Newton. Oh, and my children also learned a little math, a little science, and some life skills. Can you guess what we did?

We gardened.

We cringed and giggled as we held out our palms, worms and grubs wriggling about on them.

They squealed.
We laughed.
We got dirty.

They got really dirty. The get rinsed off in the shower before you can even take a bath kind of dirty. The oh dear, our lovely, tidy neighbor has to back away from the fence because he can’t bear to see the shoeless feet with mud oozing between the toes kind of dirty.

It was fantastic.

Perhaps the best part? Today we got to feed all of those lovely grubs to our friends Alice, Nutmeg, Petunia, Daffodil, and Henrietta Toddlesworth Roche. I call that “win-win”. 

What is your favorite part of gardening with children?

Comments

[Barbara Nardone]

We were in the garden at school on Friday afternoon weeding--myself and three boys--one almost 4; one 4+ and one almost 5 and I was just smiling listening to them and watching them pulling weeds. They were looking for the biggest ones and the hardest ones to pull. They were chatting and working and being friends. Being in a garden can do that. It brings people together. It calms and it feeds the soul in a very satisfying way. I can imagine on Monday that there will be eager requests to pull more weeds. I like how gardening makes children feel needed, appreciated and loved.