It is raining here this afternoon, the snow soggy and wet. The air smells like spring. I have bags of dirt sitting here, warming, readying for flats under the grow lights. Saturday chores are nearly done. I am anxious to plant...thinking on spring... From the archives of the CWO Homeschooling Column...:
The frogs are croaking. We walked down through the woods this evening to listen to their spring concerto fill up the spaces between the trees, and then drift up into the night sky.
The boys stepped off the path to pick a bouquet of pussy willows from the marsh in celebration of warmth’s opening night. Low overhead, seeming to brush our up-turned faces, two Canada geese flew low, the rushing power of their wings applauding the debut of spring wood haunts, and dog-tooth violets, and rustling life.
Spring so beckons us to come. We throw off winter’s blanket and days of quiet hibernation and head out into the invitation of exploring living. Sketch books and sharpened pencils in hand, we sit, backs leaned against trees, to capture poking, peeking, stirring signs of growth on our pages. The world seems new, a stranger…that perhaps we’ve met somewhere once before? We’ve drawn her many faces, different angles, various vantage points--- budding tree, perched robin, shy daffodil--- to remember her whence we meet again.
Art class and Nature Study spring up from simply carrying our coiled- ring notebooks just outside the front door.
The past few weeks, the mailbox has offered up catalogue hopes of summer color bursts and tastes of sunshine: Tiger Baby watermelons and Ring of Fire sunflowers, Chippewa sweet corn and Ballet Mix Asters. We piled the incoming seed catalogues on the dining room window seat. During mealtimes we each laid out a catalogue of glossy brilliance to salivate over.
Joshua grinned, “I’d love a whole patch of these Blueray Blueberries. Bet they would make a great pie. Just like that book, Blueberries for Sal, Mom.”
Hope daydreamed over pages of alyssum, “You could have your very own Royal Carpet Alyssum. Imagine a whole carpet of purple in the front flowerbed!”
Levi held up his color spread of sunflowers: “Everyone pick their favorite one. Which one do you like best, Dad?”
Three of us picked the same one: Starbust Aura. “Guess you need to write that one down on our list of must-orders, Levi!” I nodded.
After clearing the table, Caleb hunched over the calculator figuring: How many years of gardening would be required to pay off the pricey Earthway Precision Seeder?
Joshua looked up from his tallying of the prices for the Lee Valley order, “Maybe if you sold sweetcorn this summer, Caleb, it would pay off faster.” Caleb’s eyes lit up and his calculations began afresh with visions of entrepreneurial success.
A handful of catalogues, set about the table during a week of mealtimes, had yielded deepened relationships, visionary dreams, and awe of God’s dazzling botanical creativity---not to mention all the reading, writing, and arithmetic that had naturally and spontaneously cropped up in the act of simply living.
One drizzly afternoon last week, we brought the gardening flats down from the attic, and hauled up a bag of dirt from the storage room. Little hands dug into the bag of soil, tenderly scooping and patting the earth into the containers. Hope picked the envelope of marigold seeds she had collected from the flowerbeds last fall, Levi chose the zinnias, Levi the petunias. As we carefully planted our specks of summer hopes, we talked about what makes good soil, and hard soil, and how to water and weed and nurture…
Wiping off my dirty hands, I grabbed my Bible and flipped open the pages to read: “…a sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side…” (Mt. 13). Hands still wriggling in dirt, seeds resting in open palms, the children thoughtfully listened as I read the parable.
Tucking our seeds into their dirt beds, I asked, “So, any ideas about what makes us be like stony places….or good soil?”
We simply talked…and connected Truth and Him, to us, little sowers in this moment on a rainy spring afternoon, planting flowers…and heart seeds.
We may go down to the marsh again tomorrow night for an encore performance of the frogs. I’d like that. His invitation to simply come and sketch spring and dream over spring and dig into spring is just too alluring. Because He Himself is.
Of Him, the heaven’s declare…
So let us get out there!
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Practical Application:
Motivated learners see the connections between what they are learning and what they are living, are curious about His world and how He moves in it, and are creative…like their Creator.
Think the BIG Three C’s: Connections, Curiosity, Creativity.
Foster connections between God, child, world, knowledge.
~ Plant some seeds then read the Parable of the Sower together: What kind of soil do you see us working in right now? Got any ideas about what we could do today to be good soil?
~Eat an apple, then plant the seeds together. Talk about spiritually growing into a tree that bears good fruit: Where are our roots and what are they planted in? What does good fruit in our life look like?
~Foster curiosity by providing an environment rich in literature, tools, and suggestions.
You won’t be able to dam up the flood of kid-friendly gardening ideas in Sharon Lovejoy’s Books—absolutely guaranteed to light a spark of green-thumb curiosity: Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots : Gardening Together with Children
~Spark year-round curiosity with a Notebook of Seasons that you lay out on an end table. Encourage the children to jot down God’s Hand in each year’s seasons:
When the first robin was spotted?
What spring flowers were first spotted and where?
When and what was the temperature of the first day out in the garden?
Which migratory birds were first spotted back building nests?
What was the last tree to finally leaf out?
~Foster creativity by modeling creativity, allowing time, offering the supplies.
Gather the kids and:
~Dig out the pencils and design a garden plan—where to plant those lupins, colored swiss chard, and ever prolific zucchinis?
~Measure, saw, hammer together a window box to showcase God’s summer spray of color!
~Wander down a woodland lane…then sit, sketch, be still and know: sketching spring’s first flowers will set the creative — and spiritual -- tone for the season.
Praise the LORD from the earth…
you mountains and all hills,
fruit trees and all cedars,
young men and maidens,
old men and children.
~Ps. 148:17
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