Planting Seeds
Posted: May 16, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Garden, Jena's work, Outside, playing with our food, Recycling, sensory, Tradition, Water Play, Working Together | Leave a comment »
Little K’s little class at the YMCA, Crazy Concoctions, plant marigolds for mother’s day. They talk about the seeds, they scoop soil, insert seed and water. That reminds me, it’s time to plant seeds for the veggie garden.
Of course, there are so many different ways to go about planting…right in the ground, starting inside then hardening off, buying saplings from a nursery, etc. We start seeds from inside. The best tutorial I’ve found for going about starting seeds indoors comes from Kitchen Encounter Chronicle. The tutorial instructs us to reuse egg cartons, and I like that.
We buys seeds, dig some dirt from the garden, fill a sand bucket, 1/2 dirt and 1/2 compost. Shovel this mixture into the egg cartons.
When the egg cartons are full of dirt, poke a little finger into each cup. Plant seeds according the seed package instructions. Cover lightly with soil and water gently. Keep in a sunny part of the house. I keep ours at the window sill in the kitchen where sun beams in most of the day. It’s also a spot close to water. I check on the egg cartons and sprinkle with water every day. It’s so much fun to watch them pop.
When the sprouts pop and have grown about 2 inches, we slowly introduce the plants to the outdoors by bringing them outside during the day for longer and longer periods of time, eventually leaving them out at night and transplanting into the garden bed.
We have planted beets, carrots, spinach, cucumber, pumpkins, broccoli, morning glories and sunflowers. The flowers are a new adventure.
Art Playgroup: Recycled Garden Tiles
Posted: May 15, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Artsy Fartsy, Building, Community, Experimentation, Garden, Outside, Recycling, Sculpture | Leave a comment »
mix cement
For this playgroup of children ranging in age from under 1 year to 4 years, we follow instructions to make a recycled garden tile from NurtureStore.
beautiful stuff
Supplies:
bag of cement, mortar mix
water
large container and a hoe to mix the cement
small molds, shoe box with plastic bag inserted, old take out plastics
beautiful stuff, recycled found objects
hose for washing off hands and whatever else gets dipped in the mix
arrange
Dump bag of cement into the large container, add water slowly while mixing together with hoe. When the consistency of the cement mix allows it to easily slip off the hoe, it’s ready. Have the parents and children work together to fill the molds with cement, 1 inch deep at least. The thicker the stronger.
Decorate with beautiful stuff.
Let dry in the sun.
Place in a special spot in the garden.
Some of the younger children REALLY want to put their hands in the cement mix, and because we know our kids, we anticipate this before hand and supply a process table full of sand and baby oil with larger beautiful stuff, separated out for the babies in attendance.
Mother’s Day: Sweeter than Honey Tea
Posted: May 14, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Artsy Fartsy, Community, Drawing, Garden, Holiday, playing with our food, Tradition | Leave a comment »
“I like playing hide and seek with my mom, she makes good noodles. She looks pretty when she goes to meetings at school.” Little J
“I like reading books with my mom. She makes really good beans. I like going to mountains with mom. She looks pretty in her runninng shoes. And she runs, runs, runs.” Little K
The teachers organize a precious Mother’s Day Tea at the boys’ school. It is the event of the year for Co-op moms, or aunts, grandmothers, there was even a dad there this year.
The kids work all week preparing food, decorating the classroom and creating little gifts to give. Little J and K planted a flower in a little painted pot, made a great card with a drawing of mom on the front and wrote the cutest things inside, like, “my mom makes really good beans.”
This year there was a garden tea party theme. We were served peach herbal tea by the kids. We had garden pizza, made with pizza dough topped with veggie dip and raw veggies. There were blueberry muffins and cantaloupe slices. The dessert was a strawberry rhubarb tort. Everything was delicious.
Manure Pile Play
Posted: May 10, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Field Trip, large motor skill, Outside, sensory | 1 Comment »
No, I’m not joking. The horse manure in question is composted and fine, the finest soil, actually. There a huge mountain of it at an Equestrian Center we visit to watch my niece on a drill team.
The boys only last so long watching the show and quickly find the very large pile of manure, a giant sifter and conveniently, a couple of shovels. I could not have set up a more appropriate provocation.
The pile is close enough to the show that the boys can be engrossed in play while the adults watch my niece’s performance on the drill team. The boys slide down the pile, create avalanches, found worms, separate rocks, and get thoroughly soiled and are thoroughly satisfied.
Isn’t letting kids play in dirt good for allergies and the immune system? That’s not a problem here.
We end the morning with some snacks for the horses and a great family get together.
Friend H Land Art
Posted: May 9, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Artsy Fartsy, Building, Imagination, Outside, Sculpture, Small Motor Skill | Leave a comment »
I’ve introduced a new art word to Friend H. She uses fragrant pine needles and other natural materials found inside of our trampoline to create a work of art, Land Art. She loves arranging and I love watching her happily inventing new little worlds. I take a photo and call it Land Art. For her, it’s a proud moment when her usual play is positively encouraged, elevated to a honored level.
After I take the first photo, she adds more and asks me to take another photo, calling it phase 2.
veggie garden, step 1: prep soil
Posted: May 7, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Garden, large motor skill, Outside, playing with our food, Working Together | Leave a comment »
Our garden from last year is overrun by low lying weeds, so we get out the pokey tools and get to work. The boys really love digging in the garden, so much so, that I like to leave a small section unplanted for them to play in. The whole square is ours for playing now. No seeds or saplings are planted yet.
Before we seed or plant, we will prep our soil. That entails, separating all the weeds from the soil, testing the ph, adding some wood ash or compost according to the results of the test, and turning the soil like a big batch of brownie dough. It’s dark and rich and smells wonderful.
Wood ash, lime, compost and ph testing kits can all be found at your local gardening store.
Little J finds a wheel barrow and fills it with the weeds. He makes monster soup.
We will be starting our seeds indoors and hardening them off when they’ve grown. Last year was the first time we moved plants from inside to outside without them wilting away. We’re hoping for that same success this year.
We rented this book from the library and it very simply described how to prep the soil and moved plants from inside to outside. It’s also filled with lots of great gardens to plant with children.
“All knowledge is rooted in wonder, and what better place to cultivate wonder than in our own garden.”
Sharon Lovejoy
In Between Bug Bites, Blossoms and Beginnings
Posted: May 7, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Artsy Fartsy, Garden, Jena's work, Outside | 1 Comment »
May 6 marks the complete circle made around the sun for HappyLittleMesses. My first post was about starting a garden and a blog, a beginner with both.
It’s spring again. I love this season for its feel of celebration, an end to the long winter, for its blooms, for the wind and rain showers and mud, for the freedom it lends my family, windows open to fresh air. There is a small reprieve in the spring, a couple of months free from the sting of super cold weather and the sting of bugs, from the work of lugging and loading wood and from the heavy heat that again causes us to close our windows and turn on the air conditioner. This time of year also brings a small window of perfect running weather. I will be running my first 5K soon.
My garden is coming alive. There are many flowers that have already come and gone like the forsythia and daffodils and tulips and the light pink blossoms of our crab apple tree.
The boys and I have lots of plans for the vegetable garden. We’ve already turned the dirt in our patch and inspected the contents of our compost bin for readiness. The raspberry and blueberry bushes are growing fast and might just bare fruit this summer. Our peonies are sprouting and already have buds riddled with ants. There is a promise of much more to come.
Quinebaug River Race
Posted: May 4, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Artsy Fartsy, body, Community, Field Trip, Outside, sensory | Leave a comment »
Big K and I take the boys to the local recreation area to have a Sunday jog on a great 2 mile trail wrapped around the Westville Lake. It just so happens that the Lions Club is holding their 26th Annual Quinebaug River Race, same locale, same day, same time that we end up there. We have our jog, ending at Ben Bridge, bowing over the Quinebaug, about the time the first canoe is due to be launched.
There are 2 rescue trucks parked near Ben Bridge, next to the river at a rapid, created by an old damn under the water. This is a place where many boats flip over and need assistance. District 7 Regional dive team to the rescue. As we wait for the first boat to appear around the bend in the river, we check out the rescue trucks and diver gear and ask the firefighters questions.
It’s a 7 mile stretch of race with one class 3 rapids. It takes 50+ minutes to complete.
photo from the local paper.
Little J draws a canoe in the sand at the edge of the bridge.
We hope that some part of our family will be able to participate next year, via canoe or kayak.
photo from the local paper.
In the past I’ve written posts as a ode to the Quinebaug River as being our favorite playground.
Monster Soup
Posted: May 2, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Artsy Fartsy, Experimentation, Garden, Imagination, large motor skill, Outside, sensory | Leave a comment »
pulling weeds
It’s time to prep the soil of our summer garden. We gather lots of little hand held garden tools and exorcise the garden of every vile weed we find. Little J finds the wheel barrow and fills it with all the weeds.
Dada facilitates the filling of the wheel barrow with water from the hose. Little J mixes the concoction with the garden tools and dubs his creation, Monster Soup.
Little K, aka, the Gremlin, appropriately helps himself to some.
(It looks like he’s really eating it here, but he didn’t, I promise. He doesn’t allow that many green things in his mouth.)
Crazy Concoctions: Karo Syrup
Posted: May 1, 2012 | Author: Jena | Filed under: Artsy Fartsy, Community, Experimentation, Paint, playing with our food, Printing, sensory, Small Motor Skill | Leave a comment »
Little K is signed up for his first extracurricular class at the YMCA this spring.
The class is called Crazy Concoctions.
The teacher puts about a cup of Karo syrup and food coloring in a few bowls.
The kids use paintbrushes to mix the “concoction” and to explore on paper. The kids swap bowls of colors with one another. The different colors mix well to make new colors.
The deliciously sticky stickiness of the goo begs for fingers and palms.
This crazy medium dries shiny.
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