Every day, the children develop a deeper connection with the living bugs, different plants, flowers, herbs, and vegetables they’ve been planting in the front yard garden. During this process of planting, the children encounter many different moments that support the development of a long-lasting sensitivity with our world.
Grey: Look! Look, Mica. The flower is orange! It’s so beautiful.
Mica: How does it smell? I never smelled an orange flower before.
Kayden: I never smelled an orange flower before too, Mica.
Grey: It smells sweet. (smiling)
As the children transplanted some of our plants:
Paisley: We are making the plants happy.
Greyson: How are they happy, Paisley?
Paisley: We are giving them soil. Soil helps them to grow.
Greyson: Yes. We also need to give them water, and sun helps them too.
Remy: We are making their home bigger. Look, I found a bug in the dirt. He’s walking on my finger.
Reflecting on these past months, we can see how the children are more integrated with nature through planting, transplanting, and exhibiting a sensitivity for living bugs. As they encounter the garden, they see how important their role is in this beautiful transformation and although they recognize the responsibility, they feel the joy in the anticipation of moments such as seeing a seed transform into a plant and the surprise of a first bloom being a beautiful orange ranunculus. It’s a reciprocal relationship between our living plants, bugs, and our children.