You are going to love Little Moments. It is a blog is filled with wonderful mom moments, tons of love for a very special boys, and great ideas. I adore the post she is sharing here today. Why? I love that she plans activities for her oldest son like the one she shares in her post You Won’t Find Dinosaurs in Your Backyard.
I am very thankful to be guest posting for the Taking Time to Play series here at JDaniel4’s Mom. Before I share what we like to play I have to warn you…I am a plant killer. Aidan has eagerly shared many gardening experiences with me, mostly by decorating the front of our house with potted flowers and plants.
I soon forget them, grumbling when I see shriveled brown leaves as I try to will them back to life in a puddle of water. Every time I buy a new plant my husband laughs under his breath, “what did you bring home to kill this time?” Aidan is better at remembering to water plants than I am, yet I still continue to purchase them.
One year I bought 3 beautiful topiaries that lined a brick wall in front of our house. They were completely bare a couple of months later, so I drew scary faces on three white sheets and threw one over each of them just in time for Halloween…they’re coming back to haunt you, I thought to myself.
| As much as I have grown to enjoy gardening, I haven’t taken the time to really understand the basics. I just found out from a guy at Lowes the other week that flowering plants do not do well in full shade…I’m sure he laughed about me after I left. Do you want to know what the really sad part is, aside from all the dead plants? Aidan’s favorite part of the hardware store is the gardening section. I’m not the best model for him when it comes to growing things, but we’re learning together, and it’s one of the ways we play together. Digging in the dirt, finding bugs and worms to inspect, enjoying the beautiful shades of green we arrange together. Aidan has learned basic math concepts while scooping dirt and measuring holes, the names of different plants and plant parts, and the three ingredients plants need to survive. |
I am trying to develop some gardening skills for Aidan’s sake. My goal is to grow a couple of different vegetables this fall with him. For now we are playing with fake plants while I attempt to understand what I’m doing wrong. We are still enjoying the real stuff; the dirt, the water, and the sun. Even though the flowers are fake, the enjoyment of our play is real.
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Taking time to play is awesome. We repotted some aloe and pepper plants this weekend!
I heard aloe is super easy!
Lol!!! Love the RIP plants 😉
🙂 I couldn’t resist!
Aw- I love that he is gardening! We try to take time to play outside at least a half hour a day!
Wait. Flowering plants don’t do well in the shade? Well that explains a lot. And maybe I should move that mum I planted yesterday, to replace the lavendar I killed…
In full shade!
my guys love to dig in the dirt with me too, this looks fun!
love this idea – great for sensory!
I am also a plant killer and yet continue to buy them year after year. I love that you are teaching your little one to garden. Maybe I should do the same.
You should! Kids get so excited to see something change that they had a part in.
I am totally with you on being a plant killer. I LOVE plants and flowers, but I cannot keep any of them. I love what you are doing with your son to help him learn the basics of caring for plants. My son enjoys heading to the garden with my husband, so hopefully he’ll have more of a green thumb than I have.
That is my wish too Gina, so hopefully he’s learning from my mistakes!
I love how you are teaching your son to garden. I think what you are doing is marvelous.
Thank you, we have to teach our children about the earth if we want them to care about it!
I grew a garden with my daughters this year and loved it. We also learned some math (counting scoops, etc). My goal was for them to learn about veggies, and hopefully eat more!
When they have a stake in growing them they are more likely to eat them!
Aw that’s so cute that you have them in the garden at such an early age. I think we need more guys that like to garden 😀
Enjoyed Heather’s post. I am a bit of a plant killer myself, by the way…
=)
That’s actually quite brilliant to think of using fake flowers. I’m most impressed with you.
I also do not own a single live house plant, they are all fake in my house!
Lovely. I also struggle with passing on my less than stellar gardening skills. I can’t tell you how many “gardens” I’ve killed.
With the drought we are experiencing this year in Iowa. I took gallon milk jugs and put a tiny hole in the bottom side. I fill them up with water every evening and the water slowly drips onto my tomato, pepper and pumpkin plants . Ben when he is here loves to fill each jug up with water.. I have a great vegetable garden this year and I have tomotoes, green peppers and Ben will have pumpkins for Halloween.. It’s not a large garden but it’s all I need. Love your blog..ta ta for now
That is a great idea!
And I thought I was the only “Plant Killer” out there…great post, Heather, love it and all your posts!!
Thank you for letting me share with your readers Deidre, it was fun!
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Video link – http://youtu.be/AN4LBgOXS88
Outside play together (in the dirt) is what it’s all about. 🙂
Thanks for sharing at the Sunday Showcase.
Hi, fun idea, I’ve featured it on The Sunday Showcase http://www.herecomethegirlsblog.com/2012/09/22/the-sunday-showcase-sensory-play.html