My Dad is always out in his backyard. Doing exactly what, my Mom and I are not sure. But he's always doing something. He never has fewer than a half-dozen projects going at one time, digging this, pruning that but in between, he takes the time to show his two grandsons the joys of his backyard.
My boys get to dig up carrots, pluck beans from vines, plant sunflower seeds and sample some of the best organic fruit around. From a tiny harvest of blueberries (all 30 of 'em) to the prolific offerings of the plum tree, fruit is always bountiful, always organic. My boys water plants and learn how things grow and how some foods get to our dinner table. They search for bugs and were happy to have Grandpa fasten a snail house out of strawberry baskets (see photo below) so they could observe snails up close. They are fascinated by bees. My boys love to run around the garden naming the different types of plants. They know that backyard intimately.
They also, of course, do things like ride their bikes and run
through the sprinklers. When my boys visit Grandpa, they're outside
with him almost the entire day. My Dad likes that he always has someone to keep him company in the backyard.
When we were first touring preschools, I was impressed by all the beautiful gardens I saw at some of the schools, especially the co-op schools with their emphasis on outdoor play. We didn't end up at any of those schools, but I don't mind, Grandpa's garden, with its 2:1 student/teacher ratio is the best outdoor preschool we could have hoped to find.
Original Chalk and Cheese Chronicles post.
