I’ll be babysitting this weekend and while I enjoy it, he seems to drift back in to “when’s my mummy coming home?” if there’s any lull in the massive fun we’re having. Usually we eat, play games and watch TV together but this time I have something different planned. Being the inquisitive mind he is and since I have flowers up, maybe he’d like to learn more about gardening?
When I was younger, being in my grandfather’s garden would always inspire me and I’d draw him all the pictures I could of everything I saw. The thing that interested me most was seeing him put a tiny seed in to the ground and with a bit of time, water and Sun we’d have huge fruits and vegetables to enjoy, so I’ve been planning out what we can do to make it as interesting/informative as possible, so here’s my plan:
First of all I’ll take him around the garden and answer his (plentiful) questions about how everything grows and what they need. I’m sure he’d love to know that the trees have been around for longer than both of us put together. Once he’s all tired out from talking, I want to plant something with him. I’m not too sure what yet, maybe some mint or something that grows equally fast so he doesn’t have to wait a long time to see what’s going on.
Also, I’m sure a few of you tried this too, but there’s a cress experiment we did in primary school where you’d put a few cress seeds in damp cotton wool and have one in a dark area and one in full Sun to see the difference between the two. The one in the dark has yellow leaves and is a little more spindly than the dark green one out in the open.
For the curious, the plant in the sun was in much better health because of the basic needs of any plant. I was about to draw out a triangle (much like the fire triangle) but I realised it would probably end up looking like an octagon. Plants have 3 major needs which are sunlight, water and something to grow in, but then smaller (but also important) ones like the amount of sunlight, the amount of room their rootball can take up and the quality of soil). Without enough sunlight, the plant wont have enough energy for photosynthesis so the chlorophyll levels will be down (yellow leaves) and it’ll be pretty spindly because it wont be able to produce the food it needs to grow properly.
All in all, it should be a great weekend and hopefully on Sunday we can pick a few flowers for mum (she always loves having a vase full of them around) and he can tell her all he’s learned. It should be plenty exciting for him, and if nothing else, he’ll get to pick a few things to save the pizza-man a trip.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Such a beautfully done site. Eye pleasing, well organized and good content. I so much love the theming and subtle colors mixed with the bolder theme. Great work. I would very much appreciate it if you could share how I could get graphically beautiful layout like yours. Any tips appreciated. .
You have a wonderful imagination and talent for interacting with kids. Children always love such persons as you are, no wonder you both have spent an unforgettable minutes
.-= Vera´s last blog ..Nanny needed? =-.
Hey thanks Vera, I love my brother to bits, children are so warm and show the most unconditional love you will ever find. I can’t wait for him to get older so I can show him my wrestling moves
Hey Josh, great article. love to read your words abaout the “massive fun”