Getting our hands dirty

Together with my children I am discovering the joys of vegetable gardening.  I’ve never been a talented or enthusiastic gardener, but the motivation to show the kids that fruit and vege don’t just come in plastic bags from the supermarket has inspired me to get into it.  I’m working very hard to not be too ‘achievement focussed’ and just go with whatever happens.  So far we’ve had:

• Two very stunted tiny carrots
• A vigourous and healthy crop of radishes
• Some fabulous broccoli that seemed to take a whole year to grow
• Successful bok choy
• Lettuce seedlings and basil flourishing on the kitchen window sill
• Leeks that resemble miniature spring onions
• Seeds that have done nothing at all
• And some mad wildflowers that have taken over the raised bed, whoops, so much for adding colour!

The last couple of days have been filled with excitment as our tomato plants finally put some energy into fruit instead of leaves.  And my son has enjoyed tasting the unripe strawberries. 

When we started, I got lots of books on ‘gardening with children’ out from the library but to be honest I just found them intimidating and overly detailed.  So we’re going back to experimenting – it’s the process not the product as my Playcentre philosophy reminds me!

Some gardening tools for Christmas, a renewed spirit, and some summer sun and we’re ready for whatever our next gardening adventure holds…

A quiet moment captured as DD3 and DS1 experience their earth

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Brittlestars and stick insects – nature’s wonders

   

Brittlestars

This week, we were lucky enough to explore a local facility focusing on marine education and explore the nearby rockpools.  The children loved looking and learning, but there was even a ‘touch and learn’ tank.  DD3 was a bit nervous about handling the amazing creatures so I toughed it out and held a slightly freaky ‘brittlestar’ – related to but different from a star fish.  Some interesting facts for the day: Brittlestars have 5 long, narrow arms which are sharply demarcated from the small central disc. The entire body can be up to 50cm across (eek) and they are the most mobile of all ‘echinoderms’ (whatever those are?!).  They can regenerate their arms if these are lost.

Stick insects

On arriving home, we found a 20cm long stick insect on the window frame of our house – exciting!  Apparently they can grow up to 29cms – I’m sure we’ve had one this big before.  Interesting fact about their legs….they can shed them when in danger and they grow back too.

All in all, a good day for exploring the weird and wonderful in the local environment!

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Gingernuts and cubby houses

Here is a great recipe for gingernuts from www.foodlovers.co.nz – quick and easy for impatient little (and big!) people and fantastic for lunchboxes or dunking in your hot drink.

150g butter (eek, I didn’t read the recipe properly today and put 250g instead – they still turned out fine, despite the extra fat!)
250g sugar
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 egg
250 g flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons ground ginger (spice)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cream the butter and sugar, add all the other ingredients and mix.  My handheld beater couldn’t cope after I added the rest of the ingredients so I just mixed it up with a wooden spoon. Then roll into balls, put on a greased tray in a 180 deg C oven for around 15+ minutes.  They come out quite soft, but go hard as they cool – YUM!

While the gingernuts were cooling and DS1 was asleep, DD3 and I built a cubby house in the lounge.  I discovered a few tips to make this as enjoyable for adults as the kids:

• Use a household stepladder to give extra height to the blankets so you’re not feeling too stifled.
• Put down lots of cushions  to make a soft landing ground for older bones!
• Torches make for great shadow puppets and glowing cheeks when you puff on them.
• It’s a great way to get some rest time – we played reading bedtime stories and then going to sleep – aaah anything for some horizontal time off my feet 😉

All this was topped off by DD3 announcing to me “I like you!”  “And I love you too!”.  What a great way to end the afternoon.

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