Lucy's 2015 Garden

*I thought I had already published this, but it looks like I didn't! Stay tuned for more to come about gardening, science, microscopes, and art! 

Here is tiny baby Lucy showing off the tomatoes in her 2010 garden, the year she was born. 

And here she is starting seeds for her very own 2015 garden!

And here is a handy diagram that was included in our little greenhouse that shows what we planted, so we can remember:

However, in the excitement and confusion of helping Lu dump the seeds in each tiny pod, we got it turned around and misplanted our tomatoes. For a week or two I thought they weren't growing, but then I realized they were all growing, just in the wrong places! Lucy chose to plant Brussels sprouts, because her and I both love them. And also onions, which is what we are working on in this picture:

We were also repotting her tomatoes and Brussels sprouts because they are getting so big! Look how happy she is:

I try to get her hands in the dirt and involved as much as possible, but I can also tell when she just wants to enjoy watching and having her hands left alone.  She doesn't often love having hand-over-hand assistance, and I try to figure out how she can do things without it, but sometimes, it just can't be done.

We have also been keeping a gardening journal, not daily, but when something of note happens, we have been writing it down in a little journal we made. Then we can look back at it next year to remember what we did and what did or didn't work. I just write in simple sentences and then we read it together. She is all about it! 

So in our garden project we are regularly learning about science, nature, and patience. We incorporate literacy, math, and hopefully in the end some cooking. The day after planting the onions, Lu said in her Tobii: "let's go, gardening, homeschool"! In comparison to all of the times I walked into her preschool classroom to find her crying, actual tears, I'll take the happy, relaxed Lucy any day, even if it means that I am responsible for making sure she learns about the world. This is a task I am more than happy to take on. 

P.S. For an fans of the book 'Chrysanthemum" by Kevin Henkes, you might notice on our diagram that we have planted Chrysanthemums and Delphiniums in honor of the book, which has been one of our favorites for a long time!