Green Hour Challenge #6

I have not had much time to post lately, but we are trying to keep up on our nature study. However, with our beautiful spring weather (notice the shorts?) we have moved our focus to the garden.  Part of Barb’s challenge this week included starting a collection in your area of focus.  Well, our area of focus is birds, so we are not collecting anything related to that.  But, if I’m not stretching things too far, I would say that a garden is a collection of sorts. ;D  Truthfully, it is one of the greatest ways  I have found to get the kids fully immersed in nature.  There is something about using your hands to prepare the soil for life, planting seeds, and watching them grow that bonds you to the earth.  

I am always planning a garden and each year they end in varying degrees of success.  Last year I was very pregnant in the spring and had a newborn in the summer, so our garden was not well tended.  This year we have a lot of work to do to get it ready for planting.  We have six 4x4 square foot garden boxes and yesterday, and today we got four of the six ready for planting this Saturday.  Here is what we had to start with.

YIKES!!!

The kids were troopers though, and helped quite a bit to get the weeds out and prepare the soil.  Here is H. Man working diligently in one box.

We found a caterpillar in here and had a fun break observing him for a while.

Here is G. Diddy with his mostly finished box.

And here is I. Mac with his completed box, and the caterpillar.  

I. Mac decided that the collection he wanted to start was a “bug zoo”.  He has an ant farm and he thought he could add to that the potato bugs and caterpillar he found in the gardens.  Unfortunately, mom was supposed to be keeping an eye on Fred (that’s what the kids named the caterpillar), and he somehow got away.  

Perhaps we should change our area of focus to insects.  We didn’t see a single bird in our yard either of the two days...  It sure was wonderful though, to be out in the fresh air and warm sunshine so much!  We had some great conversations about weeds and how they relate to the habits we allow to form in our lives, and how we need to constantly be on the lookout for sin and root it out of our lives.  All in all, I would say that our nature study was a success this week.