Growing and learning
This week at playgroup the children and parents were planting bulbs in pots.
Bulbs are big enough and hardy enough to enable young children to handle them and plant them and have success growing a plant.
Two of the mothers asked for help. They told me they had never planted anything before.
The children and parents enjoyed the experience which I have always taken for granted - getting your fingers dirty, adding some water to the mix, planting and waiting and watching things grow. It made me think about all the things we learn through interacting with a garden…watching the different seasons and the changes they bring, waiting for things to grow, eating some fruit and plants, admiring the flowers or leaves of others, examining the bugs, butterflies and birds that visit, digging up worms, composting green waste and of course making mud pies.
Playgroup is a good place to try some messy play like gluing, painting, wet sand, cooking with flour and water, gloop and gardening. Children learn through sensory play that no toy can replace.
Judyth Roberts
Seaton Central Communities for Children
