So with several days of nice weather we decided to play outside and prep the garden beds for planting. It was of course a lot of work, which we wanted the kids to take part in. They weren't too keen on the weeding, so I told them the story of the Little Red Hen. That is the tale where the hen plants, harvests, and grinds the wheat alone, uses it to make the bread by herself because her friends didn't want to do the work. Of course they wanted to eat the bread and she told them no, since they didn't work at all at making it. Both CJ and Eliza didn't need me to explain the story. They told me that meant they needed to help weed in order to help do the fun stuff like planting the seeds and eating the vegetables. They understood that it is important for them to be a part of the work. After that they weeded almost an entire garden bed by themselves, and did it so well. The whole rest of the time we were out there, they helped us by bringing us tools, turning the water on, and helping in a myriad of ways. I love that I didn't even have to explain the reason I told them the story, that they were intuitive enough to understand the story as it was told.
It is amazing to me how fast this year is going, and it is so full of memories like this. Every day they learn so much and become so much more grown up than I can ever expect. They are so happy, healthy, smart, and hard working. They get so upset when we don't have time to do school activities in our school room. We always do something. We have listening centers, computer work, library, art projects, cutting practice, lacing practice, all kinds of prewriting activities. We do play dough, coloring, even yoga most days. They just crave learning, and it makes me incredibly proud and happy.
