My own children have grown now, but I still plant a children's garden at our camp and have had other children visit my gardens. Play 1st. Instead of gathering tools as the 1st task out the door, go play ball or tag with them. That way the energy is expended playfully & they can attend to the garden more readily. Depending on their ages my kids played in the backyard alone while I was in the vegetable garden working. They'd come over to me when they were ready or when they were curious about my work. If kid inspired they worked better than when it became a chore to complete. You'll have to find out what works best with your kids. Appeal to the child's nature and sense of discovery. Give them a harvest basket to carry when empty, but you carry it when full if delicate vegetables or fruits. Alternatively, give them a basket of a few napkins & a lidded container of fresh water for a quick dunk/swish to eat strawberries in the garden. Give them a tool to use. If they're too sloppy with a trowel try a kitchen spoon or a fork. My parents bought my son a kid sized shovel. He preferred to dig out rocks with it rather than move soil I wanted to moved, but I had to let him do his own gardening, too. Use a ruler or yardstick to the growth of plants & record. Label a 1x1 stick & plant that in the garden as a visual measuring tool to compare. Fingernail polish lasts well, but permanent marker fades. Ask questions. Who can find the cucumber? How many cucumbers can you find that are finger size? Play hide & seek games. Hide animals or characters in the garden for them to find. You can also let them put the characters where they'd wish to find themselves the next garden visit. Give them their own space in the garden. We made a small fairy garden in a container with my great niece. Not fancy like what you see now, but some plants she found growing here then added some small plastic strawberry shortcake toys. I let her arrange it her way even though the presentation wasn't the way I'd do it. I think that's the key to give them an area to do what they want whether a corner by the compost bin or a container. Have a purpose for each garden visit & don't work on it all day long. Observation, planting, harvesting, watering, weeding or? They're not sure what to do 1st, so you direct them. When I was a beginning gardener I couldn't direct much because I was figuring it out, too. Discover together. Sometimes, I had to say 1st we'll play ...., then we'll work. Then I'd say what I needed done in the garden that day. Sometimes, I'd state our objective then when it was done we'd do a special activity. My kids learned that it was necessary to work the garden, but didn't have to do all of it all the time. It was especially helpful for my son to have work 1st then we'd go to the lake or park. He worked fast, so I had to supervise carefully, too. Be prepared for accidents. Children helping leads to some plant damage when they cut corners on rows or fall into plants. Teach them not to pull up plants to "see how they're doing." Give them a small cup & a bucket of water rather than a spray nozzle on the hose for watering. Try not to scold too much as they're learning, but helping them correct the mistakes that happen. Plant more than you need, but not more than you can tend. That way you have extra to cover the mistakes & some to give away. Kids love giving away their homegrown produce especially, if they don't like that particular vegetable or are tired of eating it. Have well marked beds & walking paths. Use raised beds or lay out stakes with string. Lay out mulch on paths or whatever you have available. Kids don't intuitively know to not step close to plants and may overstep to only squish your lettuce plant. I started doing raised mounded beds not only for the benefit to the plants, but so my kids knew where to step. I realized I liked the wide rows within the beds & the plants grew well. It was easier to water the beds & not the rows that way, too. Enjoy~

So sorry not to have posted sooner. I had an outpatient procedure on Monday and got a pain shot in my back. I am not too pleased with the results yet. They say if it's going to help it will work within a few days so I don't know if this is going to help at all. I guess I shouldn't give up hope yet... For some reason it made me very tired. I almost never take a nap and took naps for several afternoons after the shot. Love the new pictures of Flat! Such creative poses. He certainly has had the trip of a lifetime. I promise to look over the names carefully this weekend and try to make sure everyone has been visited. Have a safe weekend! We are not up to much. It's my wedding anniversary on Mon. (41 years) so I suspect we will go out to eat that day. The middle of the day is already quite hot, so cooking on the grill is not sounding like a good idea. It's going to be a long summer of watering plants. Oh, I planted spaghetti squash this year - never had before - and those vines are really traveling! They might be in a neighboring state soon! I wonder if they will produce anything for me. All I've been able to pick so far are some peas - and the pea vines are about done in. They don't like this heat. Jeanne

That joke is too funny!!! Sue - that's exactly how I feel at this time if I sneak off to my bedroom to read by myself. And honestly since time goes by so darn fast I choose to spend the extra minutes that I can find w/ my kids. Before I know it they will be teenagers and not want to be w/ mom or dad all of the time. Don't get me wrong - I get time to myself but it's usually away from the house. DH knows that if he takes the kids and leaves the house to give me time alone - he knows that I will just do stuff for the family anyways instead of just me. Beth4 - your MBR (and routine) sound absolutely divine! melle_sacto - don't get me wrong - I love both looks but they are 2 totally different looks: #1 (the one that I've loosely been basing our bedroom on) seems more 'fun' I think because of the pattern and color so to me that reads cozier: #2 As oppossed to another wonderful bedroom that is totally up my alley but has a completely different feel to it. So serene and beautiful but not as warm feeling. Does that make sense? Link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Beautiful Space (and blog)

Thanks for the ideas. I will be suggesting them to the teachers and putting them in the newsletter. Hopefully some of the kids/classes might try some. The younger kids aren't too hard to encourage but the older ones often have other things on their minds eg sports, boys/girls, etc. The grade 1's have done the pantyhose creatures and egg shell heads and even though I have suggested the odd planters I might try and organise a fun show day or something similar. My 12yr old son organised an 'Adopt-A-Garden' plan where each class adopts a garden bed and looks after it. One class now has a herb garden with a herb spiral underway and a couple of other classes are planting up some beds but I don't know what with yet. The P&C is donating some fruit trees which should be arriving shortly. We are trying to get a steep slope (covered in very tall grass at the moment) cleaned up and planted but still have to work out what to plant. One teacher wants 'bush tucker' type plants and another wants a 'native corridor'. I think that both can be combined but what do I know I'm just a lowly parent (who has worked in and run nurseries and done a horticulture course many long years ago). Teachers! Just have to wait and see! Sorry, letting off some steam, I'm not picking on teachers just these two. The organic vegie garden is doing well if we can keep over-enthusiastic kids from picking things before they are ready ("let's pull out the carrot and see how big it is" - only a week after planting!). We are selling the produce to the tuckshop and on a plant and produce stall we have just started. Once the weather warms up we will start doing cuttings. Our main problems at the moment are lack of time and adult volunteers to help with the harder/heavier jobs. We have a working bee for 2hrs one Saturday a month but (at the most) only half a dozen adults come. It's a great school and (most) of the kids are great. Majority of the teachers don't know much about gardening and were slow to start but with the gov't pushing the active, healthy program the teachers are now getting into it. Now to find a way to encourage the parents (I know they are all busy but so am I). Sorry probably made you all bored. Thanks again for the ideas, more ideas are welcome.