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Miss Rumphius – #JewishBookFun4Kids #1

July 11, 2019 by Ellen Zimmerman 4 Comments

#summerbookfun4kids, #Jewishbookfun4kidsMiss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney has a magical cadence that, just maybe, inspired our daughter to travel widely and to plant flowers – including  lupines.

The story begins, “The Lupine Lady lives in a small house overlooking the sea. In between the rocks around her house grow blue and purple and rose-colored flowers.”

As a little girl, Alice lived by the sea, where she watched sailing ships. In fact, her grandfather had come to America on one of these ships. He was an artist, making figureheads for the prows of ships and painting pictures. Sometimes, Alice helped him paint in the skies.

When he told stories of the faraway world he had seen, Alice knew that she, too, wanted to explore. Grandfather agreed, but said she also had to “do something to make the world more beautiful.”

Alice grew up and lived her dreams, traveling to exotic places. When she was ready to settle down to live by the sea again, she pondered how to make the world more beautiful.

Her decision? To scatter lupine seeds far and wide. The next spring, lupines covered fields and hillsides, highways and lanes. When our girls were 8 and 10, we saw our first huge field of blooming lupines in Maine. Amazing!

Age range: 5 – 8.

kids gardeningGardening with kids

All you need is a packet of easy-to-grow seeds (like beans or parsley) or plants (like cherry tomatoes), a pot in a place that gets enough sunshine (so yes, even a container on a porch is fine!), and a water source. We once tossed our Halloween pumpkin into our Indiana garden and forgot about it. The next spring, we saw leaves and vines getting bigger and bigger, until it dominated the space. So choose based on where you live and space available.

By all means, let your child get her hands dirty! Let her water with a watering can. And later, let her harvest those fresh veggies. If you plant flowers, let your little one choose which ones to cut. We keep kid-friendly scissors at our house, so older guy can cut his own. Our little guy points out which ones I should cut.

gardening with childrenMeasuring activity 

If you select a plant that grows quickly, it is exciting to chart its journey skyward by using a yardstick, much like a growth chart for your plant.

Older children can keep a diary of planting date, first harvest date, and even weekly progress reports in between.

This works especially well if you choose fast-growing plants, like green beans, where you will need netting or something for those sweet tendrils to hang onto. You can also snap shots with your iPhone camera.

These two pictures were taken just three days apart! And now, the tendrils have climbed to the tippy top of the netting!

kid gardens

May 20 – In just a few days after planting, beans are bursting through the soil

Gardening with kids

May 23 – Beans are growing like crazy! And a few days after this, tendrils starting shooting skyward.

 

Jewish star, star of DavidJewish connection 

Protecting the earth (sh’mirat ha’adamah) is a value that teaches us to respect all things that grow. Just by planting and tending, our children get a greater appreciation of where food comes from and what it takes to nurture it.

To read more about organizations promoting sh’mirat ha-adamah, visit WildernessTorah and Hazon.

Love of grandparentsGrandma/Grandpa love

In an activity that speaks to the cycle of nature, the bean seeds that we harvested from the baby plants our grandsons gave us last year are now sturdy plants shooting skyward in both our garden and in our grandsons’ garden. By sharing those seeds, we can now exchange pictures and stories of how the same plants are faring at both houses.

You can also plant the idea (sorry about that pun) of the importance of making the world a beautiful place – and begin brainstorming with your grands about how they might choose to do that.

Your turn

What gardening activities are you doing with your child this summer? Please share your experiences and pix on Facebook.

#JewishBookFun, #JewishBookFun4KidsDownload your SummerBookFun4Kids form to make memories!

 

 

 

Ideas. Ideas. Ideas. Pinterest!

Add your voice to our Facebook conversation.

invite your friends to share in our #SummerBookFun4Kids club by sending this link to our blog sign-up.

Other posts you might like:

4 Ways to Teach Preserving the EarthSummerBookFun4Kids

20 Fun Tips to Get Your Child to Read – Guest Post

Filed Under: art, Blog, Grandparents, Nature, Parents and children, Traditions Tagged With: sh'mirat ha-adamah

Comments

  1. Marcia Goldlist says

    June 21, 2015 at 7:21 am

    This post was shared on the Haveil Havlim post. Your can check out the Haveil Havalim Carnival Blog at https://enjoyingthebible.wordpress.com/2015/06/20/haveil-havalim-fathers-day-and-more-from-enjoying-the-bible-online/

    Reply
    • Ellen Zimmerman says

      June 21, 2015 at 11:23 am

      Thanks, Marcia!

      Reply
  2. Bohemian Babushka (@BBabushka) says

    June 24, 2015 at 12:10 am

    Gardening w/ The Grands; what a wonderful idea! Gracias for highlighting fast growing seeds, we’ll be using them. BB2U

    Reply
    • Ellen Zimmerman says

      June 24, 2015 at 12:35 pm

      Nice to see your name, @BBabushka! We are having so much fun this year with those bean seeds. Ours have gone beyond the netting and are looking for something to climb on. Our little guys love seeing what happened with the seeds. Thanks for your comment, Bohemian Babushka 🙂

      Reply

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