Clubhouse Gardeners, Flowers Coming Soon!

While some other parts of the World are covered in Snow, or still awaiting snowfall... the Clubhouse Kids are seeing a break in our Arizona Winter weather and are delighted to head back outside for all of the activities that Spring brings! (Yes, Arizona has Winter weather.. and cold little toes definitely feel it!)

Before we all make a mad dash for the outdoors, we have decided to begin to prep for our Clubhouse garden, which will be definitely getting an upgrade this Spring. We started last year with a few herbs and veggies, but now we are ready to expand! More veggies, more herbs, and a new flower garden! We may not be able to use the flowers for healthy snacks, but we can definitely have fun playing in the dirt to make our Outdoor space even more beautiful!

It's easy to start this process indoors, as long as you are comfortable with a bucket of dirt in the house. The Clubhouse Classroom isn't afraid of a little dirt in the name of Education, so we jumped right in...

A quick trip to our local Ace Hardware Garden Center and I got a variety of seeds and big bag of dirt. No specific dirt required, although I did choose an Organic Soil with Plant Food mixed in there. Egg cartons were easily obtained from our vast collection of recyclable materials that I never throw away (Because you never know when an old pasta sauce jar or packing peanuts are going to come in handy, right?) The egg cartons are of the biodegradable cardboard type, which is essential since they will be getting buried right into the outside garden when transition time comes.

  First we poured all of the seeds into a container so we could talk about what they all looked like, and how they were different. The flowers I randomly chose definitely had a wide variety of seeds differing in size, color and quantity. This is also the part where we discuss how inside of that little seed is a big flower, waiting for the right conditions so it can grow.

The children happened to have perfectly sized hands to fill the egg carton sections with a handful of dirt and then sprinkle the seeds into their new, temporary, little homes. Little fingers made sure the seeds were tucked in tight, with enough dirt to keep them warm as they start their journey.

Since dirt isn't all that our little seeds need to grow, we found a perfect place so they could get plenty of Sunshine and we gave them their first taste of water. The water bottle I used was one that my Son never liked to drink out of because the water always comes out so slowly.. perfect for watering tiny seeds with just the right amount of water droplets!

Now... we wait. It's a good thing Patience is the character trait we are learning about this month because planting a seed and waiting for it to grow is definitely going to require some!!

Checking on the seeds every 4 minutes was how the rest of our day went. The best part being that every time they checked, they excitedly exclaimed "The seeds are growing in there!!", "I can see them getting bigger!!", "Wow, they will sure be flowers SOON!"

Kind of reminds you to look at things through the eyes of a Child ;)

We have a lot of windowsill space in the Clubhouse Classroom and will continue to plant flower, veggie and herb seeds throughout the month of February. Watering them, showing them "love", watching them sprout and grow and tracking their progress, is always a fun addition to daily classroom activities. We've also posted a poem the children love to hear as they water their seeds.

So stay tuned as we plant more seeds (we have A LOT of egg cartons and other biodegradable materials we can plant seeds in) and explore new things to add to our garden. Come Spring we will be transitioning all of our new plant friends outside, and that is sure to be fun!! Perhaps by Mother's Day, every kid will have something pretty he/she grew from a seed that they can take home to Momma :)

Things are always blooming at the Clubhouse...

Ms.Liz