The Garden Project, or We Actually Grew Some Totmatoes!

Since moving to Africa a little over two years ago, we've mostly just focused in on trying to get acquainted with our surroundings in our nature study time…and we still do a lot of that.   But given that we are now pretty familiar with the things we are likely to see in our neighborhood, the fact that I have come to realize that nature study really IS science – textbook not needed, and that the kids are all getting a little bit older I felt like it was time to bring a little more 'focus' into our nature study time.  We started with plants, and decided to do a little gardening project, using the Handbook of Nature Study as our inspiration.  The section on "How to Begin Plant Study" (p. 453-459 in the edition I have) has some wonderful ideas.  One thing that I particularly noted was this: "The object of planting any seed should be to rear a plant which shall fulfill its whole duty and produce other seed."   I decided that rather than germinating bean seeds in baggies, as many elementary science texts suggest, we should actually try our hand at gardening and see if we couldn't watch a plant go through its entire life cycle.  I'm no gardener, so it was with a bit of fear and trepidation that we began…but I figured even if we failed, it was worth a shot.  (There's something to be learned from failure too, right?!)

 

Observing the seeds before planting.

 

Planting seedlings in various types of soil.

 

Seedlings ready for observation

We began with some squash and tomato seeds that we harvested from some local market produce (there are heaps of instructions online about how to do this).   We planted them in small cups to begin with so we could observe the seedling growth more carefully in the early stages.   We took advantage of this seedling time as well to conduct a few of the 'experiments' in the Handbook – planting in various materials (garden soil, sand, sawdust), watering too much or too little, watching how the leaves turned towards the sunny window, planting the seeds near the sides of a clear cup so we could observe the roots growing down into the soil.   All of these things helped us draw conclusions for ourselves about the needs of plants.

 

The seed case was still stuck on to the first little leaves that pushed out.  I don't think I'd ever observed that before.

 

Seedling in wood shavings

Close up of the roots

  

The pumpkin seeds never sprouted, sadly, but we got several good strong tomato seedlings which we later transplanted into a sunny spot in our yard.  It was great fun to watch them grow bigger and bigger, eventually flower, and the first tiny green tomatoes appear.

 

Our little tomato patch

 

First tomato flowers

 

First couple tomatoes!

 

I was a little bit worried that bugs or tomato blight might strike…but they never did.  We harvested our first ripe red tomato last week.  (Sweet Elizabeth made the point of picking and bringing it to me when it had just BARELY turned the first little bit of pink…but it ripened up nicely in the window.)  What fun to observe and eat our very own homegrown tomato, and see the full life cycle of a plant come to pass! 
 

 

Our first ripe tomato alongside a green one that got knocked down before ripening.

 

 

Ready to eat!

 

We recorded all of our observations along the way in a special 'garden journal', separate from our regular nature journals.
 

James' (6.5) entry.  I ask him to write what he saw, where he saw it, and the date on his nature journal entries.  Love how very literally he takes me sometimes....

Mama's Garden Journal

Michelle's (9) Garden Journal

 

 This was a really simple project…even for a black-thumb like me!...and well worth the effort in terms of the value of what we learned and observed *for ourselves*, which of course is one of the most valuable parts of nature study-as-science.  I was also encouraged to have success in gardening…perhaps if we are ever settled enough in the States where we don't have access to cheap local produce, we will give a real garden a go.

 

Sharing this peek into our garden journals with this month's Keeping Company link-up.  Click Here for more Keeping Inspiration

Why We are Ditching the Science Textbook this Year

I have a confession to make.

 

Last year, my oldest daughter's "second grade" year, we used a science textbook.   I know, that's very un-Charlotte-Mason of me.   Don't get me wrong.  We did nature study too – one of our best years of nature study yet.   We read the living books suggested on the Ambleside Online reading lists.   And we took the text slowly so as not to crowd out these other good things in our schedule.  But the bottom line is that I gave into that fear that somehow nature study and living books wasn't enough.   I gave into that fear that told me I needed a textbook written by an expert and experiments too.

 

This is a pretty common fear among homeschoolers, I think.   It's a pretty frequent topic of discussion over at the Forum, and especially in recent weeks as the first stage of the new 'living science' suggestions for the upper years of the Ambleside curriculum have been rolled out.   (Check out the new suggestions in Year 6 and Year 7.)   Over and over again, the patient 'science ladies' have explained what CM's goals are for science: To love it.  To learn to observe and think.  To care.   Can a textbook help us to reach that goal?   It's a good question to ask.   Silvia shares Kathy's thoughts on that question here.   It's worth the time to click over and read.

 

All this talk on the forum lately got me thinking that maybe I didn't need that science text after all.  But then again, we hadn't finished it yet.  (I hate not finishing what I start.)  And Michelle thought the experiments were a lot of fun.   So why not just keep on sneaking it in there?

 

Around that same time that all this talk was going around the forum, I realized that it's not just a Charlotte Mason thing to say that nature study is enough.  In talks I've listened to recently from the classical world, Andrew Kern and Christopher Perrin have both said that they believe that nature study is not only ENOUGH for science in the elementary grades, but is really an essential foundation for any later upper-level work in the sciences.  Nature study builds that foundation of wonder and keen observation skills.    Can a textbook do that?   I started wrestling with myself again.  Could I really shelve that textbook?  

 

Finally came end-of-term exam time.   I asked Michelle to explain one of the science experiments she had done and what she had learned from it.  And do you know what I realized?  She hadn't really learned anything from it.  Sure, she had fun.  Sure, she could tell me what we did and how it was kind of cool.  But the concept that the experiment was supposed to teach her?  Gone.   On the other hand, she told me in lively and enthusiastic detail about the life cycle of the mango tree we've been keeping an eye on in the yard.  Not only did she do this at exam time, but she did it again during prayer time when she thanked God for making the tree to blossom and produce fruit over and over and over again.  She told me in detail about the habits of our mice, and can correctly identify just about every flowering plant in our neighborhood.  She has taken a fascination with rocks and the interesting bits that can be found amongst 'ordinary' gravel.  I can scarcely keep up with her questions.

 

All of a sudden it hit me: the time we spent with that textbook last year?  It was pretty useless.   She didn't really even learn any nifty facts, let alone gain a greater sense of awe or wonder.   She had fun doing the experiments, but she didn't love what she was learning.   But she loves that tree.  She loves the mice, the flowers, the rocks.   She has a relationship with those things, and she's starting to see the glory of the God who is behind it all.   This is what nature study does that a text just can't.

 

So I got brave.   I went ahead and shelved the textbook.   We'll use the time we might have spent with the text delving more deeply into nature study next year.

 

I'm pretty sure that it will be time well spent.