Today in the garden, whilst I have been working on the veg plot and sweeping the paths, my little daughter has had some lucky finds. She has gathered them in her wheelbarrow, and is now laying them out neatly.
We use them to practise her counting, one to ten. She pauses and concentrates after “123” because she always has the urge to shout “go!” and run off. Once she makes it past this hurdle and onto 4, we can get all the way to 10.
I have been taking pebbles out of the raised beds – recent heavy rains have drilled them up to the surface – and have made a small pile to add to the birdbath. My daughter inspects them, wrinkles her brow and waves a finger at me. My heap of lucky finds is very messy. She organises them for me, in a line to match hers.
We practise sharing. She gives me a few of her treasures, I give her a few of my stones. We make pictures together: a face, a hedgehog, a bridge.
My daughter enjoys seeing all of the new flowers in the garden and quickly spots if something has changed since yesterday. She believes the primulas have faces. She points out their noses to me.
I pot up the last of the bedding plants in need of a new home. My daughter copies me by adding an old piece of evergreen into a tiny pot next to a delicate crocus. It takes a bit of a knock, but will likely perk back up. For the garden to belong to the children as well as me, I embrace these little gestures.
Whilst I remove bark pieces from the stream, she pokes at the waterfall with a stick. We seem to have a lot of these about, brought back by all five of the children from our woodland walks.
It escalates pretty quickly to her clambering up onto the giant rock, laying across it, coat sleeves dipping into the water.
I stop my gardening for the day, pull up my sleeves and join in. We build damns, pools and harbours. We search for fallen leaves to float down the choppy rapids. A happy hour together passes.
When the sky clouds over, we notice how cold our hands are – the difference the sun makes to a chilly winter day!
Soon after, we are back inside to get warm. My husband puts the kettle on and the whole family pause for tea and biscuits. My older boys tell me about the maths they have studied; my younger boys have been practising their singing. I tuck a woollen blanket around my daughter and the kitchen fills with voices.
My eyes catch a glimpse of a stack of old newspapers set aside for recycling. I decide to keep a few back. Next week I will teach my youngest two children how to make paper boats for the stream.
Visit my Little Art Shop: www.tinypotager.shop
Commission Enquiries: tinypotager@hotmail.com
Tiny Potager 
soooo sweet!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks Pam 🙂 I try hard not to include our kids faces on website posts, and we joke that we are lucky she insists on having such wild untamed hair – unlike the boys, every photo of her is usually useable 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
So sweet💞
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you 🙂
LikeLike
What cherished memories these will be one day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a lovely thought 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love some activities with these little ones, especially in the outdoors, creates a great learning experience for them! Love this post!❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
What a lovely day! Thanks for letting me share in it. When I was growing up, we used to float plastic boats in the street gutter when it rained (and when there wasn’t traffic coming.) It was so different then (and yes, I know I sound like an old person which, to some extent, I am.) But there were no cell phones, we played all around the neighborhood, rode our bikes all over, could go places by ourselves, and had a grand time being outside a good part of the time when we weren’t in school. Now I see even children in strollers with “devices” to amuse them, when they could be looking at things, their parents (also too often on their own devices) could be talking to them and enjoying the outdoors as well. Thanks goodness I grew up when I did as did our girls (although they use their phones quite a lot, too much, too.)
janet
LikeLiked by 1 person
I agree – and it’s tricky now because the roads are so busy (even in our village, we have delivery drivers zipping about at speed) – so it’s lovely to take the children somewhere that they can just roam free and run until they are out of breath 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
My favorite sort of place as well. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
These photos, and this post is just beautiful! Such a lovely and clever little girl you have! X
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awwr thank you very much 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Really charming. I love the idea of primulas with faces!
LikeLiked by 2 people
Yes! I was not aware that flowers had faces outside of Alice in Wonderland … my daughter is going to love that book 😀
LikeLike
What lovely photos. Such a beautiful description of your day together. 🙏😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much Tamara 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
My pleasure 😊🙏
LikeLiked by 1 person
Nature school, the best school!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely! I’m a great believer that learning (especially at such a young age) doesn’t have to cost anything but a bit of time x
LikeLiked by 1 person
And the outdoors educates all the senses simultaneously : )
LikeLiked by 1 person
She is learning so much , in the way I think we were meant to teach the next generation. You are to be commended for stopping what you were doing and following her, so many people are too “busy” , and you will have created a wonderful memory of this day for yourself, and any weeds will still be there tomorrow to be dealt with.
LikeLike
What a beautiful comment Cathy, thank you x Although, to be fair, it doesn’t take much encouragement for me to mess about in streams 😀
LikeLike
A delightful post with carefully composed photographs. This is surely a great bonus of home tuition.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Derrick! Home education has given us a lot of freedom to work around the weather. The children are looking forward to spring as we get a lot of our written work done over the colder months when we cannot be outside as often.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have fond memories of paper boats at our old home with some of my children. ❤ There's a lovely poem about it somewhere, I know, but I can't remember the author. I feel like she? was Japanese.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds lovely Amy, thank you very much – I will try and find it 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
A day of simple pleasures. As we would say in Maine, a finest kind of day. And to echo other comments, such a sweet post and such a sweet little girl.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I like that phrase very much: “a finest kind of day” 😀 I cannot wait until we can practically live outside in the warmer weather 🙂
LikeLike
What a lovely mum you are 🙂 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
aww thank you Jo xx
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is just lovely. Gardens can be wonderful places to learn and play.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes – you really do not need much space at all, children just love fresh air 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’m unsure which I like more…the delightful photos or the wonderful writing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
How kind – thank you very much x
LikeLiked by 1 person
How beautiful is your daughter… Love this post, and smiled at the One, Two, Three, GO!! .. lol… lots of hide and seek games I bet with her brothers.. 🙂
And there is nothing better than the Outdoor classroom… I taught my granddaughter lots of different tree names with the shapes of leaves when she was three… And your garden is a delightful playground for her to explore.. 🙂
Loved reading and felt I could snuggle up with all of you with your tea and biscuits listening to your boys accounts of their day..
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Sue x My husband was just saying we should save leaves from different times of the year for our daughter, so she can learn the tree names and see how they change with the seasons.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Good idea, you could make a scrap book together 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh! I love that idea 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
😁🍂🍁🌿🌱
LikeLiked by 2 people