Seasonal Traditions

Over the past few years my daughter and I have developed a seasonal tradition of working on a craft a day. I’ve found that this is a wonderful way to keep her involved in the daily activities of the holidays; especially when so many of us tend to get overwhelmed with the shopping, gatherings, weather, [...]

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Sunday Photos…Children and Nature

A child who learns from gardening is a child who is unlikely to robotically walk around with dead eyes. -Lee May *** Watching children in the garden and out in nature is a wonderful thing, the joy of discovery, the fascination with an emerging plant, and the joy in the little things like a handful [...]

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Children and Nature

Now that the heat is going away, we are spending even more time outdoors. I find it extremely important to teach my daughter about the environment around her, and how to take care of it. This morning we went for a hike on the nearby Natchez Trace. This is the second official “hike” she’s gone [...]

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kinderGARDENS bugs, gourds, and Faith!!

We are now well into week 14 of our kinderGARDENS series and we now have a whopping 40 participants! For those of you that are just hearing about this it is a gardening series I am doing this over on my blog to encourage people to get there kids off their little butts and out [...]

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Creativity abounds in our Children’s Gardens!

Since some of NDiN readers (and fellow writer!) are involved in my Children’s Gardening series I thought I would pop in once in a while to update you on the progress all the kids and grownups are making. Well I must admit that I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I started kinderGARDENS… But [...]

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Sunday Photos….Mother’s Day

Hey, Kim here!  My kids always ask me what I want for Mother’s Day. Each year we have the same conversation. “I just want to hang out with you guys.” “But that is what you do every day.” “I know…that is what I like to do.” “Do you want  a present?” “No” “Do you want [...]

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Gardening with Children and Real Food

I have been watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and have been completely appalled by how our children eat.  The lack of knowledge of fruits and veggies is stunning…shocking that we have come so far from our food source that children cannot recognize many common vegetables. When I was active in the WSU Master Gardener program [...]

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Children in the Kitchen

Some of my fondest memories are of cooking with family members. In our family everybody cooked, even the fellows. Grandparents took their time, allowing me to be part of the process. I remember how slowly and perfectly Grandma Dorothy sliced onions and potatoes, and how we peeled tomatoes for canning. Grandmama was the queen of [...]

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Sunday Photos…Homesteading Kids

Mr Chiots and I don’t have children, so our “homesteading kids” are our nieces & nephew. I went out to the farm where they keep their chickens with them and they were super excited to show me around. Our little nephew is like most boys, he loves playing in the dirt, so gardening is a [...]

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Gardening with Children in the Winter Classroom

I friend of ours Michelle posed the question over on the message board asking for ideas to use for teaching an after school gardening class for Kindergarten through 6th grade.  The class would be for 1.5 hours once a week.  She has asked for some ideas on things they could do. So here is where [...]

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