The Carrot Seed: Patience and Positive Thinking

I am so grateful to Before Five in a Row (BFIAR) for introducing our family to really great children's literature.The Carrot Seed, a part of the  BFIAR book list, is about a boy who patiently waited for his carrot seed to grow and steadfastly believed that it would, regardless of what the grownups were telling him: "It won't come up." But it did, "just as the little boy had known it would." There is a great background story about the book over at Anita Silvey's A-Book-A-Day Children's Almanac.

PATIENCE Young children are not likely to be candidates for any Patience Award, and a book that demonstrates patience and steadfast belief in something should be celebrated. At home, we point out to Little T when she is being patient. She is pleased whenever we notice and acknowledge her patience, usually in waiting for Mama's attention to revert back to her from Baby Boy.

CARROTS We had a healthy and yummy snack - the carrot sticks pictured above. Little T had a great time peeling a carrot, and it has since become part of her pretend play. She usually gets two sticks to rub against each other, with one being the peeler and the other the carrot. For our Cooking/Baking day, we whipped up some carrot cupcakes. We did not follow exactly the recipe I found at www.allrecipes.com, but it still turned out great!

As usual, there are lots of learning fun in the kitchen. Little T whipped some eggs,

measured ingredients,

mixed and mixed,

scooped batter into cups,

and patiently waited for her labors to be rewarded!

ART The color orange pops in The Carrot Seed. I  wrote separately about how we made the color orange and how it is a gift to let children discover color on their own.

SEED We love planting! Though we did not have carrot seeds, we planted and watched monggo seeds grow from seeds to leafy plants in just one week. We also looked back at the time we planted sunflower seeds and were surprised to see a flower bloom after several months. We compared how fast the two types of seeds grew: quickly and slowly.


There are so many more thoughtful suggestions by BFIAR. It is truly "a treasury of creative ideas" that inspires our family to learn. The simple and gentle ideas are helping us make wonderful memories.


Make magic!

mariel

Watching Nature Unfold In A Pot

As part of our Carrot Seed activities in which  we made the color orange, we planted several monggo or mung bean seeds. We put the seeds in a small pot and watched as the seeds sprouted and grew - fast.

Five days after we planted the seeds, we already had some healthy leaves and were able to transfer the plant to the ground. Planting is a simple project that demonstrates the beauty and magic in nature. Everyday, we excitedly visit our monggo plant and watch nature unfold before our eyes.

This is why I love homeschooling and Before Five in a Row. My daughter learns gently and naturally - as I do. Several months back, we read Jesse Bear, What Will You Wear. We planted sunflower seeds and marveled at the flower that bloomed after two months of waiting.

A pot, some seeds, and a healthy dose of wonder can go a long way in teaching children about the world.

Make magic!

mariel

The Gift of Orange: Discovering Secondary Colors

I taught my daughter most of the colors at 18 months. We even have a video of her handing me crayons as I called out the colors: red, blue, green, purple, orange, yellow, brown, black, even gold. I cringe now at the thought of myself as the overeager and excited mama, daring to teach such a young babe when I should have just been guiding her as she discovers the world for herself.

As we get warmed up with our decision to keep our children at home at least for their preschool years, I learn to relax and let my daughter do what children do best: play, explore, and discover.

Red and Yellow Make Orange

For our most recent Painting Day for The Carrot Seed, we again tried our hand on Wet-on-Wet Painting. I limited our watercolors to red and yellow and let Little T paint as she pleased, without any expectations of form. I then sat back, kept quiet, and enjoyed the moment when she gasped “Orange! I made orange, Mama!”

It may seem strange to have just two colors out when all colors imaginable are easily available. Why mix at all? But the joy of discovering orange is a gift to any child. You can read books about mixing colors and even memorize the color wheel, but creating your own color and seeing it with your own eyes is just magical.


As parents, we want to see our children acquire knowledge, know their colors, the earlier the better. But sometimes, seeing the wonder in their eyes and hearing their gasps of amazement as they stumble upon a new discovery is better than knowing all the colors in the crayon box, even gold.

Make magic!

mariel