It is SOW time to start planting

Is it warming up or cooling down? I can't tell at all. It seems typical that we get that warm burst in Feb or March and then its back to cold until late April. With the temps staying under 40 at night; it doesn't look like planting will happen until the Thursday and Friday when warmer temps are projected. The children and the centers all want to plant so badly so we will try and initiate some indoor starts in the next couple weeks. This week the children did a great job making their binoculars and in some cases monoculars. The pictures below show them in their classes with the project. Here were some of their thoughts:

"I get to use my binoculars outside and inside. I am drawing my name on mine"
"I can look through this to see the garden"
"I will see bugs and dirt and plants"
"When are we gonna plant out in the garden Maestro Jeremy"
"Maestro, are we going to go outside"
"Will you eat lunch with us"

The last comment was one of my favorites. As a Farm to School program, I am very interested in not only providing high quality local food for OCDC but also sharing the meals with the children. Meal time is a very important social act that is often not used to the full potential. OCDC cooks all the meals for the children and they are well fed while attending our centers. Although it is hard for me to squish into those teeny tiny chairs, I am having a wonderful time with the kids at meal time. During meal time, the children get to speak freely about everything they wish to talk about. I encourage them to tell me stories and talk about their experiences out of school. It is a great time to take the temperature so to speak about what the children's interests are and what types of personalities make up the classroom. The garden class option this week will be less involved in making things and more involved in observations and imaginative play. The first classes are useful for me to understand and define the educational role this position will have in the future.

So what is to come? This week I am delivering the seeds to the programs. Thanks to High Mowing (VT), Territorial (OR) and Seeds of Change (NM) for their wonderful seed donations. They have given us enough seeds to run the whole garden this season. They will get to start some seedlings indoors as well as plant some outdoors if the weather holds out. It will be a simple planting but will take a WHOLE lot of planning and structure to ensure that the seeds are properly sowed and taken care of for the weekend. I imagine lots of squared off and lined spaces where the children can move from one section the next, plant a seed, cover it and move to the next center. It will be regimented planting outdoors, but indoors the children will have a little less structure for planting so they can discover by themselves the purposefulness of precision planting. Check back for some more photos next week of the planting.


Pics include some children showing me their window germination project. Seeds stay in moist towels inside plastic bags attached to the window. Watch them germinate and move toward the light. The other pics are children working or playing with their new binoculars and monoculars.