Children's Garden Journals

We checked out Zinnia's Flower Garden, by Monica Wellington, very early in the spring, when we were just beginning to dream of gardening. It's a colorful, well written, informative book, about one girl's love of gardening.

The story follows Zinnia through an entire year of planning, planting, caring for, and laying to rest her garden. Each step of the process includes numerous, helpful gardening facts, and tips. But, what caught our attention the most was that Zinnia, recorded each step in her own, special, garden journal.

My plan was to read the book with the children, and then have them put in their own small gardens. But, that was about the time it snowed...and then the snow turned to weeks of rain. So, by the time we planted our seeds, the book had long since been returned to the library. But, both of my older girls followed Zinnia's example, and are faithfully (or as faithfully as is possible for a 9 and 11 year old) keeping garden journals of their own.

Some of the spelling is pretty atrocious, but the pictures are fun to see. And, I'm making mental note of words we need to work on later, so I can let them journal freely, without correction, now.

After the initial excitement of recording about the seeds, and how they were planted, their entries fell into a steady rhythm of recording whether they had to water (clearly, the picture to the right is from before our Science Sunday, watering can project), or whether it had rained that day.

But now...



...things are starting to get exciting.

For more story stretching arts and crafts, check out this week's stART (story + ART) link-up, at A Mommy's Adventures.

It's great to be a homeschooler.