photo credit: eyeliam

OK, who’s with me?! I am ready to let my hair down and have some fun. Too much work and not enough living.

So, let’s remedy that. Let’s get our #playoutdoors on! 

Why not…

• Explore plants in the garden with this activity sheet from Kidsgardening.org
• Check out the outdoor games featured on Kaboose — and kick up your heals with some backyard fun!
• Challenge yourself to get creative in the garden with this idea (and more!) for recycling soda bottles!
• Take a trip to your local farmers market — most should be in swing by now. Find one near you.

As always, it doesn’t matter what you do — just unplug and get outside.

There is a whole gorgeous planet out there just waiting for you. Seriously.

See ya outside! ~ The Grass Stain Guru

Since gardening season is upon us, and I am a HUGE advocate for school gardens, here is a list of a few of my favorite garden-themed children’s books.

Whether you are a parent, an educator, or a kid-at-heart, you will delight in these charming stories!

• Plantzilla
• How Groundhog’s Garden Grew
• Diary of a Worm
• Tops and Bottoms
• Lily’s Garden

Oooooh, there are so many!

What are some of your favorite garden-themed children’s books? Post them in the comments section below!

Why not pack a picnic and go read one of these fun titles outside with the kids in your world?

See ya outside! ~ The Grass Stain Guru

photo credit: WellspringCS

Hi all! I am doing a webinar that I would love to have you participate in. I’ll be chatting about gardening with kids over at KaBOOM!. The information about the session is below. Come get dirty with us!

Growing Great Kids: Gardening in Your Playspace

Date and Time: Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 3:00 PM EDT, 2:00 PM CDT,

1:00 PM MDT, 12:00 PM PDT

Description: Kids and dirt are a natural fit! Adding a garden to an existing playspace or creating a garden as a stand alone project is great way to enhance the play options in your community, as well as teach children about gardening, nature, and nutrition. This webinar will highlight the benefits of gardening, tips and ideas for design options, and much more.

The webinar is FREE, so I hope you will join me. You will have the ability chat with me and ask questions. If you cannot make it at that time, the webinar will be available for free on demand, so you can watch it at your convenience.

Click here to register and join us!

If you are already registered for Growing Great Kids, click here a few minutes before the webcast.

Hope “to see” you there!

See ya outside! ~ The Grass Stain Guru

photo credit: SharkeyinColo

TGSG Note:  As you probably know by now, I don’t just believe in playing outdoors, but also in being a good steward of the environment. I am so happy to share this post today and be part of #Tweehive, an international Twitter event to raise awareness about the plight of bees. And besides — bees are really incredible creatures! They get short-changed in the shadow of “sexier” critters like wolves and bald eagles. I say, viva bees! Frolic Friday will return next week (but don’t forget to go outside and play this weekend!) See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

When’s the last time you gave bees a thought? That’s right: BEES. Unless you are a gardener or entomologist, you probably don’t think much about them at all. Sure, we LOVE flowers — getting them for birthdays or Valentine’s Day. We like to have pots of flowers on our porches and see fields full of them when we drive down the highway. Or, how about honey? We love it in our tea or spread on toast, but how often do we think about all the work that went into making it?

Um, without bees –  no flowers or honey. It’s pretty simple math, really.

Or how about food? Do you like eating? A fan of food? Scientists estimate that every 3rd bite of food we eat comes to use via animal pollination — or roughly 80% of crops (Source: Pollinator Partnership). Amazing, isn’t it?! So you see, bees play a big part of our daily rituals and happiness, not to mention feeding us, whether we think about it or not.

Bees, as it turns out, are vitally important to life. So, let’s get excited about helping them out! Like other pollinators, they are in peril, and we need to step up to the plate to protect them.

Here’s a few things you can do:

• Plant a bee-friendly garden in your yard or community garden! Pollinator Partnership has a free downloadable plant guide (by zip code);
• Get educated! Learn more about bees native to North America and why they need our help; and
• Have some fun with the kids with these bee craft & song ideas from DLTK. You’ll have the kids buzzing in no time and help teach them that bees are not to be feared, but celebrated!

And remember, next time someone tells you you’re the bees knees, take it as the highest form of compliment! I know I will.

photo credit: glyn_nelson

]]> http://grassstainguru.com/2009/08/07/buzzing-about-bees/feed/ 22 Jardin des Plantes bee2 Creative Commons License http://grassstainguru.com/2009/08/05/garden-play-a-readers-play-memory/ http://grassstainguru.com/2009/08/05/garden-play-a-readers-play-memory/#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:00:25 +0000 Bethe http://grassstainguru.com/?p=2638

Like flowers, children bloom in the garden.

TGSG Note: It’s no secret that I am nuts about gardening with kids, and think that no childhood is complete without digging in the dirt and watching something grow. Today’s post is by Alison Kerr, a TGSG reader whose blog, Loving Nature’s Garden, I enjoy very much. Alison was nice enough to stop by and share one of her play memories with us. (I love hearing about people’s play memories!) Happy reading. See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

When I think about it, all my early memories of playing outside involve garden play. Perhaps that doesn’t sound surprising, but the scene is the garden of my grandparents, a garden I had access to less than once a week, rather than the garden I had access to every day. Herein lies a secret to engaging children in the outdoors and in nature, garden play.

My own garden had a path consisting of a strip of concrete paving stones. My grandparents’ garden had a graveled path which crunched underfoot. My own garden had a strip of bare soil where alyssum and pansies struggled and failed to impress me. My grandparents’ garden had towering trees with berries, a hedgerow housing birds, nests, eggs and baby birds, crowded potatoes and carrots, and rhubarb to pick for pie-making. In my garden washing (laundry) hung out of reach. The sweet-smelling sheets and towels in my grandparents’ garden formed a maze, a castle, a perfect place for hide-and-seek.

By the time I was six years old I was more interested in the wonderful pretend play adventures invented by my older sister than in exploring everything in my grandparents’ garden. But by that time nature and gardening had already entered my soul. Every single day of my life I enjoy the antics of birds, marvel over little creepy crawly things, and rejoice over how seeds grow into plants which become food.

My love of the outdoors started in a garden. What about yours? Is there a garden in your life?

Guest Blogger Bio: Alison Kerr is a writer who is passionate about the Earth, nature, gardening, good food, and her family. You can read Alison’s work on Loving Nature’s Garden and follow her on Twitter @AlisonKerr.

photo credit: ms.Tea

Mud pies. Gardening. Digging for buried treasure. Puddle jumping. Burying a time capsule in the backyard. None of these opportunities should be missed in the span of a young life. There are a thousand ways that dirt is not only good — it’s FANTASTIC. Simply put, dirt is an essential ingredient to a happy childhood.

I have watched this ad so many times, but it never ceases to amaze and delight me. So simple, yet actually quite profound. Many of you may have seen this ad before, but even so, it’s worth another look.

Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, or mentor, encourage the kids in your world to “get dirty” — to earn those grass stains and the occasional skinned knee or bug bite. Those things, after all, are signs that real living is going on — PLAY, exploration, discovery, and fun! Childhood was meant to be messy (I’ve heard that somewhere before!).  And don’t forget about yourself, either. Dirt is good for grown-ups, too!

A wise man once said, life was meant for living, and I couldn’t agree more. That said, I can’t help but think that so often we are so focused getting through it — checking off boxes on our To Do lists — that we forget to actually enjoy the ride. So, next time you get annoyed at having to wash a load of laundry because of grass stained knees or muddy bottoms, just remind yourself that someone is doing a bang-up job at living, and in the end, that’s what we are all here for.

If you want to read more about my love affair with dirt, check out: Ode to Dirty Sneakers.

Now, if you will excuse me, I have the sudden urge to make mud pies. Who’s with me?

See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

TGSG Note: Followers of this blog know that I am a huge fan of gardening with kids, and of pretty much anything that involves dirt. My long-time friend, Shelbey, was kind enough to write this delightful piece on what she’s growing in her surprise garden. Amongst the plants and weeds, a family is growing in a world of discovery. It’s a great reminder that “life is what happens when we make other plans,” and we are always richer for the experience. Thanks for stopping by Shel, and sharing your story with us. See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

Here in Florida, everything grows, which may sound like some shadow of Eden.  But “everything” includes countless weeds and pests, and even when these aren’t encroaching on my grand landscape plans, I have to contend with an assortment of whiffleballs and plastic pools and makeshift digging tools.  As for time to landscape and weed and feed and deadhead?  The to-do list grows as fast as the grass.

Enter the surprise garden.  My own premise is a little less reliable, but equally transferable: I don’t remember planting that there, but it grew anyway.  This is the real organic gardening: sitting down with my girls to poke and dig in dirt, letting a spot happen, not hovering over it too much.  We pick a packet of seeds that looks good to us—sugar snap peas, calendula flowers, bright blue morning glories—and start finding spots to plant.  A bare spot in a veggie plot or a corner that reaches just enough sun, a sprinkle of water, and for now, we are done.

My girls are 5 and 7, and they are blossoming into botanists.  These, my own little sprouts, will grow and change, and all that growth will change the garden.  When we got started, I still wasn’t sure what would grow really well in this climate and how to work with the Florida seasons, so we would scatter seeds in various spots to see what came up.  More often than not we’d forget about some of them, so it was always a surprise to see what would poke out of a plot.

Anything that does grow needs to be tough.  We found that many seedlings could survive even if trampled.  Plants that grew big and bushy were destined to become a new hideaway, so they had to withstand the ravages of tussles and kickballs.  We’ve grown a sunflower alley and a scarlet-runner-bean-tent, and a few fun theme gardens.   But we always come back to those unexpected surprises, beginning with the forgotten seeds that have grown into colorful flowers.  Now my girls notice other fun surprises:  Some bees are bright green, and some bugs hover like hummingbirds.  That plant missing half its leaves harbors a monarch or swallowtail caterpillar.  Hiding in the center of a bromeliad is a tree frog.

Children notice gardens from the ground up.  Things that creep and crawl catch their interest more than mere scenery.  Picking up chunks of mulch reveals the roly-polies that my younger daughter loves; tiny weed flowers become bouquets, since they are easy to pick, and not thorny like roses.  One afternoon during a playdate, my friend’s son treated us to ‘salads’ he made from the garden, each with a lettuce leaf wrapped around a nasturtium, a sugar snap pea, and a few chives.  We’d even squeeze the nectar out of the nasturtium, tasting the delight that draws butterflies to them.

Our garden has become a release and a distraction, a place to try new scents and shapes and flavors—a space to play in and play with.  It’s the place to be in the late afternoon when that famous “witching hour” sets in, where outside voices are welcome among frog-yelps and cricket-chirps.  What I envisioned may have been grand, but what I have planted along the way has held plenty of other surprises. That landscape, it turns out, looks best when my children are running around in it.

Guest Blogger Bio: Shelbey Rosengarten gardens in Florida with her two short assistants.  An educator and writer, she teaches composition at her local college, where she has gotten involved with a local habitat restoration project.  Shelby made an appearance at the 2008 Great American Teach-In with a presentation, “The plants we eat,” much to the delight of a class of first-graders. She has a fondness for good friends, belly laughs, and flannel shirts  –  even though it is a tad too warm for them in Florida.

TGSG Note: The following interview was conducted by Tracy Stevens, an educator and blogger I follow on her great blog — A Better Education. Her interview with Neal Ritter and Gelsey Malferrari of the Laughing Coyote Project is reprinted here with permission. I love their tag line: Where human nature meets mother nature. Big thanks to Tracy for letting me share her engaging interviews with the TGSG community.

See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

Recently I interviewed Neal Ritter and Gelsey Malferrari of the Laughing Coyote Project, which is a nature immersion experience for students from 5-14. The acres for learning, exploration, play, animals and plants are based in Lafayette, Colorado. They have programs for home-schooled children, an after school program, as well as summer day camps.

1. How did you come up with the idea for Laughing Coyote?

Immersion in nature is something we have both been interested in, and a part of our own individual studies, including time in Central and South America. It is very much inspired by Tom Brown Jr.’s work, teaching ancestral skills, and building a stronger connection with nature.

2. What is the goal of the project?

The goal here is to make kids comfortable in nature and to give them a sense of intimacy with the outside world. We also want to involve parents and the community to make a cultural change. We want to provide unstructured time for exploration, providing an opportunity to get fully immersed and dirty in the outdoors, and to teach skills we used to have, like animal tracking, identifying wild edible plants, animal husbandry, and gardening, among other things.

3. You both are Waldorf graduates – how does your educational background inform your work here and how does it help you in life in general?

We try to look at the world with a broader prospective and to question things. Not rebel, but to ask and ponder, rather than accept without curiosity or examination. We have a strong sense of reverence for nature, respect for others, and good imaginations. We value experiences and foster that value in the students that come here – and they love it.

4. Rudolf Steiner, who created the Waldorf School model, also started the biodynamic gardening movement. You have a biodynamic farm. What is the difference between organic and biodynamic?

It actually takes four years for a farm or garden to go through a biodynamic cycle. There is a biodynamic certification, but we are not focused on that. Organic means that there are no artificial inputs, but it can still be a monoculture (a single plant on the whole property), industrial in size and scope, and fertilizers and pesticides can be used as long as they are organic and not petroleum-based. With biodynamic farming, the aim is sustainability and a complete eco-system. It is a closed circle in that you do not need anything from outside, everything you need is part of your farm. The manure from your animals is the fertilizer. The seeds you use to plant come from your garden. There is emphasis on observation and awareness to correct any problems on the farm, rather than external additions. It is what people have done for thousands of years. They knew from experience and awareness when to plant and how.

5. How is this different from the Outward Bound programs?

Those programs tend to be about survival with the right kind of gear and they are every goal-oriented. Our program is indigenous in its approach. It’s not about the gear; it is about identification of plants and animals, awareness, and ability to survive without so much gear but with applying knowledge. Our program is purposefully much less structured and the satisfaction is found in the process, not the end product. Kids have so much structure in their day and they really do well with unstructured time for exploration.

6. What can families do with their children to encourage a love and knowledge of nature?

Be unstructured and skip the goal. If you are planning on going for a hike, think of it more as a long, deep exploration rather than about distance and time. Let the kids lead you in exploring – you may only cover 100 yards in three hours but they will be utterly engrossed in the experience and you can be too. Go off trail when it is possible and not harmful. That is where you see and experience interesting things.

7. How does gardening or nature provide a balance to children and adults alike?

It is only in the last several decades that we have become so divorced from nature, and now we take it for granted that it has always been this way. Nature is part of our blue print. We wanted to bring that awareness and connection back. There is something deeply satisfying about being comfortable in nature. There is an initiation of sorts at first, because TV and video is hard to compete with. It takes awhile to get quiet and immersed before you begin to feel that satisfaction that no amount of media can provide.

8. Your summer camp programs offer weekly programs for 8-14 year old children. Describe a day in the life of a summer camper at Laughing Coyote.

We begin the day in an intentional way by sitting in the circle together and giving thanks. There is a rhythm to the day, but not so much structure. They learn tracking, and how to forage for wild edibles, we have creek time where we go tubing, playing in the mud and swinging into the water from the tree swing. We have a tree fort and lots of fields to explore. We play outdoor games, take care of the animals, and do nature-based art projects, like pine needle baskets, medicine sticks, and creating and painting with our own pigments. The students walk away with a breadth of new skills and understanding about nature.

Click here to  learn more about the Laughing Coyote Project and their programs.

Farmers markets offer fresh local produce and are a fun field-trip for kids.

photo credit: Island Life

Berry picking is a right of passage summer activity.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks

Juicy berries are a sure sign of summer.

photo credit: nicubunu

One proud gardener!

photo credit: jermudgeon

The absolute wonder of the garden hose.

photo credit: Monica R.

Eating a rainbow -- YUM!

photo credit: tiffanywashko

A few tips to get your green thumb going…

• Check out tons of kid-friendly gardening resources from the great folks at Kids Gardening;
• Even if you have no yard, you can still garden. Check out community garden plots in your area or start a container garden. Many churches now offer garden space for their members;
• Check your local newspaper for U Pick farms and orchards; and
• To find a farmers market near you, visit: Local Harvest or The USDA.

Berry stained faces. Watermelon seed spitting contests. Fresh strawberry shortcake or homemade peach ice cream. I can’t imagine my memories of summer without these things. Summer comes but once a year — don’t miss out on its bounty, and take the time to introduce the magic of summer to the kids in your world.

Now, if you will excuse me, I am off to hunt for the perfect strawberry. Join me?

See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

]]> http://grassstainguru.com/2009/06/09/summers-bounty/feed/ 22 Laguna Beach Farmer's Market Creative Commons License Alex, the bum Creative Commons License Raspberries / Zmeura Creative Commons License pea harvest Creative Commons License Boy with garden hose Creative Commons License Simple Raw Lunch Creative Commons License http://grassstainguru.com/2009/03/27/growing-wild-australian-style/ http://grassstainguru.com/2009/03/27/growing-wild-australian-style/#comments Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:34:47 +0000 Bethe http://grassstainguru.com/?p=475

I am thrilled to have author, mom, and friend Caro Webster as a guest blogger here at TGSG. The drive to reconnect with nature, live simpler lifestyles, and engage children in true unstructured play is taking hold down under. Caro is a strong voice in the movement, and I am grateful she made the time to talk to us about the trends emerging in gardens and backyards in Australia. Enjoy the read! See ya outside! – The Grass Stain Guru

Photo by Elise Lockwood

There’s a quiet revolution going on in the suburban backyards of Australia. Rather than sitting back and admiring our perfectly manicured “outside rooms”, gazing lovingly at our mondo grass or liriope, perfectly coiffed hedges of murraya, buxus or newly acquired rows of trendy agaves, we are choosing to head outside armed with buckets of kitchen scraps, water collected from baths & showers while we attempt to figure out where we should build a chicken coop, locate the veggie patch, compost heap and herb garden.

Suffering a slow death (and not for lack of water) is the passive, over-structured garden. Instead we are rediscovering how much fun it is to actually interact with Mother Nature and the vital lessons she has to impart to us and our children about nourishing ourselves and our environment. Despite our hectic lives, we are taking the time to get down and dirty, and, somewhat surprisingly, we are finding that we love it.

So what’s behind this shift in the suburban landscape? I’d suggest a few things.

Everyday we are bombarded with messages on climate change and the potential impact it will have on our lives. No longer an obscure issue, we now have a nascent understanding of some of the associated issues and their ability to directly affect what we do and how we do it. It unsettles us. Gone are the days when we could drop a coin into a bucket held by a man dressed in a koala suit and feel that we were doing our bit for the environment. “Think global, act local” is once again foremost in our minds, so it comforts us on many levels to get out into our backyards, plant trees, attempt to grow our own veggies and provide a safe, happy and productive environment for our family.

The economy is doing nothing to provide peace of mind. Food, fuel, water, medicines and shelter are all more expensive. And with the global economy continuing to trend downward, the ability to provide the basics for ourselves at reduced cost is very appealing and for many of us, more necessary.

Subconsciously, global terrorism may also be impacting on our lifestyle choices. Terrorism is no longer a remote event, occurring in a far-off country. There is an unspoken fear in many communities that some day soon, something (God forbid) may happen closer to home. So our home becomes haven again; we are bunkering down, cocooning and trying to figure out what we should do to protect ourselves and maintain the peaceful lifestyle Australia affords us. This unease reminds us of the staples of life — we hanker for a return to the “good life” of our childhoods, which was, on the whole, a time spent outside whiling away the day with lots of unstructured play (and not a Nintendo in sight) and very little to worry about except what mum was preparing for dinner. We long to provide this for our own children.

Photo by Katrina Crook

Or maybe it’s none of these. Perhaps we are simply sick to death of gardens which offer nothing but a vacant green room, with little to engage or educate our children and no place for their beautiful imaginations to take hold. Whatever the reason, I’m thrilled with our new-found involvement, and am now longing to hear, once again, the 3:00 a.m. call of the lovelorn rooster and hoping that I will soon find a Choko vine spilling over the back fence.

Guest Blogger Bio: Caro Webster is the mother of two young children, a freelance writer and author of the recently released Small Fry Outdoors – inspiration for being outside with children (ABC Books). She is also President of the Friends of the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. Check out Caro and colleague Susie Cameron on Twitter and at the Small Fry website.