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 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted……. [Ecclesiastes 3]

For millions of children, school is out, and they are ready for the brain vacation.  For us, school doesn’t stop.  We don’t (ever) officially start or end “school” until the day they graduate. 

I feel that summer is a prime time for education, mainly because so many places, which are usually closed or limited to weekend hours throughout the year, finally open their doors all week for those hot and humid months in hopes of catching the summer crowd.

Spring and summer are a great seasons to teach our children about growth as our gardens flourish.  There’s much to maintain in the summer around our homes, and what better time to teach our children about God’s green earth then to help them be stewards of it as they help mow the grass (even if it’s just sitting on your lap on the lawn mower), pluck weeds from the gardens, pick fruits and vegetables, sow fresh seeds, and water plants.  Then, as summer comes to a close and fall begins to peek around the corner, we can teach them about the cycle of plant life as we watch leaves turn golden, flowers wither, and the growth of grass slow.  We can show them how different plants thrive during different seasons (as the bible says, there’s a time for everything) as we plant the fall crop.  I cannot tell you how excited I am to start my edible garden this year.  I’ve told my husband it’s “for the kids, educational purpose, you know”, but really, it’s for me.. because I desire to learn how to care for these things beyond the book knowledge I have.  I’ve never had much of a green thumb, but there’s something within me that wants to “get back to the basics”.

This is how we teach our children Ecclesiastes, chapter three, which is so much more effective than just reading it and expecting them to comprehend it.

I want to teach my children how properly plant fruits and vegtables.  I want to teach them how to grind corn into meal. I remember, as a kid, finding a few delicious strawberries on the bush in our backyard.  It was thrilling, and I couldn’t wait to tell my mom (which, sometimes they were eaten before she ever saw them).  I remember we tried to grow cantelope one year.  We may have gotten one or two, but they didn’t do all that great, as I recall.  One year, I went blueberry picking, and, boy, that was a blast.  My belly and my basket came back full, and then my grandmother made a pie.

We live in a day when you go to the store to buy a can of blueberry pie filling and dump it in a premade pie shell before shoving it in the oven.  That doesn’t build memories.  But… making it from scratch not only made lasting memories, I learned a lot of well, and those things still excite me to this day.

I was trying to tell my kids about the berry picking adventure I just wrote about.  I told them how delicious the pie smelled as I stood by the oven, waiting, watching, anticipating a slice.  My son tapped me on the shoulder and asked, “Can we go pick chocolate chips for cookies later?”

If anyone has a chocolate chip bush in their backyard, please… share.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 1st, 2008 at 1:26 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.