preschool ecology

Little boy had lots to do when he went back to school on Thursday. Evergreen Playschool is a 6mo-kindergarten play-based preschool that mixes the best parts of montessori, reggio-emilio, and play-based education. I've been pretty astounded at what they've done, but this time, it was his turn to surprise them. This week his class had made a large garden and posted it up on the wall. Each child was to draw a flower, or several flowers, to add to the garden. My boy has been listening to my "greenie mama" ramblings about pollination, bees, and ecological diversity. The first thing he drew was the "garden fly." This is an entirely different thing from a house fly*. Those are yucky. Then he drew the grass, because a garden is not just flowers. There is lots of grass in the garden. Lastly, he drew the tiny blue flower, because blue is almost always our favorite color- mine and the boy's, so we have a fairly large collection of blue-flowering plants in our garden.

His teachers were surprised at both the detail he put into his work and at the overall picture he presented of the garden, that it's not just the flowers that make up the garden, but that it is an entire system. I am always surprised at how he internalizes (in the good way!) what I say, even when it seems like he's not listening at all. I'm delighted that the things that are important to me- the good green earth, our responsibility to preserve it as best we can, and, of course, creative expression- are sticking!

*We have a trap we got from here so that they don't swarm the house. The falling figs in the summer attract swarms of flies, plus, well, they are attracted to dogs.
The other day we were in the car and he said, "look, mama, there's a giant blue flytrap!" It was a small screened-in trampoline in someone's backyard. The fly trap that we use is recommended by the World Health Organization for disease prevention.

Photoshop credits go to Gary Bridgman. He does things with a computer I could only ever dream of accomplishing. Thanks, Honey!