A YEAR IN OUR GARDEN

It is that smile of joy on children's faces that makes our garden so amazing! 

POST BY HILARY SHERLOCK - AND  LESLIE WAN 

When we first moved to our “new school” I needed to convince some folks why the garden would be an important part of our school and curriculum.  As our garden has developed, it has moved from being a formative sensory garden to an emergent biosphere. It's role in our work has expanded and the children have found great pleasure in it.   

It continues to be an adventure – an opportunity to learn from the garden itself. It has been an interesting exploration in what plant likes to grow where, and which flowers seem to have their own agendas as they spread and reseed themselves or which plants look unhappy.  We have gone through the cycles from seeds to luscious watermelons, picking cherries and pomegranates from the trees we planted, and rejoicing each time our pouis trees bloom. How quickly the neem trees have grown! 

A year ago, as we prepared for Earth Day we began to work on our garden curriculum. Though we had great satisfaction from growing and selling seedlings, the need to structure the learning experiences became more evident.  Thankfully we found a simple garden curriculum and together made lessons with activities for each child. It worked well! The drought was (and is) limiting, but we continue to give thanks for our harvested rain water.

Learning biodiversity options in our garden from the Inst. of Jamaica

 What to do next is the question – how best to learn more about the creatures we see around us and develop a sense of how all of nature relates to each other. Teaching food and plant recognition and nutrition to our children based on what we hope to grow is a future project we would love to do .... An exciting development! I contacted the Natural History Museum at the Institute of Jamaica and they enthusiastically agreed to partner with us.  We are now working together on our garden as a biosphere education project.  With their help we will have teacher’s guides, student workbooks and our own field guides.  Already we have begun to record the spiders we are finding and the swarms of butterflies.  All these activities will be translated into math, language development and sensory learning opportunities geared to each child’s individual ability in our regular school work. 

Institute of Jamaica working with our staff 

In what we now accept as STEP's serendipitous existence, a grant from the Nene Valley Rotary Club in the U.K, received through the Rotary Club of Kingston (and our own Early Act Club), will help us to afford to produce the guides and make the garden more animal (including lizards) friendly. 

Our children now swing in the shade of the beautiful cassia fistula tree we planted, crush and smell the mint and basil leaves, feel the sun on their skin, enjoy the breeze, marvel at the spiders and bees, and learn how interconnected life really is in our world. We have further hopes and wishes for our garden and we hope to make more connections to add more options to our curriculum as a result, but the wonder of what the children have found by including "the living earth" in their lives is beyond expression. In fact, it is MAGIC! 

Leslie's Message Moment 

Sunrise / sunset all the possibilities abound anew.......... 

Define yourself by possibilities and not your limitations

The other day I was thinking about how much of what I do in my life can begin with "I want to but....." Yes that comes from my upbringing, but it certainly isn't the most positive or effective way to live. That made my mind wander over to how the school teaches our children. I realized that our curriculum is never about how we limit what we teach our children by their challenges, but the best way to teach them what we want them to learn, and bring them into all the opportunities encouraged for ANY and ALL children. We want a garden, we make that happen, we want them to understand we are part of a neighborhood, we bring them to the neighbors -wheelchairs and all. They want to dance, then we put on the music and whatever they can move or if they sing they do, and bless them they are NEVER self-conscious. One thing I love about Jamaica is its "can do spirit." The remarkable perseverance and resourcefulness of people in this island nation. Let's try to consider our lives, lives of possibilities, and not lives of limitations, because of all the obstacles placed in our way, many are just obstacles in our mind. Embrace potentials because any movement towards that goal is a win! Our school sees possibilities among the challenges, and determination despite the drawbacks. I want to take that lesson into me and I want you to do it too! Freedom to endeavor begins with believing it's possible and endeavoring to get there................LESLIE WAN