Happy things in our school garden.

 Keeping in mind at all times that the natural environment where we live tends to look like this:

And that the wind and sun are so relentless that they do this to the vegetation:

It  is not an exaggeration to celebrate when we get a crop of tomatoes of this size:

Or to celebrate that this year we have managed a bed of organic spinach, basil, onions and garlic:

 

 

Another celebration has been flowers from our garden for flower arranging indoors:

 

 Some of this, I suspect is possible because we compost all of our green waste. Today I sifted our compost and all the plants got a fresh layer of organic minerally goodness.

I mean, sure we have parts of our garden that reflect the typical prickly landscape of the Aruban desert.

 

But it is so fun to be able to have an outdoor picnic snack table surrounded by flowers for children to sit and talk, eat, and be happy. 

 

Observation

"Often inexperienced teachers place great importance on teaching and believe that they have done everything necessary when they have demonstrated the use of the materials in a meaningful way. In reality, they are far from the truth because the job of the teacher is rather more important than that. To her falls the task of guiding the development of the child's spirit, and therefore her observations must emerge at the end- and this is their only justification- in her ability to help the child."

Maria Montessori, The child in the Family