Whewwww April flew by! I am VERY excited to jump into a our May Month in Moments themes. We'll focus on gardens, awesome animals, and family traditions. Inspired by HG's excitement about harvesting and munching tomatoes from our tiny container garden last spring and our home study this season in Tinkergarten, we started a small garden in April. It has been such a lovely way to get outside! On days when I don't want to go outside, getting out just to water plants together helps me ease in to following HG as she explores. If both of us are tired, we at least make it onto our porch for a bit more outdoor play, as we water our plants which evolves into bubble blowing, coloring, and running off to climb. On hot days, the water play that naturally ensues when you tend plants with a toddler keeps us cool. HG has pretended to snuggle our sprouts because I call them our "plant babies" and the joy and pride my older Explorers, and their Guides, share when they tell me about their plants is heart-warming. As someone who does not have a green thumb, gardening with a little pal for whom I want to set a good example helps me take better care of our garden. Gardens engage our senses, invite animal friends to frolic nearby, and allow us to carve out a protected space for other living organisms. I hope you'll join us to literally #watchwonderbloom through whatever sized gardening project you and your learners are ready to take on! Our other big theme for the month is special celebrations. There are all kinds of weird special days in May (Lost Sock Memorial Day) and some very important ones that some of our families may not know a lot about (Ramadan). Learning how cultures across the globe celebrate the same special day (Children's Day) can show us that, although we may be separated by oceans and our holidays may be offset by months, we are more similar than we expected. And, when we know the reasons behind different cultural and religious practices (fasting during Lent and Ramadan), we have a bigger toolbox for meaningful conversations rather than awkward stares and insensitive questions. In our classrooms and families, rituals - repeated practices - create structure that allow kiddos to explore, question, learn, wonder... As a young family, I love time to reflect on how we approach special days and how we can create meaningful practices that honor and celebrate these days. I hope you enjoy this dialogue with your family too!
Open the Google Doc of this month's calendar here and read the overview below! (Updates for the last few weeks of the month will be done by May 4!)
Week 1: May Days - Create some traditional May crafts and begin thinking about how you might design a garden space, whether you simply start with a pot per family member (or one for the whole family) or doodle a dream garden that takes up acres.
Week 2: Special Celebrations - Explore special days around the world and in your home. Celebrate silly special days focused on socks :).
Week 3: May Flowers - Dig in to your garden (literally), as you plant and enrich your garden. Explore how you can invite different critters to your garden.
Week 4: Amazing Animals - Learn about and visit animals around you. Then, look at how animals survive in different places and create your own animal!
Week 5: Hodge Podge Week - Revisit our week on celebrations to throw an (Un)Birthday Party for anyone with a May birthday or who just needs an excuse to celebrate (there will be a playlist in the document featuring artists with May birthdays :). Return to your garden to care for it. Share small gifts you've created. Record what you loved this month!
Share garden sketches, sprout pictures, creative animals, and holiday idea lists using #watchwonderbloom! I can't wait to see some of the meaningful moments your family has this month!
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