Today when a group of 15 children participated in the harvesting from our organic garden beds. Our goal was to harvest from all of the abundant bounty, but what ended up happening was following another path. The children’s curiosity and exploration had us all observing the unpredictable events that have been occurring in the gardens. We all paused as one of the children picked an interesting vegetable we could not name. There was lots of chatter. “It’s a summer squash! No, its a zucchini! Wait…what is it?”
As we continued exploring our gardens we came across a lone strawberry plant popping its stem from one of our compost bins. 
“What? How did that plant get in there? Wait…..let’s save the strawberry plant.” The next exploration was to open the compost bin. “What happened in the bin as it sat through the winter months? Does it smell? It must be gross…we have not touched it in months… No! It smells like earth!” We explored our gardens for about an hour…after our time we had more questions than answers. It is the sweet beauty of exploring and not having the answers. It’s the essence of wonder that has us asking more questions. Today was another reminder …oh the places we will go when we are experiencing the present moment with children. An awesome journey!
Do you have a story to share …we would love to hear from you. #shedchildrenscampus #reggioemilia #organicgardens #slowparenting