Walking the yard. I try to make it a practice to walk the yard with the boys. I do it because there is a deep satisfaction in it for me & I hope the boys feel it too. Today we started it by me grabbing a cup of chalk and saying to the boys: do you think we can find all of these colors in the yard?
T led us to the first find. The compost bin! It is a great big green barrel, the color of our green chalk- and a magnificent wonder to the boys as it has a great big crank. This "man-made" thing was not what I had hoped for at first, however it was a wake up to where my boys are at- they are thrilled with this new addition to our yard, given to us by friends who just don't have a yard anymore. In anycase, after a giant rotation around with the crank we were headed off to find the next color.
Yellow - the leaf of a broccoli plant.
Purple! The color of the sage flower. The color of our irises. And later we would find it the color of our mysterious allium flower.
Then S found pink on one of the plastic balls on our patio. We found red on a poppy.
And so many greens. I wanted to point them each out- however I don't know if the various shades in different texture has as much meaning to them as it does to me. Nevertheless, we continued our walk now noticing the newly forming apples on the apple tree....and the flowers on the huckleberry bush did they notice they are white?
One thing drifts into another when you walk the yard, so I don't know how it was that the boys decided the yard needed watering, but it did not! "Look a river they cried" as dad ran over to turn it off. It has been raining for the past couple of days. S who had not napped and was close to delirium tired (but it was too late for nap and too early for bed). Had a tantrum. He wanted to water. I tried to rationalize. I shook leaves and as the water dripped on us I hoped he would realize --maybe things are already wet. I tried to get him to touch the grass. I even said thank you for being so considerate to the plants, but lets save the water. I was utterly useless in reaching him or calming him from the tantrum but I decided to do what I need to do when I want to calm down: walk and get distracted.
We didn't have to go too far when I said "blue!" It is S's favorite color. He was still teary but as I brought him nearer the ground-covering radiant blue flowers he calmed a bit. Then when I showed him there was a path amongst the flowers made of concrete stones he stopped and watched as I went hopping from stone to stone. He followed. We did it again. S was calm. We continued a walk up and down the street. We stopped to watch some kids play at their tree house and after a short conversation walked on. I saw colors, but I didn't call them out. I wanted him to have his own experience. I wonder what it was that he noticed. Dinner beckoned and I never got a chance to ask, but private experiences, moments and reflections are important too.
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