A Message from Carolyn Linder
Did you know that there is a Jewish holiday that celebrates a new year in honor of trees? Tu B’Shevat (literally, the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Shevat), sometimes referred to as Jewish Arbor Day, began in ancient times as a way to keep track of the crops and fruit trees that grew in Israel. You may be thinking: “But wait! It is not yet spring here in Pittsburgh.” Well, in Israel, it is!
With the increased concern for the environment, Tu B'Shevat has taken on an additional meaning as a day on which Jews can express and act on their concern for the ecological well-being of the world in which we live. The holiday is a wonderful opportunity to raise awareness about and to care for the environment through celebrating nature.
By introducing young children to the fascinating world of gardening and to the intricacies of nature, you will open their worlds to new ideas and experiences. Children are natural gardeners - they are naturally curious, they want to be involved and they like to learn by doing. Working in a garden, a child can experience the satisfaction that comes from caring for something over time, while observing the cycle of life firsthand.
Gardening offers everything a parent/early childhood educator could want when developing activities to draw children into their world. It provides opportunities for children to develop socially and emotionally, individually and as a community. The work involved in gardening supports children’s physical development, nourishes all their senses, and helps them learn to slow down and observe carefully.
We encounter an appreciation for nature daily in our Jewish living as one of the themes in Jewish living is to live with a sense of wonder. Blessings and prayers are ways that traditional daily practice guides us toward wonder and the daily psalms are filled with nature and appreciation. Taking time to join children and explore the wonder with them and building from an early age, the habit of uttering words of appreciation for beauty, is a very Jewish thing to do. It provides children with a ‘language’ to share wonder together with you.
The Reggio Emilia approach is at the core of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh's Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiatives, which we embarked upon in 2011 and which we continue to focus on in our community. Paying thoughtful attention to creating an environment that enables young children to develop relationships with the world around them, themselves and each other is an important aspect of a Reggio-inspired early childhood program.
I would like to extend a very special thank you to my colleague, Dr. Gabe Goldman for sharing with us his knowledge, passion and infectious enthusiasm in helping us to create opportunities for meaningful and experiential nature activities with young gardeners.
Carolyn Linder
Director of Early Childhood Education
Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
A Message from Dr. Goldman
It has been more than a decade since I first wrote the Guide for Making Indoor Gardens for Young Gardeners and it is still the only guide of its kind. This Guide is for early childhood educators AND parents who want to bring alive the magic of plants with an indoor garden. This is the third edition of the Guide, produced in cooperation with my colleague, CAROLYN LINDER Director of Early Childhood Education at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh.
I still meet people who want to grow plants in their classrooms or at home but are afraid they will kill the plants. This Guide will do a lot to alleviate these fears. In this Guide, you will learn exactly what you need and how to grow healthy plants. Soon, you will discover what so many other teachers have discovered – indoor gardening is easy, requires simple skills and costs very little.
The resources you need to carry out these activities in this Guide are items you can find at home or you can purchase at WalMart, Home Depot, etc. Except for the optional grow light, you will need no special equipment or set up. All of the activities in this Guide have been field tested and I want to thank the participants of the CAJE Early Childhood Network listserve who did this testing.
You do not have to do EVERYTHING in the Guide. You can choose to use the activities in any order; you can pick what you use and what you ignore; and you can decide what goals to emphasize with each lesson. This Guide is not meant to replace your existing curriculum but instead to help you develop a greater awareness for and appreciation of nature.
You may be familiar with the Loris Malaguzzi poem, The 100 Languages of Childhood. It begins:
"The child is made of one hundred. The child has a hundred languages, a hundred hands, a hundred thoughts, a hundred ways of thinking, of playing, of speaking."
I firmly believe that one of the hundred languages children already know is what I call Nature-speak. Children understand the rock lying on the ground saying, “Pick me up and see what is under me.” They understand the ladybug that pleads, “Let me crawl on your arm and tickle your skin.” And it will not be long before they understand the tiny seed that says, “Plant me and see what I can do” or the resulting plant that says, “Look at what you’ve done and feel proud.”
Dr. Gabe Goldman
Pittsburgh JECEI & Bonim Beyachad Consultant
Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
Founder of Outdoor Jewish Classroom