Spring is in the air at PlusKids: time to plant seeds and beans, dreams and wishes.
We read "Jack and the Beanstalk", and then the after-school children planted beans of their own — magic or not, they would tell us in a few days.
The link between the story and the flowerpot is what makes the activity work. The story supplies the reason: if Jack's beanstalk grew as far as the clouds, it is worth seeing what comes up for you. And the planting supplies what the story cannot — real time. A bean does not sprout to order, nor on the day you happen to feel like it; it has to be watered, waited for and checked daily, with no guarantee that anything will come of it.
For a child used to things happening quickly, this is one of the most useful lessons in patience available. And when the first green shoot appears, the reward is all the greater for having been hard to come by.
We left the beans to sprout and stepped confidently into this lovely season. At PlusKids, stories really do come to life — sometimes quite literally, in a pot on the windowsill.