Kitchen Counter Confidential on a Wednesday? Strange right! Well, there's a very good reason. Today, I am super excited to introduce you to an amazing woman and a fantastic ebook. The ebook is called "The Garden Classroom: 52 Kids Gardening Activities" and my blogging friend Cathy, from the amazing site NurtureStore, is the woman who wrote it. As you know, I love gardening and more importantly I love getting my kids into the garden with me...this ebook is seriously filled with great information and inspiration. I found myself spending a lot of time reading each and every page. So, now let's take a look inside Cathy's kitchen and find out what is on her counter...and get all the details about "The Garden Classroom".
Tell me 3 things about yourself
I am a mother of two lovely girls. I bake amazing cakes in my kitchen, but am dreadful at icing. My kitchen has been repainted this week and is in chaos!
Are you for, or against, small appliances on the kitchen counter?
Totally against. Less is more. As my kitchen has been decorated this week it has been a great excuse to have a big clear out.
Name 5 things that are on your kitchen counter right now
Coffee pot, wooden spoon, fruit bowl, two wooden boats that have been varnished and are drying, a bowl of green, blue and red spaghetti. Yes, really.
What if anything, would you change about your kitchen counter?
I would love to cast a magic spell and have any dirty dishes that touch my kitchen counter be magically washed, dried and put away.
What is your favourite thing to do on your kitchen counter?
Bake cakes and make play dough.
Last week your beautiful ebook "The Garden Classroom: 52 Kids Gardening Activities" launched, how does it feel to work so hard on this project and now it is finally out for everyone to read?
Fantastic! It is much more nerve-racking to publish and ebook than a blog post because it's so important to me to give readers something really good to read, but I have had such lovely feedback.
Please, share what readers will find inside "The Garden Classroom"
The Garden Classroom is packed full of fun, playful, creative ideas readers can use with their children to enjoy the outdoors, learn a lot and get a closer connection with nature. They don't need a big garden (mine is tiny) or a green thumb, just a desire to enjoy the garden with their children. The book has gardening, art, craft, science, math, literacy and play ideas for children aged from two to ten-ish; with step-by-step instructions for each activity and beautiful photographs. You can get a peek inside the book over on my blog, where there's a video and tour of my garden.
My mother was a great gardener, and I know my love of the garden comes from her passion. Where does your love of gardening and specifically connection children with gardening, come from?
My mum is a great gardener too and I remember her giving me a patch of the family garden to grow what I wanted. I've always used our garden as a classroom with my two daughters, simply because I see how much they benefit from being outdoors. It has such a positive effect on our day when we play outside. In the last year I've also been running a school gardening club with eight and nine-year-olds and I've seen them gain lots of skills and learning from the hands-on projects. I don't think children help but learn in a garden, nature delivers so much art, science and nature right to us.
Thanks for letting us into your kitchen and sharing your ebook with us. I love hearing about blogger's kitchens...seriously bowls of green, red and blue spaghetti on the counter! Sounds like a typical day in our kitchen, there's always some sort of project on the go. Thanks Cathy, I think I'm going to grab the girls and go see if there are any new cucumbers to pick in the garden.