Learning with Teah and the Four Year Olds

Yesterday I went on a field trip with Teah and her preschool class. It was a bunch of preschoolers, a bunch of suburban moms, and a woman named "Ms Meg". We walked around an old farm site at North Park in the North Hills of Pittsburgh. Ms Meg explained about the wild birds and animals living on the farm, including blue birds, which we spotted at a slight distance. I think it was the second actual blue bird I've seen. Ms Meg also pointed out lots of edible weeds growing in the fields, first one was mint. All the kids and moms picked some in wonder that you could actually EAT a weed. Teah stuck some in her pocket to take home. Later on one boy said he was hungry, Ms. Meg suggested he munch on his mint, this was not appealing to the boy, but it was to my daughter. It was like a light bulb went off in her head, she pulled out the mint and immediately started munching on it. One of her little friends took a stunned double take, her face said, "what on earth are you doing!?" For Teah, it's pretty normal. She didn't really like the mint, too bitter, but eat food from the garden and from the wild is pretty normal. I have to keep her from trying things sometimes when I'm not positive what they are! Today for dinner Teah finished off her meal with two big leaves of Red Russian Kale! Yeah, I was surprised too!

We also learned about the invasive "garlic mustard". Since then I've seen it all over the place. Garlic mustard smells like... garlic and mustard, and can be used to cook with. We'll try it soon. I thought it was cool that Teah and I both learned a little on her field trip. The plant with the little flower is a single garlic mustard plant. If you look around you'll find them everywhere! We also learned about Stinging Nettle, which I'll post on another time.