A request from an after-school club
One day, we received a request from the person who runs the elementary school after-school club "TKC Jonan After School." The children spend most of their after-school time indoors, and she wanted them to have more experiences with nature. Having learned that Minna no Uen was nearby, she reached out to ask whether there was something the children could do with us.
The children were in about second to fourth grade. That reminded me of the wild plant research we did for parents and kids at a community farm in Adachi Ward, Tokyo, whose operation I help support. Just gathering wild plants and looking up their names got everyone excited. It occurred to me that it might be fun to turn that into a guide for each child, so we held "Make Your Own Kids' Wild Plant Guide."
"Weeds" that became a book
It was unfortunately rainy that day, but the children dashed out to the field in the gaps between showers. With shovels and scissors in hand, they searched seriously for many different kinds of plants. They carried them back to the nearby "Minna Kitchen" and pasted them into the notebooks we handed out.
Some children cut the plants neatly and arranged them, some stuck them on boldly like a bouquet, and some wrote in detailed notes about what they noticed. Even among children meeting for the first time, you start to see their different styles through making the guide, which is part of the fun. After that, we pored over the guides to look up names. I know vegetables fairly well, but when it comes to wild plants I was hopeless, and I searched desperately alongside the children.
The field as an after-school place to explore
Wild plants are usually lumped together as "weeds" and hardly anyone looks at them. But when you gather them and lay them side by side, the small flowers and the different shapes are very beautiful. What adults can enjoy wholeheartedly, children are sure to enjoy too.
If there is a field near an after-school club, after-school hours can turn into a little fieldwork time. A place that is neither school nor home, where you discover things with your own eyes. I felt that a farm can team up with after-school clubs as that kind of learning place.