Guest post: Going to the Fairy Garden by Sarah P.

Redwood Park Surrey fairy garden

Blueberry Fig Showcase: A new series of guest posts by Blueberry Fig students, clients, and members of our community. Enjoy this wonderful inaugural post by Sarah P!

It just smelled like a normal forest with normal trees and branches with nothing very surprising. When we arrived at Redwood Park we parked in the rocky parking lot, the air smelled fresh. We were heading to a park in the forest and there were so many people. We were heading to the park because some of our friends were there. After a little play, we headed off into the forest to see the fairy garden. This was our first time coming to the fairy garden and our friends second. When we entered we saw a tree house. Our friend’s mother suggested that we go left because she kind of forgot which way. But our friend insisted that we go right. After a small fight we still headed left and we figured that going left was just the way out. Then we saw some people heading right so then we followed them secretly for a long time until our parents asked one of us kids to ask them if they were going. There was a short silence and no one wanted to do it until I asked them, “Are you guys headed to the fairy garden?” “No,” they replied, but they also told us they know where it is so they said they would help us find it.

Photo: Sarah P.

So, we followed the people for a long time and we were going left! Suddenly, we came to a stop and one of the people pointed and said, “The fairy garden is just a little bit to the left”. We thanked them and trampled off into the forest. The path was narrow, but we managed to get through. When we arrived, we saw a beautiful, broken, shiny, and big setting, beautifully painted wooden fairy houses surrounded the big ground and made it seem small. The houses were high and low and even though most of the houses were broken, it still made the forest more beautiful.

Then I came to a stop – something was blocking my way. It was a fallen tree and it had row after row of fairy houses. There were only two ways to go to the other side: 1. to go through the spiky leaves or 2. to climb through a very steep pile of decomposed trees. I decided to go way 1 , to go through some very spiky leaves. When I got to the other side I was surrounded by endless groups of fairy houses. I was the first one to get there so I could take my time to enjoy the view . Then I waited for the others. After they arrived , everyone else looked around and suddenly our friends said that they made a house and put it here a few years ago and everyone agreed to help find their fairy house. The search was very long, but right when we were going to give up we found the house.

Photo: Sarah P.

I decided to climb the pile of decomposed trees, but I slipped and was wearing white pants so I felt like I wanted to go home. We started to head back to the parking lot, but we would pass by the playground and I knew that my sister would want to play. We played for about ten minutes and then we went home. I would call that the worst best day ever. On the way back my mother suggested that we should come to the fairy garden and put some of our own fairy houses there and we agreed.

Ownership of this post is retained by the original author, who is free to repost, republish or share this content. All photos, including featured image by Sarah P.

52 Ways to Learn in 2020

The alphabet has 26 letters and each one can be uppercase or lowercase, which gives us 52 letters…one for every week of the year! In 2019, I used alphabet colouring pages for an Instagram series on language and discovery. For 2020, I’ve designed my own alphabet (hand lettering is meditative) and using each letter to suggest ways to bring learning into our lives – not for school or Education with a capital E – but just to enrich our experience of the world we inhabit.

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Joyful lesson planning

Want a lesson plan that gets you through the week, covers all subjects, works for a range of ages and grades, and involves shrieking dinosaur babies living in a public park? Here’s a guide to creating a lesson plan that will give you freedom as a teacher and give your student a sense of purpose and meaning. A lofty goal, but now you’re intrigued…

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The lexicon of learning: ABCD

I’m doing an Instagram series of colouring pages from Renee Chin’s The ABC Coloring Book. I worked on these for over two years, so it was especially satisfying to get to the end of the alphabet. Each post is around a theme or concept – a meditation on details.

  • “A” is for “ambivalence” and “alacrity”
  • “B” is for Borodin (Alexander Borodin, a 19th Century Russian composer)
  • “C” is for “cartography”
  • “D” is for “dessert” and “desert” and “deserve”
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The Fig List II (sans postscript)

We’re back with another edition! This week, I recommend two ways to seize power, leading the revolution against tedium and underwhelming plot lines. But only if you are 13-18 (for the first item) or 4-10 (for the second item). For those individuals unfortunate enough to be 11 or 12, all I can offer as consolation is that time will trample these barren years underfoot and you’ll eventually be old enough for one of these undertakings.

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BerryFig Calendar (I’m trying out the name)

Full set of decorative calendar inserts
Full calendar view
This isn’t even all of it. I decorated the back as well! But you’ll have to wait for a future post to see that.

Remember the plan?

A few months ago, I made a solemn promise. In a post about how to create a circular, tentacled calendar for teaching purposes, I promised that I would write about one I made for myself. Better a few months late than never, right? So here it is.

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