Ages 4–10 · Read together
Nia discovers that a garden cannot be hurried.
Nia plants a bean with Grandpa. Each morning she looks at the pot, but the soil seems exactly the same. “Maybe it forgot to grow,” she says. Grandpa smiles. “We can care for it without seeing everything happening underneath.” Nia has two ideas.
Nia plants a bean with Grandpa. Each morning she looks at the pot, but the soil seems exactly the same. “Maybe it forgot to grow,” she says. Grandpa smiles. “We can care for it without seeing everything happening underneath.” Nia has two ideas.
Nia draws the pot and writes the date. Grandpa checks the soil before watering. A few days later, a curved green shoot appears. Nia measures it with a strip of paper. Her notebook becomes a little story of changes, including the days when nothing seemed to happen.
Grandpa shows Nia a picture of roots growing below the soil. They put a second bean beside a damp paper towel in a clear jar to observe it, without soaking it. Nia notices a root first. “So growing can begin where we cannot see!” she says.
