The Children's Garden

Yesterday I visited the Children's Garden at Monument Park in Canton, Ohio. On summer mornings since May, children have come to this delightful, whimsical outdoor setting to hear stories, plant seeds, study bugs, and make flower-faeries. Contributing to the whimsy are the stunning metal scultpures created by Iron Orchid of Navarre, Ohio.

A walkway around the garden is lined with the following words:

Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, waterbugs, tadpoles, frogs, mud-turtles, elderberries, wild strawberries, acorns, chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade, waterlilies, woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet, hayfields, pinecones, rocks to roll, sand, snakes, huckleberries, and hornets; any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education. -- Luther Burbank