The Baobab tree Montessori printables I received a few days ago reminded me of one special day…

A couple of years ago, when I lived in Nigeria for a while, I remember a conversation I had with my Pastor Rev. Dele Salahu while he was driving us to church one morning for the Women’s IWPC monthly meeting at Trem Head Quaters. I was struck by his vast knowledge of the trees and plants around us as we drove past them on the Agege Express way in Lagos and I mentioned to him, that we could really use his knowledge in the education sector and our school in particular.

There is so much work that needs to be done… I will contact Pastor and see if we can start documenting now… in the meantime let’s see if something about the Baobab tree will catch your fancy.

Apparently they are common in Africa and a few other tropical climes. They are old trees, live up to sometimes 3,000 years! They are in Nigeria as well.

Once I started searching I found out so many things about this great tree. I believe that many have been the sites of village gatherings and storytelling in the past. Unfortunately some places have taboo’s that prevent people going near them, this is in Nigeria too!

I watched a Channels news video clip a couple of days ago and I could not believe that yet another resource was waisting away for lack of knowledge and climate change.

Climate change? You may ask in surprise.

Yes climate change indeed.

Did you know that according to some sources 9 out of the 13 oldest Baobab trees have already died because of the effects of climate change?

One of the baobab trees interesting facts is that it stores a lot of water during the rainy season and fruits during the dry season. Now if an area is affected by climate change adversly and this includes no rain, the tree dries out whithers and dies. A lot of this has been happening lately.

The baobab tree seems to me something we need to learn about, teach our children about and hopefully create lasting awareness about. There are too many resources going to waste in our land and the baobab tree is unfortunately one of them.

There are quite a number of books that can lead our children to the right questions and research topics.

Under the Baobab Tree by Julie Stiegemeyer – it tells the tale of Moyo and Japera as travel to the next village and a special gathering…

The Baobab Tree is also featured in the The Little Prince which has an adapted movie (2015)

We have so much to give in Africa… yet it seems others are telling our stories.

This will be the topic for discussion on our WhatsApp group on Saturday. I hope to have at least prepared my 3 Part cards on The Baobab Tree by then. Wish me luck.

Rev. Salahu, Sir, I will be reminding you of this day. Please we need you to help us on this journey not to loose all we could know and learn from your wealth or knowledge, Baobab trees and much more besides…

New 5 Part Montessori Cards Now Available on The Baobab Tree