BENEFITS OF GARDENING FOR KIDS
In the news regularly we are told our environment is not in the best shape. In the fifty’s and sixties governments all across the world were in a race to stimulate their economy’s. They all did this at the expense of the environment. Remember the industrial revolution.
Take a close look at how nature is treated today. A lot of lip service is given by everyone but… we are not very good at executing.
It is a sad thing to know that people do not pay attention anymore to the environmental problems of today than they did in the sixties. Oh the new rave is about “Going Green”. Even our hosting provider for this website is touting how they buy energy credits from producers that supply wind power to the grid. I don’t know whether or not that is true but their sales message is all about going green.
Here is what we can do. It’s as simple as starting with the children. In my welcome message I tell your that I have five children and 4.5 grandsons as of this writing. On Nature’s Choice Farms.com I write about my father who was the oldest of seven children digging up our backyard in town to grow a garden. My grandfather… grew a garden.
Start em young I say. First of all young children want to emulate what the adults are doing. If Papa is working in the garden our grandchildren want to be.. in the garden. You better start them young because when they get to be teenagers they won’t want anything to do with anything related to work.
They Love to Work at this Age
Teach the children what it is you do and WHY you are doing it. Teach them about how the chemicals leach into our ground water and how to prevent it. Teach them how the organic farmers today tout not using chemicals.. but cow manure is just a harmful to our water supply as man mad chemicals applied at the wrong time of the year.
Give you child a small part of the garden they can call their own. To heck with the environment for a minute… we have stimulated that childs interest and they feel important because they have something the grown ups have. Through this interest.. and feeling of self worth they will learn about the enviroment.
With school age children they get to put into practice what they learn in science class. Children who have been exposed to a garden before they reach third or fouth grade will be prepared and have an interest in the science of a plants life. They will begin to understand at a young age how human interventions can make or break our enviroment.
First hand experience always trumps some theory taught by a teacher in a classroom. But, the two together: first hand experience and the science behind it… makes for a good steward of the land. Add into this a little fun and we have the makings of a better environment.
For example, when we are putting in food plots to feed the wildlife on the farm, our grandsons only know one thing.. they get to go hunting in the fall. They get to see first hand how we till the soil so the seed can grow. They get to see first hand.. how the deer, quail, turkeys and other wildlife grow bigger because of our efforts. It doesn’t have to be all work.
Over time our children will learn to become one with nature and learn it must be treated with care. Then when they leave the nest and become our next representative.. there will be no bills passed that will harm the environment.
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We are organic mind changing entities until were 10 or so. But as we get older…then it is really tricky to modify our minds.