I remember looking forward to spring in school when we planted bean seeds, tulip bulbs and sunflower seeds. Then I brought them home to plant. And of course, strawberry season came and we ate as many as we picked and packed into the quart boxes.
One of my biggest memories, though, was when my mom would yell out the window to my dad to not let us eat all the green beans we picked because she needed them for dinner. She eventually stopped yelling-we were eating a vegetable. Who yells at a kid to stop eating his or her green vegetables?
Peach and apple picking, carving pumpkins, eventually learning to cook and can the food. I was in heaven and returned to heaven later when my sister had 2 kids. My nephew initially would only eat raspberries if he picked them himself off my plants (smart boy-know where your farmer and food is from!). My niece ate her first green bean off one of Grandpa's plants. She now will only eat raw green beans because "that's what you do when you grow your own, Aunt Bobo!"
My nephew, now, will supervise everything. What we need to grow, where to put it, and come on-we have to check the cuke plants. My niece is a little garden fairy from April to June, then something happens where she turns into a rabbit. Pick out the flowers, help dig, water everything-she did so well last year, she graduated to her own pots of tomatoes and beans for the deck this year. And SUCCESS!
I babysit for a boy who loves fruit but hates his veggies. But he was willing to plant green beans in his mom's planters. "Grandma likes them." He has remembered to water 3 to 4 times a week and shows them off to me all the time.
My niece, at age 3 (she's now 8), called me up, and said, " the picture on the pack says carrots, but they're growing like grass. You bought the wrong seeds-carrots are orange." I tried not to laugh, but she was right with what made sense to her. A teachable moment for sure.
It's amazing what a child will learn from science, counting and spacing, to different insects that help or not help in the garden. Bees become less scary. Running around and being allowed to be dirty becomes fun again.
Maybe that's why I still like to garden. I can become a kid again and can allow myself to be amazed at what this good earth can give us.
Resources available for those interested"
www.kidsgardening.org/
http://grants.kidsgardening.org/
http://grants.kidsgardening.org/http://assoc.garden.org/
http://www.nybg.org/edu/kids-teens/gardening-program.php
And don't forget your local library!
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