Thursday, August 19, 2010

Gardens/Plants, and Children

Why would there be a chapter on gardens and plants in a parenting blog? Why would it be under the section on beginnings? Other than alphabetically, why would it be right after a chapter on fun and play?

As discussed in the previous chapter and associated supplemental material, children learn through play…through exploration and discovery. The simple truth is, there is an enormous amount of important learning, fun, and growth, which can occur associated with growing an outside garden or even plants in the home.

Gardening and plants are something almost any child or any age or ability can be involved with at some level.

Self-efficacy is developed as children do and see success, which they attribute to their own thinking/actions.

Work skills and ethics are developed through; taking responsibility, learning, and doing, especially when it’s still seen as exploration and fun.

An understanding of responsibility, cause, and effect, is promoted when a child grows something s/he is later able to eat and/or enjoy.  Gardening is also a great way to teach children patience.

Natural, logical, consequences can also be learned; for example, when the child forgets to water.

Remember, some plants are poisonous, so be careful about the plants you use. The supplemental material can be helpful.

For additional information on the internet, please use the Google Parent and Google Scholar search engines below.

Supplemental Materials:
Gardening with Children - Eartheasy.com Solutions for Sustainable Living
How to Design a Children's Garden
Welcome to KidsGardening! Garden Resources, Gardening for Families, Teacher's Garden and Shopping for Gardening
A fall vegetable garden for children - planting activities that can be done in August
Five Fun Flowers for Kids Garden: Children Love Gardening with Special Kid Friendly Flower Plants
Gardening  
Planting a Garden with Children - What to Know: From Location to Types of Plants to Prepping Soil - How to Start
THE WORLD OF PLANTS-FOR CHILDREN (1 OF 3)
The World of Plants For Children 1 Videos, Watch Free The World of Plants For Children 1 Videos Online : IN.com
How to Teach Children About Plants
4-H Children's Garden: Overview Map
Even Plants Can Be Poisonous
Common Poisonous Plants and Plant Parts Aggie Horticulture
Toxic Plants - Toxic Garden Plant List By The Children's Hospital of Easten Ontario - Pioneer Thinking
Teaching children the joy of gardening
Kids Gardening and Gardens for Kids
Gardens teach children important life lessons





There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling. ~Mirabel Osler


The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses. ~Hanna Rion

In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful. ~Abram L. Urban

I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mosses from and Old Manse

Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden. ~Orson Scott Card

You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt. ~Author Unknown

I have never had so many good ideas day after day as when I worked in the garden. ~John Erskine

Plants give us oxygen for the lungs and for the soul. ~Linda Solegato

Why try to explain miracles to your kids when you can just have them plant a garden. ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder. ~Alfred Austin

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