This article talks about home gardening which is great, but school gardens can also be a way to get kids out in nature, asking questions, getting dirty, and learning.
Planting a garden can affect not only your child’s body but also their brain and soul. Source: Gardening with Kids: How It Affects Your Child’s Brain, Body and Soul via Gardening with Kids: How It Affects Your Child’s Brain, Body and Soul — The School Garden Doctor
Tag Archives: kids gardening
Edible Schoolyard Concept in Brazil
Enjoy this lovely little article on how school gardens change kids’ opinions on eating vegetables in Brazil from Public Radio International. It seems to be universal that children who grow vegetables, eat vegetables. Let’s make this happen at every school, whether it’s a whole schoolyard garden or some containers around the buildings. This is so do-able and is one of those things has a multitude of positive outcomes far beyond the effort that goes into it.
Kids’ Ideas on Food and Bolivia’s Law
My sons planted our veggie garden last week on Earth Day. They enjoyed every dirty minute of it which was beautiful to see.
Then this weekend I had an experience which showed me just how confused kids can be on food and where it comes from. I was putting an ice tray with fresh water back in the freezer when my youngest came over for some ice. I told him to get a different tray because the one I had in my hands was just water and needed to freeze. His face brightened with amazement as he said, “Oh! That’s great! You can make your own ice!” I asked him where he had thought the ice in our trays came from and he said, “I thought you bought them.” Aha.
In other news, and it turns out this is old news from 2010 but I just now heard about it; Bolivia passed a law ensuring the Earth has rights, and declaring it a living system. Brilliant, right?! It seems like a no-brainer and yet it is considered the first such law. The law also states that the earth is of ‘public interest’ and has individual rights as a living system which are to be defended by human representatives. Congratulations to Bolivia for their bold and forward-thinking move. I do hope other countries are following their example.
February Garden Planning
It seems like everyone is ready to start thinking about Springtime! Here’s a great way to spend some cold hours while February works it’s thawing magic at least in some parts of the country. Here in the Pacific Northwest February is when crocuses start popping their uninvited but much appreciated heads up from their deep sleep. This is always the first sign up life in my yard, and I treasure each perfect purple blossom. Check out the Edible Schoolyard’s Edible Education 101 lecture series. There are different lectures each week so you can choose which interest you. I’m looking forward to sharing bits and pieces of Michael Pollan’s video which can be accessed still on their website.
School Garden Helpers
Since I’m working at starting an edible garden at my sons’ school, I’ve been doing some research and have unearthed some fabulous finds to share. One great find: there is an organization called Farmer Frog that will help with any aspect of the process. This is so needed and I’m so impressed there are people dedicating their lives to making school gardens possible. Take a look around their website to see all that they do and why. A good place to start is their Goals page. I’ve also contacted several local schools with gardens to inquire about their process and ask advice and what has become exceedingly clear is that these people are dedicated! I got long emails back, answering every question I asked and many I hadn’t thought to ask. If anyone out there is thinking they would love their school to have a garden but don’t know where to begin, I highly recommend reaching out to nearby schools because they can tell you what grows best, what the county/city can possibly provide, what local organizations are out there that can help, plus a whole lot more. That is how I found Farmer Frog. One of the garden coordinators linked them into our email conversation because they are a part of their school garden story. You can find schools near you by going to The Edible Schoolyard Project’s website and looking around your zip code. January is the perfect time to be planning for spring…inside. On a computer. Brr.
Fed Up, The Movie
My sons and I watched Fed Up together and we will never look at food the same way again. I highly recommend it, especially for showing kids who are inundated these days with advertisements for processed food all day, every day. After the movie ended my youngest worriedly said, “Don’t get any ideas…” because he knew exactly what I’d do~ start reading every label for sugar. The amount I found on labels was staggering despite the fact I have long been a thoughtful, label-reading shopper and only buy from natural foods stores. It’s seems like such a battle to maintain a healthy lifestyle sometimes, especially for our children. I do think the movie missed the opportunity to highlight the comparison between current human activity levels with the past and even downplayed the role of activity and exercise too much, but their emphasis was on the food industry and they made that point well. Once again a school garden would be a great way to get kids involved with real food, to understand the difference between fresh and processed, and to try different things than they might try at home. Plus being outside, moving around, working in nature cannot be over-emphasized. These kids are growing up in a digital world and we need to actively get them out in the real world, eating real food, and understanding what it takes to have healthy bodies and a healthy environment. It’s all connected.
Gardens for Humanity
Relatives of mine just introduced me to this amazing project in which they are both involved called Gardens for Humanity. It is in Sedona, AZ, so if you are near there you should check it out because there are incredible ways to get involved, and if you aren’t near Sedona you should still check out what they are doing because it is inspiring. I am especially impressed with the way they incorporate local professional artists in their garden programs who work with students to do art inspired by the natural world. This paragraph from their website says it so well:
“This program is central to our mission and serves as a model for how we develop other educational programs tied to school gardens. We provide activities that connect children to the environment, to develop awareness of where food comes from, and to give children the tools to make healthier choices for themselves and the environment. Art, as the means of environmental and garden education, helps students develop greater self-expression, creativity, experimentation, problem solving, in addition to enhancing their emotional relationship, appreciation and sense of responsibility towards the natural world.” (From Gardens for Humanity’s website on the Celebrating the Art in Earth page.)
Imagine every student being exposed to this kind of thinking, acting, creating, and honoring~
Kids CAN get dirty
I’ve been thinking about STEM lately, and it’s all well and good to embrace modern life and the technology needs it entails, but I resent it taking over so much of our children’s education. In response to STEM, I’m actively encouraging my kids to be CAN-do students~ Creativity, Activity, and Nature. We aren’t going to get far without creative thinking, including art and all artistic pursuits, and our kids desperately need to actively move their bodies~ that’s an obvious one for many reasons but one that maybe not everyone knows is that the mind and body are intricately linked. Moods, emotions, thought processes, ability to focus, and more are all linked to the physical body and movement, not to mention health, coordination, bodily awareness, etc. And Nature, which one would think STEM would cover but more and more Science seems to be the world of laboratories, computers, and robotics. Call me old-fashioned but I like to see my kids with dirt under their fingernails.
Guerilla Gardening
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