Little Green Thumbs
More and more families are taking the home gardening plunge. Whether your motivation is economic or environmental, it’d be a missed opportunity if your kids miss out on all the excitement. Regardless of the time of year, try to get children involved in every step of the process, as much as possible.
By talking about things like climate, soil quality, growing seasons and crop heartiness, you can involve the kids in deciding what to plant and when. Including them in the actual process of planting – indoors or out – is a great way to teach responsibility, while providing some all-too-rare family binding time. Even exposure to the disappointing aspects of growing, such as droughts, floods and critters can be a good lesson in resilience. And then of course, there’s the payoff. Financially, you and your family can save money by growing yourself. It’s never too early to teach that lesson. And if you don’t use chemicals in your garden, your kids can sample the efforts of their hard work right off the vine. Imagine the pride and warm glow they’ll experience, when they get a chance to share food they’ve grown with neighbors, family and friends.