healthy kids
going on beneath the surface, just out of sight,” says Catherine Koons- Hubbard, nature preschool director at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Growing nutritious vegetables like cherry tomatoes allows kids to see, touch and possibly smash a food as they get to know it, increasing the likelihood that they will eventually eat it.
Incorporate Play Spaces “Children might rather be playing than following instructions,” Koons- Hubbard counsels, but it’s easy to incorporate space for free play in the garden. Depending on a child’s imagination and which toys are used, a spot of diggable soil in the shade might morph into a dinosaur refuge, pony farm or secret place for fairies. Kids are also attracted to
THE JOY OF DIRT Gardening Connects Kids to Nature
by Barbara Pleasant C 24
hildren benefi t from a close connection with nature, and there’s no better place to learn
about plants and soil than a garden. Families don’t need lots of space, as even a small collection of potted plants holds fascination for youngsters. T e fi rst step is to understand a garden as seen by a child that may be more interested in creative play than in making things grow. Whitney Cohen, education
director at Life Lab, a nonprofi t that promotes garden-based education in Santa Cruz, California, thinks kids benefi t most from what she calls “dirt time”—spent outdoors interacting with
Central Florida
plants, animals, soil and everything else. “When a child plants a seed, tends it over time and ultimately pulls a carrot out of the soil and eats it, they begin to know down in their bones that food comes from plants; that healthy food is delicious; and that we are part of a vast and beautiful web of life,” Cohen says. T is learning process may not
match a parent’s idea of a lovely garden. “Children don’t make neat rows. T ey water leaves and fl ower petals rather than the roots. T ey accidentally step on young seedlings. Gardening with children is messy and chaotic, but there is always learning
stepping stones, which encourage hopping, stretching and even counting. Don’t be surprised if kids turn some of them into a stage or a place to stack rocks or leaves. Children love mixing soil and
water together into mud. When given a bucket of clay, soil and water, kids quickly discover they can use mud to paint, sculpt or make fantasy pies decorated with leaves, sticks or fl owers. “Playing in mud fully engages the
senses, and there are studies that show it can benefit the immune system and make us happier,” says Leigh MacDonald-Rizzo, education director at the Ithaca Children’s Garden, in New York. References include the University of Bristol, UK, University of Colorado Boulder and University of California, Los Angeles. “Mud isn’t anything, really, and
that open-ended quality lends itself to joyously creative play that helps children develop a relationship with the natural world,” she says.
Top Tools for Kids Small children notice things close to the ground, which become even more interesting when seen through a
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