POSTED BY KIM — I’ve had some very interesting conversations with my children about gardening. Most consist of me talking while they play Nintendo. Or sometimes they stare at me blankly, not even pretending
Future Gardeners of America?
to be interested. My son is 9. If it involves digging holes, he’s all for it. After he digs the hole, though, he loses interest (unless I can direct him to another hole). My daughter, 7, is mildly interested, until she sees a bee. Then the situation morphs into Code Red Crisis Meltdown. And frankly, after that, *no one* is in the mood to garden.
But every now and then, I manage to engage them, and it’s very rewarding.
This past summer, I even resorted to bribery. When I dropped them off at summer camp in the morning, we would stop at a plant on our way into the building. I would identify it, and they would use whatever tools 9-year-olds and 7-year-olds use to try to remember these things. (After the first day, I had to check my son’s hands for crib notes, the little sneak!) When I picked them up in the afternoon, we would have the i.d. quiz, and if they got a certain number of plant names right, they won a prize. A few times the prize was an ice cream cone, but I would often end up forgetting about it and so would they. I’m proud to say they’re performance on the quizzes was almost 100 percent.
I don’t think either of them will grow up to be professional gardeners — professional hole diggers, maybe! But I like that they have some insight into something that makes me so happy, even if I have to trick them into it.
1 Comment
November 13, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Excellent blog! Interesting article and very informative! I will necessarily subscribe for this blog. http://lowsalego.com/map.html