You want to pass on to children your joy in the natural
world...
You like company in your garden...
You dream of an apprentice, a helper, one who will carry on...
Then you need to know:
What's outdoors that interests, amuses and helps kids
grow?
In this department we hear from young
reporters about what they see, do and think about the great
outdoors. These perspectives are just plain enjoyable but also
useful for anyone hoping to see young relatives and friends take up
the hoe.
For instance, we gardeners need to keep in mind that kids are
somewhat removed from food production, and have to learn from you
the most basic points:
Apples, mmm. I'll have one right now!
One late winter day we were in our front room working with
several of our young reporters, when the subject turned to the
branch suspended across our ceiling -- our current Holiday
Branch.
"Is that a real tree?" Asked one.
"Yes," we explained, "it's a branch from our apple tree."
"You have an apple tree?! Oh, I would like some apples!"
We were at first taken aback by this statement, as it came from
a youngster who has run all around in our yard, even swung from
that tree's branches. Wasn't it clear that there were no apples to
be had, at present?
Then we realized how remiss we've been: We had not introduced
the kids to the various trees. They don't know which is an apple
tree, which a beech. We hadn't explained the ways of trees,
either, so they don't know that an apple tree doesn't have any
fruit on it during winter. Given the year-round availability of
apples at the grocery store t's perfectly logical for a child to
assume that an apple tree has fruit on it all the time.
All stories
welcome!
We've enlisted children we know but all children may submit
contributions. Send them by email to Kids@GardenAtoZ.com.
Our regular reporters:
Ellie
Lily
Cody
Deity
D'lacia
D'licia
Rany'ah
Ryan
Sarah
Dakarione
Deity is in first grade in
Waterford, Michigan. She has been visiting our garden for four
years. The Kid's Views Department got its start in the
note and drawing she left us in May, 2012, and our delight in
seeing the cubby she and her dad had created in our garden while we
were away that day. What fun to see through their eyes, and to feel
through their work the discovery of such things as poke berries for
"ink!"
Cody,
17, appeared in our garden when he was 9 and immediately began
contributing insights and a helping hand. We wish we had thought to
record more of what he's told us all these years! We still and
always look forward to all he has to say.
Lily has been helping --and we
mean helping -- at our Detroit Zoo Adopt-a-Garden for more than
half of her 6 years. We have never happened to have a recorder to
capture the gems she's shared with us thus far, so we're very happy
to have her help to capture them from now on.
Ellie, 7, takes a notebook and
pencil to family parties to record and report event highlights. We
were so impressed with her observational skills and insights that
we enlisted her to train that bright light on the natural world and
share her thoughts.
