Spring - Time to “Cultivate Your Skills”

Start with literal meaning of “cultivation”

Cultivation = agriculture; noun

1. the planting, tending, improving, or harvesting of crops or plants
2. the preparation of ground to promote their growth
3. the act of caring for or raising plants, growing own fruits and vegetables in the backyard.

Help your child to creat a mini garden and involve him/her in:

1. preparing soil,
2. choosing carefully what to reap,
3. planting seeds and sprouts,
4. taking care of them by watering and weeding.

After experiencing an own garden the child will understand what “All the flowers of tomorrow are in the seeds of today.” means literally. With the time the symbolic implication will help the child to successes the future and maintain a balanced and happy life.

What we enjoy tomorrow is a result of how we start today.

All The Flowers of Tomorrow Are In The Seeds of Today

It’s an Indian proverb.

Meaning:

What we enjoy tomorrow is a result of how we start today, so whatever we put in now - study, work, kindness, money - will have positive results in the future.

Time:
Every seed needs time to grow, so we need to plant your hopes and dreams now, and be patient but also remain  focused. When it comes to planting seeds that invest in our children’s future the right time and the right season is now. That’s the only time we really have. We could wait until tomorrow but for some that time never comes. So, don’t procrastinate.

Choose carefully what to reap:

The fulfillment of your dreams and aspirations for our children are dependent on what we are planting now and what has been planted in the past. Do you want to reap happier child? Successful at school? With great self-esteem? Social with friends? Healthy and fit? Then you need to be active planting your seeds by helping your child to be more independent, interested in reading, being curious, opened for challenges, healthy eating and living.

If you plant sparingly you will reap sparingly:

Not every seed you plant will produce fruit so don’t be stingy when you plant. By all means be focused. Don’t be deterred if your plans don’t succeed at first. ‘Perseverance’ – an old-fashioned and underused word is key to the success. It is the metal that under-girded the great inventors, scientists, entrepreneurs and trailblazers of the past and reaped benefits that we still enjoy today.

Take care of weeds and contamination:

Don’t be deterred if your plans don’t turn out exactly how you imagined they would. We are not living in a perfect world so expect to encounter winds of adversity that blow weeds into our field. If it’s within our power to remove them then we should do so. Weeds may come in the form of bad relationships or dead-end scenarios. Weeds choke our dreams and desires and can easily prevent us from reaping a successful and fulfilling future. If it’s not within your power to keep these weeds out of our life then we should seek advice or help so that can move on. 

Water what you planted:

Whatever you have planted and set into motion you must be willing to follow through. Don’t be contented because you have started the process – you need to finish it. Continue your work happily, wisely and patiently. 

Spring is a perfect time to “cultivate” our skills through active learning... to be continued.

Sunday Family Gardening in Queens, NY

Turn digging in the dirt into a lifetime of love and respect for nature.

Gardens has been always magical, fun, and full of surprises for me, so even though now I live in an apartment with no garden I would like to offer my daughter a tiny bit of experience I had a chance to have when I was as a child.

There is a natural magnet between children and the earth, whether it's making mud or discovering a sprouting seed emerge from the earth. Gardening with children, from toddlers to adolescents, opens new windows in a world dominated by technology.

Whether you are a proficient gardener or a beginner, gardening with children is your chance to get along with the Mother Nature. Don't worry about achieving perfection. Just dig in and grow something beautiful or good to eat.

Memories last longer than one season. Adults who remember a childhood spent in a garden often recall a parent, grandparent, or neighbor who steered and encouraged them to explore the natural world.

At first children just play in the garden, nibbling vegetables and picking flowers. Incorporate planting and play, and kids become more comfortable. You can teach even the tiniest child garden etiquette, such as where to walk not to stem on a plant. Later, they learn the consequences of good care: watering, weeding and cultivating.

Both chidren and adults learn patience in the garden. We have to wait for nature to take its course.

Gardening offers great opportunities for exercise, fresh air and good food.

Children often calm down when they work in the soil.

Growing own food magnifies a young person's choice of foods, a key to good nutrition. If they have grown up on home-grown and homemade food, they can taste the difference.

Most Americans live in cities and are removed from their food sources. It's just such a healthy, therapeutic thing to teach about the living soil. To eat something you produce is a worthwhile and meaningful thing.

Gardening helps children with the language, pragmatics and social skills, teachs vocabulary, type of Flora (plants) and Fauna (animals) in your neighborhood.

Though success is relative in the world of gardening, positive experiences do help sustain interest for kids. 

• One child learns that worms are not just slimy and gross; they are garden friends. Another practices measuring his growing corn stalk. 
• A third extends garden learning at the computer. 
• A fourth pulls a carrot from the earth, brushes it off, and eats it. 

All of them have had successful experiences.

You can guide a child to have his/her own successful gardening experience, but you and they must learn from your mistakes. Celebrate wonder. The key to success and sustained interest lies within you and the little gardener with whom you plant the seeds of hope - a promise of what will come.

Quick Start:

• Try to keep kid's gardens simple and a manageable size, about 6 by 10 feet.
• Begin with a few seed or plant varieties that grow quickly.
• Give a child tasks appropriate to his/her age and skill level. Watering is favorite.

The pathway to better health and nutrition is right outside the door.

Check the links

Animals, Plants, Aquatic Life of NYS

http://www.dec.ny.gov/23.html

New York Flora Atlas

http://newyork.plantatlas.usf.edu/

History of New York Flora

http://www.newyorknature.net/Flora.html

New York Fauna

http://www.newyorknature.net/Fauna.html

My First Garden

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/firstgarden/

Gardening with Children

http://www.colostate.edu/Dept/CoopExt/4DMG/Children/children.htm

How can parents help their children improve executive function?

Menu by Basia, May 2015

Involve your child with planning important event to hone organizational and critical thinking skills.

Break down large overwhelming tasks into smaller steps.

Show example.
Ask Questions.

• When is the event?
• What time starts? 
• When ends? 
• How many hours all together?

Use calendar and agendas to improve long and short term planning and time.

• How many people are invited? Adults? Kids?
• What to offer to eat? 

Create a menu, categories, adjust prices.

Work on time management. Play!