I was asked recently to write an article for a friend starting up a website about children. I started thinking a lot about children and gardening. What age do children begin to understand nature and how do we begin to teach them about plants and the connection to food? How can we as parents encourage the natural curiosity that our children display for all things nature. In my case, I recall that my son (now 18 months) was able to focus with his eyes on trees and flowers when he was just a tiny infant. I spent the first summer of his life trying to be outside as much as possible. When he started walking at 13 months it was just about springtime and all the flowers in the garden had emerged, thus I took the opportunity to walk around smelling everything. He waddled behind me, carefully observing and watching my every move. It was only a month or two later that he started picking the flowers himself, leaning over to smell them "like mommy" and handing them to me.
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Digging in dirt is as fun as digging in sand and another way for babies, toddlers and children of all ages to connect to the earth and for us adults to begin a dialogue about what things we can plant and how with water, care and sun we can grow food. My son eats a lot of vegetables and recently we picked green beans from the garden, along with cucumbers and baby tomatoes. Suddenly Jacob had interest from a different perspective. He would run to the back garden and point to the cucumber and want to eat it straight from the vine. He walks around to inspect the color of tomatoes and is learning that green is not as good as red. Even now, after all the raspberries have disappeared, he still walks to the canes and points up at the leaves as if he knows those little berries should be there. It is magical to see the connections in his mind that he now makes in regards to some of the foods he eats. It it this awareness at a young age that I feel helps children to understand not only the importance of where food comes from but the cycle of seasons and how change in nature reflects so many things in this world.
