Eight Things About Gardening With Your Kids, Part 1
Movement - Let Them Do the Doing
Last post, I hinted at good things to come. I mentioned that Hershey Children’s Garden was designed and built around eight educational principles that work. Those eight principles are:
- Movement
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Limited choice
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Interest enhances learning
- Avoid extrinsic rewards
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Social education is effective
- Meaningful context assists
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Adult interaction
- Evaluation
Let’s start with Movement. Many of these principles make common sense when you think about them. Kids learn through movement. The Children’s Garden offers many avenues kids can move through and explore. For example, there is nothing like walking through the woods to understand a forest’s many layers. Nothing conveys concepts like "over" and "under" more than actually acting out the words.
Kids learn by being able to manipulate their environment for themselves. By turning over rocks and watering flowers, kids learn things we adults can never teach them.
I am learning to incorporate dance and motion into how I interact with kids. Try making up a planting-a-seed dance with your children sometime.
Kids learn through play. So let them experiment, dig in, and mess up. Let them do the doing.
Posted by Josh Steffen
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