The Gardening Principles

We can use “the gardening principles” to help our children understand many abstract concepts.  I often refer to specific aspects of gardening as I talk to my children (or they talk to me) about important life questions or dilemmas.
Examples:

• When someone complains about the hard work necessary to learn a new skill, I’ll remind them about how you have to weed and nurture the baby plants in the garden before you will be able to eat the watermelon that will grow from them.
• If someone is struggling with how to be nice to a friend, or says, “it’s not worth it” to try to get along with a certain person, we can talk about how every seed needs to be nurtured, and if nurtured, it will grow.
• A child says, “it won’t matter if I watch the movie,” and so I might remind him of how important it is to choose the seeds that we really want to grow in our garden.  If I plant “violent is okay” seeds, what will grow in my mind, and hence what will I think about?

There are so many ways to use the Gardening Principles with children, as you help them interpret and make sense of life’s experiences.  Children need parents who can help them see meaning in their experiences, and who can help them learn how to learn that it isn’t always about what we want “in the moment” (another gardening lesson).

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