Parent Magazine St. Johns April 2019 | Page 10

to more microbes and fungi in the dirt. Letting children get outside and get in the dirt may actually make them healthier than keeping them tidy, clean and inside. 4. Gardening strengthens emotional and interpersonal skills. Children who garden learn responsibility, patience, perseverance and how to deal with disappointment if the garden doesn’t grow the way they expected. How do they collaborate with other siblings, friends, or schoolmates to get the garden work done? These are character-building skills that research shows children reap in the garden. One year, I witnessed this at a school garden when we had a drought. Watering the plants and trying to keep them healthy was an arduous task, and the students and I learned about perseverance and teamwork. 5. Gardening connects children with nature. When children garden they gain ownership in what they are cultivating. I have seen my own children grow “attached” to the plants in the containers on our patio garden. As children become more knowledgeable about all the living things in the garden, they are less likely to be afraid of touching the plants, getting soil on their hands or being near bugs. They are no longer afraid of the unknown when they become familiar with what is in the garden. 6. Gardening helps relieve stress for the whole family. A garden can be therapeutic. Your fourth grader isn’t battling traffic, raising children or feeling the demands of a pressure-ridden job, but even kids can feel stress, and the garden is good for eliminating it. In fact, a study in the Netherlands showed that after 30 minutes of gardening, subjects who had shown stress before they gardened had a “fully restored” positive mood. And if the adults in the family are feeling stressed and they garden with their children, it can help the whole family feel more harmonious. 7. Gardening teaches kids to problem-solve. “When they garden, children learn problem-solving skills,” Tovi says. “They say ‘This trellis doesn’t work very well. How can we make one that will better support this kind of plant?’” In a garden, children ask questions like “What is eating this plant?” or “Is this tree dying?” Once children become absorbed in solving the problems in a garden, they want to research to find the best answers. “They become sleuths, starting in the garden and heading into the computers,” Tovi says. 2019 Joseph A. Strasser Butterfly Festival April 27th- Saturday 10am- 4pm Handmade crafts- Live Butterfly House Animal Encounter-And more!! Donate Blood at the LifeSouth Mobile 3:30 Butterfly Release* *Weather permitting Sponsors? More info? [email protected] Tree Hill Nature Center 7152 Lone Star Rd., Jax, Fl 32211 Tree Hill appreciates the support of Joseph A. Strasser and: 904-724-4646 $5 Adults $4 Senior/Military/ Students/Teachers $3 Ages 3-17 Free members and under 3 10 | S T. J O H N S parent M A G A Z I N E