{"id":49812,"date":"2015-04-29T11:04:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T15:04:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nybg.org\/plant-talk\/?p=49812"},"modified":"2015-04-29T13:14:36","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T17:14:36","slug":"nurturing-the-next-generation-of-young-gardeners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/2015\/04\/learning\/nurturing-the-next-generation-of-young-gardeners\/","title":{"rendered":"Nurturing the Next Generation of Young Gardeners"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Children's<\/a>
Adena uses a watering can to water flowers in the Garden.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A flock of migrating birds fly from one end of the Ruth Rea Howell Family Garden<\/a> to the other, flapping their wings and erupting with birdcalls as they go. They\u2019re migrating from New York to Mexico and back again.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one in pink shorts, and another in a NYBG t-shirt. One in a sunhat swoops past a bed of lettuce. These \u201cbirds\u201d are actually children participating in a nature activity in the Children\u2019s Gardening Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of them, young gardener Adena Zitrin, and her mother, Debra Asher-Zitrin, have participated in the Sprouts<\/a> program, for kids ages 3 to 5, for the past two years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unlike any class we\u2019ve ever taken\u2014and we\u2019ve taken music, art, and gym classes,\u201d Debra said. \u201cThere\u2019s something very bonding that goes on between the parent and the child in CGP. It\u2019s very sweet, the working together that goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Debra\u2019s two older children also participated in Sprouts and are now Crafters<\/a>, the program for kids ages 6 to 12.<\/p>\n

\"Children's<\/a>
Sprouts participants have fun with friends during the session.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt really seemed like one of the highlights of their early childhood experiences,\u201d said Debra, who had no gardening experience prior to the Sprouts program, where a parent or guardian joins in the hands-on gardening fun.<\/p>\n

The Garden\u2019s CGP instructors teach kids to plant, tend, and harvest fresh produce, in addition to introducing ecological concepts and nature lessons\u2014like bird migration\u2014into the curriculum. The program impacts the daily lives of children who participate, Debra said, citing several examples of how their family as a whole has changed since starting to participate in the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy kids really understand how we all connect with the Earth, that it\u2019s not something separate and apart from us,\u201d Debra said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re much more aware of nutrition and the kinds of vegetables that are out there. We eat a wider variety of vegetables and have invented all these different ways to eat kale.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Children's<\/a>
A child in the Children\u2019s Garden Program Sprouts section learns about the vegetables we eat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

The family also takes advantage of their own home-gardening opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"Children's<\/a>
Adena poses with a scarecrow she helped make during her Sprouts session.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe plant flowers in our backyard,\u201d Debra said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve had some tomato plants, which I maybe would not have attempted if we hadn\u2019t gone through the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sprouts program includes other fun, age-appropriate activities to pique the interest of even the most discerning young gardener. Sing-alongs and crafts sprinkled throughout the day\u2019s activities engage kids who prefer those types of activities, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdena made a pressed-flower bookmark that she treasures and uses for her bedtime stories,\u201d Debra said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really sweet memento of the experience, and we see it every night when we read our books.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simply being outdoors can be almost therapeutic for child and parent alike. Not only is it peaceful and relaxing to connect with nature, the act of gardening is special, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually digging in the dirt and planting things and feeling something that neither my child nor I are that familiar with\u2014plant life and vegetables\u2014was a very warm and nurturing experience,\u201d Debra said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very busy world we live in, and sometimes we need to stop for a minute, hear the bids, see the butterflies fly by, and maybe dig up some worms for the garden beds.<\/p>\n

Spring sessions of the Children\u2019s Gardening Sprouts <\/em>Program start on April 29, April 30, and May 1. Summer sessions for Garden Crafters begin in July. Learn more<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On family shares their positive experience with NYBG’s Children’s Gardening Program. Summer sessions begin this week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":183,"featured_media":49832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[4133,52],"tags":[4481,742,4482],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/0415-CGP-sprouts-612x447.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ph0lU-cXq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49812"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49850,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49812\/revisions\/49850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nybg.org\/blogs\/plant-talk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}