The Indiana Community Garden holds abundant learning opportunities for children.
Volunteers of the Indiana Community Garden regularly host structured, hands-on educational experiences for children. Children in youth groups of the Greystone Presbyterian Church, Horace Mann Elementary School, Indiana High School, and other groups benefit by learning valuable life lessons and skills from their experiences at the community garden. The children look forward to trying new foods that they harvested themselves.
For example, students in K-Kids of Horace Mann Elementary School visit the community garden to learn about agricultural and natural sciences: how plants grow, soil ecosystems, the whys and hows of composting, organic gardening methods, and why fresh unprocessed foods are more nutritious. They have opportunities to identify and pull weeds, plant seeds, and collect seeds. The children harvest fun crops such as pulling brightly colored carrots from the ground and beans from the vines. As part of their outdoor classroom curriculum, students are given tests on what they learned while at the Indiana Community Garden.
Through gardening activities, children:
- learn to appreciate nature
- learn to work with their hands
- learn responsibility
- build observational skills
- develop patience
- get exercise and fresh air
- experience empowerment and pride
- spend quality time with family members
- develop a taste for natural, healthful foods
A mother teaches her daughter how to plant garlic. As the garlic grows, they will tend the plants by watering and weeding them. The child will be able to see and experience the rewards of her own work. She will develop patience as the plants grow through an entire growing season before being harvested. Gardening enables children to spend quality time with family members, fortifying family ties.
Memories like these will last a lifetime and are made by spending time together in a garden.
Memories like these will last a lifetime and are made by spending time together in a garden.
The simple acts of digging and planting help strengthen both gross and fine motor skills.
Children get plenty of fresh air and exercise by doing gardening activities.
Children can learn about the concept of cause and effect by observing how garden plants repond to their efforts to
plant, water, and nurture them.
Additionally, they learn lessons about responsibility. If the plants do well, they feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. If they neglect them, the plants will do poorly, and they see the consequences of their actions. Through real-life lessons in gardening,
children learn the value of responsibility.
Here are links to websites of ideas and resources for gardening with children:
"When I was a kid, my mother used her flower
garden to teach me about distant members of
our family. As we worked in the garden, she'd
assign a flower to a relative, and tell me about
the person and how they related to the plant.
I learned all about my relatives in that garden."
Quote from a garden volunteer
The community garden is a wonderful place to strengthen intergenerational bonds such as those between a grandparent and grandchild. Located within Mack Park, it is situated a short walking distance from the park's playground, swimming pool, and skateboard park. Often, children come from these other areas of the park to visit the garden, escorted by their grandparent or other relative. Quality time is shared as both child and adult slowly meander amongst the garden beds, exploring the plantings and exchanging conversation.
Children learn about natural science by observing a garden's ecosystem;
worms live underground as they convert organic matter into fertile soil,
bees pollinate plants, and birds patrol garden spaces in search of insects.
For children, gardening is a rich sensory experience.
Gardening builds observation skills and fosters an appreciation of nature.
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