Learning Through Exploring
Allison McDaniel

Children love to explore!

Take any child and announce that you are going to show them something new and watch their eyes light up and their imaginations run wild with excitement.

Learning is a very natural thing for young minds as they are like hungry caverns waiting to be filled with new ideas and information. It is no wonder that the most successful language immersion programs for teaching a second language are those where children are just at the point of beginning to speak.

For this reason, we are focusing a lot of attention on teaching children at a young age; before they develop unhealthy eating and lifestyle habits, what they will need to know in order to live “good” and healthy lives.

Since a lot of what we are doing in this issue is focused on what we eat, following are just a few tips to try at home in order to help your children learn about “good” and healthy eating; and it begins in the garden.

  1. Plant a small vegetable garden at home. If you live in an apartment, use pots to plant things like cherry tomatoes and try a window box to plant lettuce.
  2. Laminate a colorful picture of the vegetables you are planting in order to give the child a visual of what the vegetable will look like once it grows and is ready to eat. Attach the picture to a stake and use as a garden marker.
  3. Keep the garden simple by planting just a few types of vegetables to get started. If you are planting a family garden, section off an area that will be your child’s special garden and allow them to help tend it. Make a schedule for watering, feeding and weeding and use it to care for the garden.
  4. Allow your child to make a salad using the ingredients you planted in the vegetable garden and serve it as a part of the meal. Explain as you go along that this will be the end result of what they can expect once the vegetables grow.
  5. Visit the library and check out a “child-friendly” book on different types of vegetables that can be grown in the garden. (We are working on a section of Growing Good that will include pictures and definitions of all kinds of “good” things to eat so look for it in a future edition of the magazine.)
  6. Plan a trip to your local farmer’s market and explore with your child the many varieties of vegetables and herbs that are available. If you are not well-versed in any of them, ask the person who is selling the vegetables to take a moment to explain what they are and suggest how you might cook with them at home. Most will be thrilled to help as you are educating future customers.
  7. Never express your dislike of a certain food to your child. Instead, allow them to develop their own likes and dislikes as they are totally different from you.
  8. Make it a rule that all meals must include fresh vegetables and fruits. There are ideas for creating interest in eating them in the “eating” section of this issue.
  9. Take a trip to the grocery store and read labels on various foods, explaining the ingredients as you go along. This will probably wind up being an education for you as well. And remember, if you cannot pronounce the word, it is perhaps not a good thing to eat so choose something different.
  10. Have fun as you explore. This is not a time to force the issue of good eating. Trust me, it will happen on its own. Ask questions and listen to the answers that come from your child. You will be amazed at what they already know.

And remember, you are the best example your child has of “good” living, so make your example an example of what you eventually want them to be. Until next time...