A Valuable Lesson

About every other day, my 4-year-old daughter brings home something from school that represents the fruits of her labor. I’m always interested to see what she is working on and learning about in the classroom and outside of it. It’s cool to see the book she’s made, the picture she drew, or any of the other clever items she helped make that were designed to nourish her creativity and expand her growth in knowledge. The other day, I was quite pleased to see her bring home a little squash plant. The tiny seedling, which was barely peeking out over the plastic cup in which it was placed, was none the worse for wear after digging it out from the bottom of her back pack. While there are many effective learning tools available, there’s nothing like a living, tangible object to drive home a point. And what a fine lesson this could be in not only how plants grow, but also where food really comes from.

Often, the hard work that goes into growing, packing, and shipping foods that feed the world is taken for granted. While the local supermarket is quite a sight for a wide-eyed child, us adults know the food that fills the shelves doesn’t just magically appear. Given that fact, it doesn’t hurt to teach and/or remind our future generations how food truly gets from the plot to the plate.

The other day, when I went to visit my daughter’s elementary school for a scheduled function, I stumbled upon a nice surprise as I was walking through the campus. Two decent-sized edible garden areas were focal points around the courtyard. There was a good variety of attractive veggies and herbs in different stages of growth and development: how very symbolic of the dynamic that makes up every school community. Kudos to the teachers and school administrators in sharing this concept with our kids. Talk about feeding young minds.

High marks for this elementary school veggie garden.

In a little more than a week’s time, my daughter and I have since transplanted her seedling into a bigger pot to let it stretch its roots. So far, the daily routine of morning sun, mid-day heat/humidity, and afternoon/early evening rain has done the little squash plant some good. It has gotten taller and produced four more leaves and counting. I’m really looking forward to watching the continued growth in this little plant and in my little girl, of course.