Yeah~ That’s right the weeds lost this round. I spent about an hour weeding yesterday morning with the little man helper ‘compost boy’. He was ready & willing for the first 10 minutes then the novelty wore off…so to take his mind off the work we started singing silly songs, country songs & patriotic songs. Which lead to a few political discussions (yes, he’s 9). We/he planted 3 more rows of green beans we chatted about seeds & how precious good seeds are.
I explained the differences between GMO, heirloom & organic. Which in turn led to questions like “Why would people be dumb enough to buy junk GMO seeds!?”
Leave it to a 9 year old to not sugar coat a question!
We chatted about organic gardening, using no poisons to kill the weeds we were pulling…”poison! We want to eat this stuff why would we put poison on it”!
We talked about taking care of the soil like we do our bodies. We work & play using up energy, and need to eat good healthy food to keep our body working properly.
As we mulched the existing bean plants and newly planted rows with fresh rabbit poo,
we discussed how the plants “eat” the soils vitamins and minerals, so it’s important to feed the soil & give it snacks by adding things like the rabbit poo & compost to keep it fresh and strong like he is.
As we were finishing up & gathering our tools I was feeing pretty good about the work done. Thrilled with our conversation & all the questions he’d had knowing more than just green bean seeds were planted… till he got this look on his face…you know, the light bulb moment?
“Oh….so that’s what the compost is for~” *Palm to face* As ‘compost boy’ He understood the basic process of composting but I didn’t realize he until then he hadn’t understand what it was for!
He’d not been at the house when we used it. He thought it was just a way of getting rid of garbage!!
As we sat on the patio later taking a break, he bit in to a fresh peach and said ‘you know what’s nice about being a boy and not a plant in the garden?' My snack is healthy & doesn’t smell like rabbit poo’
Katie
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Aww, that's adorable and what a GREAT teaching moment!
ReplyDeleteHaha! Cute :D
ReplyDeleteReal life learnin'. Can't beat it. He'll remember what he learned that day for the rest of his life!
ReplyDelete