June 4-10 is National Gardening Week. With summer finally here, now is a great time to be embracing outdoor activities to connect with our children.
Why Is National Gardening Week Important?
Activities that involve quality time, community and new positive experiences are a great way to engage with children in foster care, especially during National Gardening Week. Whether we are a caregiver, volunteer or are close with a child who is in foster care, gardening is a great way to connect with our children not only to spend quality time with them, but to build a relationship and trust with them.
Starting a community garden, or even simply inviting a child to help you in your own garden, can make an impact. This provides them with new relationships, a sense of community and a project to care for and call their own. Learning a new skill or hobby can be exciting, motivating and encouraging to kids. Gardening gives them the opportunity to learn about science, nature and healthy nutrition. It’s a hands-on activity, so it will involve them physically and mentally.
As caregivers, gardening can be a way of showing our children that we not only want to provide and care for them, but we also want to spend time with them and help them grow.
Positive Activities
A positive experience goes a long way. Activities such as gardening allows them to have positive memories where they feel cared for and loved. Gardening is often a calm and quiet activity. This gives children the space to be at peace, or the room to speak if they want to and be listened to. If anything, these activities can provide a momentary peace and safety from their world and the traumas that they have experienced. The importance of activities like this are not the activity itself, but the environment we are creating for our children.
Community Garden
One way to embrace building relationships during National Gardening Week is through a community garden. Community gardens can teach children about teamwork, sharing and caring for the people around them. It can also bring new, positive influences into their lives.
Baking
The activities don’t have to stop at planning or tending a garden! This can be taken a step further by using those fruits or vegetables to cook or bake. Baking goods for the community or important caregivers and volunteers in your child’s life can help them connect with the people around them. This will build up the community that they already have too.
Biblical Application
Gardening can even be used as a Biblical teaching opportunity.
A garden is a great visual example of the way that the Lord desired to care for His people in Genesis 1 when He created the garden of Eden for them.
We can show our children that God cares for them. We can also show them that we wish to care and provide for them in the same way by following Christ’s example.
Summer is a time of fun for children and provides great opportunities to connect. National Gardening Week can be a blessing to children in foster care, too. Providing our children with peaceful and engaging activities is investing in their physical, mental and emotional well-being. But, whether you’re a foster parent or not, National Gardening Week can be a creative way to welcome a foster family or a child from foster care into your home.
