Marcia Passos Duffy is the author of the e-book, “Farm
Stays: Northern New England. Your Guide to an Unforgettable Farm Vacation” to order your copy visit
http://www.booklocker.com/books/2514.html Marcia is also
the publisher of the free online magazine, The Heart of New
England www.TheHeartofNewEngland.com
Make Gardening a Family Event
Show them how much you enjoy gardening. Spend time in your garden. It is especially easy to stimulate a child’s interests when they see you having fun.
Make gardening easy. Don’t expect a perfect garden. Allow your family to work at their own pace and within their attention spans and age range, especially children.
Dig it! Kids love to dig. This is a great way to teach the basics while letting them play and just have fun.
Let them play an active role in planning. Take your children to the local nursery and let them pick seeds or transplants to start their garden. Take your time and let them browse and enjoy all of the beautiful plants.
Grow a theme garden. This is a great way to let your children use their imagination and express their creativity. The sky is the limit. Some great ideas are gardens that coincide with the holidays, alphabet gardens, a garden themed in their favorite colors, a sensory garden where you can experience different smells, tastes, textures and sights, or a “Freedom Garden”.
Give children their own “kid sized” tools. They don’t have to be expensive. You can go with an old spoon and a bucket that you have around the house or you can venture down to the garden center and purchase garden tools made for children’s hands.
Give them a space to call their own. It doesn’t have to be big. This will teach them ownership and responsibility, and your children will be able to take credit for their own little space.
Get crafty! Press or dry flowers to make a beautiful arrangement, make potpourri, or make a pomander ball. Children love making things and will be amazed at the crafts and gifts that they can make from the garden.
Grow a vegetable garden. Your children will be amazed that they can grow their own food. Be sure to use organic pesticides.
Use gardening to brush up your children’s math and science skills. Let them count the seeds they are planting, or teach them how plants are living things. Not only will you capture their attention, you will be polishing their skills as you go.
Have a contest. Kids love to be rewarded. Be sure to give each child a reward; the biggest tomato, the prettiest flower, or perhaps the best tasting herbs (a little Spray-N-Grow will help!)
Don’t try to do it all! Pick a few of these tips that you know are best for your family and have fun with them. After all, gardening is meant to be fun and easy. And with a little help, something the whole family can enjoy.
Pack Your Muck Boots, Kids! Take an Unforgettable Vacation with Your Family: Visit a Farm
As you are planning your next vacation do you get sticker
shock from the cost of accommodations, airfare and meals?
Are you tired of the usual resort or theme-park destinations
where you are passively entertained (and constantly opening
your wallet)? Are you searching for a vacation that will be
relaxing for you and an unforgettable experience for the
kids? Do you want to be at a place that is real and not
manufactured?
What you need is a good old-fashioned farm vacation.
Staying at a farm – even if you just stay a weekend – is an
experience your family will never forget. If you have kids,
it is a chance for them to experience firsthand where food
comes from and even help with farm chores, such as feeding
baby lambs and collecting eggs. It a way out of the hustle
and bustle of modern life; it is a retreat that brings you
and your family back to America’s farm roots and a calmer,
simpler way of life.
Farm vacations are not new. In fact, 50 years ago city
dwellers who needed a break would call their country cousins
for a respite from urban life. However, today, with less
than 2% of the U.S. population now living on working farms,
finding a relative with a farm is unlikely for most people.
But now more than ever — with the frenetic pace of suburban
& urban life at full tilt — we all desperately need a
vacation “away from it all.”
Luckily there still many farmers who, in addition to
farming, love to play host to their urban “cousins.” These
farmers are part of an ever-growing trend of agri-tourism.
According to a recent article in the Boston Globe the farm
vacation is increasingly becoming a popular getaway among
suburban families. This trend is being fueled by a surging
interest in environmentally-conscious tourism and the
increased enthusiasm for local organic food among
suburbanites and urban dwellers – who rightly believe that
children ought to know and understand where food comes from.
What’s it like to stay on a farm?
Imagine for a moment waking to the sound of the rooster
crowing and chickens clucking. How about rolling out of bed
and collecting fresh eggs with your kids for your breakfast?
You can then stroll around the farm, go fishing, milk a cow,
sip lemonade on the rocking chair on the porch, feed a baby
lamb out of a bottle, or go for a hayride.
The pace and pressures of everyday life slip away. This is a
place you can really “let go” on vacation, participate in
some real down-to-earth activities, eat wholesome home-grown
& cooked meals, and probably have the best sleep you’ve had
in years.
Many parents who have taken a farm vacation report that it
is more relaxing than a traditional vacation (such as at a
Club Med or Disney World), plus farm vacations promote
simpler values they want to instill in their children – like
hard work and respect for nature.
A farm vacation is not only relaxing, but it is a true
bargain. The average middle income American family spends
hundreds of dollars annually in its two weeks’ pursuit of
fun and relaxation. You probably lay out even more money on
camping equipment, special vehicles, boats, motorcycles,
gasoline, motels, restaurants, camping fees, portable TVs,
movies, liquor, repair bills and more. Sometimes you need a
vacation after your vacation to recover from the stress of
spending all that money and not really having a relaxing
time.
Your farm vacation helps not only your family, but small
family farms.
Taking a farm vacation not only benefits you and your family
- but farmers as well. For farmers – the influx of guests
who are willing to pay for lodging and the “farm experience”
is becoming vital to their economic survival and preserving
the rural landscape. In fact, farms who include some kind of
“agri-tourism” (such as farm stays) are managing to stay
afloat and even thrive.
With many independent farms on the verge of extinction,
cash-strapped farmers are finding a good stream of income
hosting urban/suburban guests…who actually want to milk
their cows and gather eggs!
So this season, instead of taking your usual vacation, pack
your bags, your muck boots, and your sense of adventure and head for the nearest farm. It will be an experience you and your kids will be talking about for years to come.