Let’s talk a bit about the ‘lull’ after the initial enthusiasm storm shall we?
small child pricking out rudbeckia
Hands up if you’ve sown ALL the seeds with your children? I think if I suggest one more bout of seed sowing to my children they might apply to divorce me. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had to dig deep and take myself back to when I was a child, thinking about what motivated me, and what I wanted most. The answer of course, is that what I wanted most in the world was to be a GROWN UP!
I wanted to do what I wanted, and wear what I wanted, and eat what I wanted and sleep when I wanted. I wanted to watch what I wanted and buy what I wanted, but more than any of that, I wanted to have what I saw as the ULTIMATE goal of being a grown-up: I wanted to be in charge of, and DO all the dull, mundane tasks that constituted adulthood. Like shopping, and hoovering, and paying bills and going to work; all these things seemed deeply inviting to my childhood eyes. I resented being made to play with toys, or draw a picture (something my mother would have given her right arm to do) and continually requested to be taught how to use the iron until she relented and I spent hour after happy hour ironing things until there was nothing crumpled left in our lives (and no, I haven’t retained my love of ironing, but I CAN iron a shirt in under a minute).
Ok, perhaps I was just an odd kid, but the principle of teaching children life skills is often forgotten as we drown in adverts for ‘ways to keep the kids entertained’ and the like. I had totally fallen victim to this way of thinking until lockdown started and the stark reality of life without my cleaning lady kicked in. I pulled out the cleaning stuff and suddenly realised that my bored kids would be absolutely capable of doing this themselves. Even my cleaning products are safe for them to use.
So we began with the bathrooms. Everyone loved cleaning and started fighting over the cloths and bottles and loo brushes, so I resolved to take the whole shebang outside.
Disclaimer: I am in NO WAY advocating leaving your children alone with any kind of garden machinery or equipment. Quite the opposite in fact: These activities require a lot more parental control and care than I am normally used to. But once they are learned, they are learned. Some of these things will need your supervision for years to come, and some can be handed over more quickly. As with everything, your parental instinct will guide you.
Mowing the lawn
There is zero reason why they can’t learn to use a mower. I would instinctively shy away from a petrol-powered mower, but if it’s electric or battery powered, it’s absolutely fine. Teach them how to get the thing going and then walk behind them.
small child mowing the lawn
Don’t be attached to perfect stripes or anything else for that matter; you are teaching a child how to use a fairly sizeable piece of machinery and that should be the only object. The real joy in this is the preparation and aftermath. So get them out onto the lawn beforehand, with a competition to remove as many non-grass things as possible - sticks, stones etc and bring them to you. Afterwards, give each child a pair of scissors and have them edge the lawn.
2. Pricking out
If you follow me on instagram you may have seen me do this with my five year old. Believe me, this is NOT something I would ever have contemplated including my children in before lock-down. It’s one of those delicious mindless activities that I actively look forward to. Sadly those times are a thing of the past now, and I figured that unless I got my children involved with the pricking out and potting on of the approximately ELEVENTY BILLION seeds we have sown together, they are all going to perish.
small person potting on
I could not have been more surprised and delighted with her competence. I showed her how to hold the seedlings by the leaf rather than the stem, and how to make a hole in the compost with her finger, and she was totally instinctive about pinching the compost in around the roots to settle each seedling into its new home. Do this. You will cry.
3. Pruning
Again, not something I would ever have wanted to include my children in before this strange state of affairs hit us, but I’ve been thrilled and joyful about my children’s enthusiasm when it comes to wielding the secs. The trick, I have found, is to teach them the rules of pruning whichever particular shrub I want cut, and then get them to tell ME where to cut. THEY look out for fat buds and decide which ones to chop above. I then hold the stem and they cut slowly and carefully where we’ve agreed. Gloves are essential with roses of course, and I would extend this, if they get bored by asking them to take some scissors and cut a posy for the house, again, telling them the ‘rules’ (show them how long you want your stems, and how to plunge everything straight in water etc).
So that’s three things, but there are SO many others…here are a few more:
Tying in: let them tell you when something needs tying in and older children can do it for you once you’ve shown them how. Younger children can tell you where to tie.
Feeding plants: Get them to fill watering cans and add liquid seaweed at the require amount, and then douse your plants with it.
Hedge trimming: older children, (under strict supervision) would adore this job.
jet-washing: if you have a jet-washer this is a really great job for a child to perfect, again, under supervision
x Laetitia