Garden Project-At the Farm with the Kids DAY 5

Our time with the kids is drawing near to a close. We have enjoyed ourselves this summer. This, fortunately, will not be the last time that we meet up with them. We will see them again next semester while we do our senior internships.

Today at the farm, we actually fixed the raised garden beds that were broken. We made use of unused garden beds. (We or Ms. MacArthur?) If anyone does not remember what a raised garden bed is, it is 4 boards nailed together to make a square with nothing in the middle. Inside of it goes soil and whatever plant one wishes to grow. Three of the raised beds were broken. One of them was missing an entire side, so we just threw the whole thing away. Ms. McArthur rescued the other two broken garden beds and we used them today. We poured bags of soil into the gardening beds and smoothed out the natural clumps. We poured 3 bags of soil into each bed. I wonder if that is too much… Once again, I worked with my little partner- the same partner that I worked with when we started working with the gardening beds.  At one point, her little brother was involved, but in a few minutes, he just watched.

So my little partner and I made rows to plant the seeds in, as we were directed by my instructor. We planted squash seeds, while others planted okra, and yet more others planted greens. We closed up the rows, watered the beds, and moved on. We had an opportunity to see the growth of the sunflowers seeds that planted during DAY 2.

To see the beginning stages of something, and then how it develops and progresses has always been fascinating to me. At first the sunflower seeds were tiny seeds. People would even eat them without realizing their potential beauty. When the tiny seeds were placed in the right environment- in 4 rows in the gardening beds and had frequent watering, the sunflowers are in a right atmosphere to change and to grow. This is also true for the children as well. Each child is born as a seed. As he grows, he becomes a seedling. As he grows even more, he becomes an even bigger seedling. When he is exposed to the correct environment- one that is conducive to growth, he can’t help but sprout up.

I pray this happens to all of those in our program. I hope that they are seen as seeds that need water and a conducive environment in which to work. If they keep getting fed water- which is healthy, refreshing, and brings about their growth, only good can come from it.

This next time that we come to the farm, I expect to have a good time. We will thoroughly enjoy ourselves.

Garden Project- At the Farm with the Kids DAY 4

Today marks day 4 of working on the farm! As sad as it is, we are nearing our endpoint for the semester. This summer semester is an 8 week program and we are on our 5^th week. For those of you who have joined me, I’ll enlighten you a bit. Tuskegee University facilitates a community garden on campus for local kids. Each week the children come up to Tuskegee University and work in their garden under the supervision of Tuskegee’s social work interns and their field director (aka internship teacher).

Do you wonder why a group of children comes up to Tuskegee University each week to pick weeds and grow strawberries? Well, it has been empirically proven that community gardens work as a determent of maladaptive behavior in children and young adults. Children are far less likely to be involved in negative and harmful activities when they participate in community projects such as this one.

So today marks the 4^th week of working with the kids. It’s a bittersweet moment. We have seemingly a lot of time left, but also not that much time at all. We will soon start telling the kids that the program will end soon and that there will be one next semester. To be honest, I feel as though we have not done much. I believe, however, that we have. We have made a positive influence in these children’s lives and have possibly sown seeds into their lives that they will never forget. I know many of the children by name and have spent time with a few of them. I have learned that I enjoy their company and that they enjoy ours.

But anyway, I’m skipping ahead. Let’s talk about what we did today. Today we planned a coloring and writing activity that we will most likely use next Wednesday. We walked down to the raised flowerbeds and saw that the sunflowers had grown even more! They were beautiful! The box that my little partner and I did looked amazing, as well as everyone else’s.  Last week we had little seedlings, while this week, we have even bigger seedlings!

Here are some pictures of our sunflowers and the watering experience that we had (these aren't the ones that my little partner and I planted. We watered them a bit hard and they bent over a bit- not very picture friendly!):

After we did that, we went up to the Veterinary computer lab and worked on computers with the kids for a moment. The usual lecturer was not there today, but the children had other assignments on which to work as well. The children who come and work with us on Wednesdays are a part of another community organization that meets every day. Each activity that the children work on or learn about, they write it in their composition notebook and make it into a huge PowerPoint at the end of the summer. Today the children each worked on their own PowerPoint presentations. After working on the presentations for about 25 minutes, the two young ladies with which I was working began to play online games. I hardly knew that there were cooking games for young girls online! Believe it or not, I’m excited to say that I learned how to make truffles and rainbow cupcakes today. This is all from a child’s interactive game online.

Today you can possibly call uneventful, but in all reality it was just the opposite. A lot went on today- the children learned, exhibited critical thinking skills and exhibited problem-solving skills. I love that the children who come to program are actually learning. I pray and believe that this will continue for the next weeks to come.