Let's Get Our Children Working in the Dirt

Though it may sound overly romantic, the ground that we walk upon is really the ground of our being. When children get busy with their hands in the dirt, they are connecting with the place from where all of the life around them sprang. For this reason, outdoor chores put them in touch with their immediate surroundings and also the wider world in which they live.

Yard activities can provide a welcome antidote to the abstract media that typically occupies children's free time and which bears little relation to the rest of their lives. Child psychologists often speak of the need for us to ground our children's energies. What better way than to get their hands, literally, in the ground?

These kinds of activities can be pursued during any season, with the possible exception of winter. In the fall, for example, we could prepare a plot in the yard for next spring's vegetable or flower garden planting. If you have an unused strip - maybe a narrow tract alongside the house - that's unattractive and generally avoided, maybe it's time to strip it of all those weeds and yellow grasses. Get the kids to grab a spade, shovel or push tiller and get down to that soil beneath all the jaded turf. Not only will this be much better exercise for them than sitting in front of the TV, the feel and smell of the earth will also give them a meaningful connection with nature without their having to leave the back yard. If this kind of chore is too physical for the younger ones, we can churn up the soil ourselves and then let them pick through it to remove the weeds, grass tufts and debris.

Spring and summer will afford us many more opportunities for hands-on work on our budding project. Flower can be planted from seeds or pots. Our clearing can be pruned and weeded again. The kids can help us to lay down mulch like wood chips, straw, or shredded leaves around the stalks to help prevent more weeds from growing.

Other simple activities that can promote a sense of cooperation with the natural world include watering and feeding plants, raking leaves, growing container flowers, fruits and vegetables, composting, and mixing fertilizer into the ground.