A New Page

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.


- Oliver Wendell Holmes



Today was not our typical morning at the garden; it was our first day with kids. We had the first hour and a half to do some weeding and final preparations for the kids. The radishes that we planted a week ago are looking very promising.

My group member, Lilian had brought the radish seeds from before and she suggest we build rows on the other side and plant beets with the kids if we had extra time after we gave out tour of the garden. So we prepared the rows on the other side of the radish plot ands poked a quarter inch holes about an inch width apart.

Before we knew it, it was nine-thirty; time for our kids to arrive. These kids came from recess and were a little rambunctious. Once we got everyone’s attention we had the kids make a giant circle. We introduced ourselves as Eckerd College students and went over our three basic rules: don’t step on the beds, don’t run, and don’t touch any plants without our permission. Then we got into smaller groups to do our assessment. I had three kids, two girls and one boy. They were very enthusiastic about the garden and did not like the idea of doing paperwork. They each spelled their name for me to write on the assessment and then I told them they got to pick the pictures that they thought were the answers to each questions. Although they circled every answer on the entire page, I think that it made them consider how much there is to a garden and how much they will learn.

Then the fun began. I gave them a tour of the garden. They were excited to guess what plant was in each bed, and could not wait to get to the next part of the garden. Then since we had some spare time at the end, we gave each kid a beet seed to put in the holes that Lilian and I made earlier. Some kids lost their seeds, so I gave advice to cup their hand when holding the seeds.

All in all I feel that we had a good first day in the garden with the kids. I think that they enjoyed contributing to the garden (by planting a seed) and they look forward to next week. My group members and I are excited to teach the kids and learn from them as well.

Julia Melton