Comments on: Gardening with children http://blog.parentwellbeing.com.au/2008/09/08/gardening-with-children/ Helping parents achieve a better quality of life Sat, 31 Jul 2010 12:31:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Doug Green http://blog.parentwellbeing.com.au/2008/09/08/gardening-with-children/#comment-3282 Doug Green Mon, 08 Sep 2008 11:42:58 +0000 http://blog.parentwellbeing.com.au/?p=124#comment-3282 One of the most important things to remember is that the attention span of small children can be fairly short and there's nothing to be gained by forcing them to work or be in the garden longer than they want to be. If you can't make what they're doing into a game - then you're going to lose them. And doing it with you is the main attraction here so don't count on doing much real gardening but do count on spending some time with the kids instead (you're just doing it in the garden instead of the house). This small change in attitude on our part - treating it as a participatory game rather than "gardening" makes a huge difference. One of the most important things to remember is that the attention span of small children can be fairly short and there’s nothing to be gained by forcing them to work or be in the garden longer than they want to be. If you can’t make what they’re doing into a game - then you’re going to lose them. And doing it with you is the main attraction here so don’t count on doing much real gardening but do count on spending some time with the kids instead (you’re just doing it in the garden instead of the house).

This small change in attitude on our part - treating it as a participatory game rather than “gardening” makes a huge difference.

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