GARDENING FOR CHILDREN

If you want to keep children out of mischief give them a little garden. One that they can call their own will afford them far more pleasure than they get out of working in your garden. Of course they will not be expected to go ahead with garden work at first and make much success at it without assistance from some one, and by object-lessons, but they will soon master the fundamental points of it, and when they have done that they will surprise you by the facility with which they pick up the information that grows out of their early experience and the amount of work that they will accomplish all by themselves.

And you will be pleased to see how interested they are in the new undertaking. It will not seem like work to them. It will be play, and play of such a healthy character that you can well afford to ignore soiled clothes, and hands that have caught the grime of the soil, and faces on which sweat and soil have met on common ground and formed an intimate partnership. The healthy color of the faces of the children who work out of doors, and the excellent appetites that they bring to the table, will convince you that gardening is the best of all tonics for them.

And you will be gratified to know that they are learning more from the great book of Nature than they would ever learn in the schools. They are learning things at first hand, for Nature will take charge of the little pupils and not trust her kindergarten work to an assistant. Nine children out of ten who have a garden to work in will become more interested in it than in all the fairy-books that were ever written. For are not the processes of germination and growth going on before their eyes akin to magic? The miracle of life is being performed before them every day, and they are taking part in it. That is what will make it so delightful to them. They have formed a partnership with Nature in miracle-making.

Parents who have only a hazy notion of garden-work may think themselves incompetent to teach their children. But if they set out to do so they will soon find that they are daily learning enough to make them safe teachers for the little folks. And the best of it will be that they themselves are getting quite as much good and pleasure out of it as the children are.

Give the boys and girls good tools to work with. Never ask them to make use of those you have worn out or found worthless. Something quite as good as you would provide for yourself is what should be provided for them. They will appreciate a good thing, be very sure, and the fact that they have it will be one of the best possible incentives to work. Supply them with good seed. And do not fail to encourage them by giving all the credit justly due them for what they accomplish. Children like to know that their efforts are properly appreciated. We grownups and the children are very much alike in that respect.