Summer on a Shoestring

Gardening & the Kids

Planning activities for the children does not necessarily mean that you have to break the family budget. With rising prices, it is a good idea to rethink and to get the children to rethink how they spend their time. So, for Week One, what can they do? Exams are over, and the appetite for food increases, so let them learn and have fun from that.

You will need:

• A budget for children to do the shopping.
• A blender that your children can use.
• Small pots for planting. For a start, yoghurt cups (or similar plastic containers) can be recycled by using them as pots.
• Earth to plant the seeds in.
• A homemade chart along with colored pens and stickers.
• A balcony, a plot of land, a garden, or a large window sill.
• A map of the world.
• Patience!

Your children can learn

• To appreciate how long it takes to grow a fruit.
• To match their expectations with reality.
• To appreciate and learn about where fruit comes from.
• To respect what they eat.
• To respect the earth.
• To increase their vocabulary.
• To appreciate responsibility.
• To organize their thoughts.
• To organize their time.
• To be productive.
• To appreciate teamwork

Many fruits are eaten with their seeds, and the pips just end up in the bin. This includes the pips of apples, oranges, peaches, guava, cherries, grapes, and many other fruits. So, take the opportunity to do go the extra mile and do the following:

If you have children who are old enough, ask them what their favorite fruits are and give them a small budget to buy some each week. Yes, let them do the shopping, with your supervision of course!

Now that they have brought the shopping home, take the fruits out and see how well the children have done in terms of value for money.

Once that discussion is over, instruct them to wash the fruits before placing them in the refrigerator, but before that, let them know they are going to make their own fruit juices (see our other article " Quenching That Summer Thirst ") but they should not throw away the seeds or pips.

If the seeds come from more than one type of fruit, put them in separate containers to avoid confusion with a label on each.

To prepare the seeds of the fruits just eaten,

• Allow the seeds or pips to dry out by putting them on the window sill.

• While the seeds or pips are drying out, collect enough empty yoghurt cups that previously contained food. Wash and clean them, and then pierce the bottoms for aeration.

• Look up the word aeration!

• Take the dry containers, and fill them with potting soil.

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• When the seeds or pips are dry, put two or three seeds or pips just below the surface of the soil in each container.

• Put the containers in a cool, shaded place to allow for germination.

• Look up the word germination!

While waiting for the seeds to germinate, get the children to make a poster-size chart. They can decide what information they want to put on it; for example,

• Their expectations.

• How long they think it will take for the seeds to germinate.

• How long it actually took for the seeds to germinate.

• How long they think it will take for the seedlings to grow into plants.

• How long the seedlings actually took to grow into plants.

• How long they think it will take for the plant to bear fruits.

• How long it actually took for the plant to bear fruit.

• Where the fruit comes from.
  

Provide them with wall space where they can display their chart, after they have decorated it, of course!

Field Trip

Though it is not much of a real field trip, it will get them out of the house! Go to the local supermarket where the fruits were bought, and find out where they got the fruits from.

The next step depends on what resources are available in your area. It is research via the Internet or at a local library. The aim depends on age. It is to find out

• The regions of the world where fruits are grown.

• How long it takes for a fruit like an orange to grow.

• How long it takes for a tree to bear its fruit.

Whatever information they gather, when they return home, the information is to be added to their chart. If there is a local fruit farm near you or you are able to arrange for a trip to an orchard, it would be a treat for all the family. Depending on the arrangement at the farm, you might even be able to buy some fruits at a better price than the one at your local supermarket.

Now, it does not matter if the seeds or pips plated at home germinated or not, because it is more beneficial to the earth than it is to the rubbish bin. However, if they did germinate, the next step is to plant them into larger containers:

If you have plastic forks and spoons, they would make great gardening tools for the miniature garden.

Show the children how to ease the seedling out with a fork. Let the fork go deep enough to avoid damaging any roots.

In an already prepared larger container, make a place deep enough to host the seedlings.

Once the seedlings look as if they will fit in the space for breathing, cover the well with soil and press the soil down with your hand to make it firm.

Happy holidays!

Almighty Allah says, (Have you seen that which you sow?Is it you that cause it to grow or are We [Allah] the causers of growth?) (Al-Waqi`ah 56:63–64).

Also, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Whenever a Muslim plants a tree, he [or she] will have the reward of charity, for what is eaten out of that [tree] is charity" (Muslim 10:3764).