By: Olivia and her mom, Anne Marie
6-year old Olivia and her mom, Anne Marie are huge fans of Shoresh’s Kavanah Garden and have been coming to our FREE weekly drop-in for four years! Here’s why:
1. Catching Grasshoppers
Olivia loves coming to the garden and discovering all of the critters there. From composting worms to grasshoppers, snails, caterpillars, and butterflies, there is always something new and alive to connect to.
2. Making New Friends!
Whether old or new there is always someone to play with at the Kavanah Garden. Kids love to explore the garden picking up watering cans together and sharing facts about the fruits, vegetables, flowers, and insects living there.
3. The Gentle Learning Environment
Anne Marie loves coming to the garden because she knows that Olivia will learn something new every time. She loves the garden educators because they have a very gentle approach with children, yet are very knowledgeable and have a lot to share about nature.
4. Composting!
From FoodShare workshops to vermicomposting with our worms, there is a ton of information and experiential learning about how to keep food in the cycle and created your very own black gold or nutrient dense soil for the garden. In Olivia’s words, “The worms are squiggly and wiggly and I love to visit them.”
5. Amazing Festivals
From summer festivals to holidays, we love the community gatherings at the Kavanah Garden. Activities include creating delicious garden treats in the bike blender or over a fire, sing alongs with instruments, crafts, and garden activities. There is always something new at the Kavanah Festivals and many friendly faces. Olivia especially loves making bannock over a bonfire.
6. Space and Layout
The Garden has a lot of space for kids to run around when they have extra energy or to explore on the large wooden platform and here the crunch of acorn’s underfoot as fall comes around. We appreciate the freedom kids feel in this space, to dig, plant, harvest, make nature crafts or flutter with the butterflies.
- Visiting the Stream
One of our favourite parts of coming to Kavanah, from the very beginning is going to the stream to collect water in watering cans. An unexpected delight and short adventure through the wildflowers to jump on rocks, see frogs and bring back water to quench the plants thirst!
8. Connecting to Nature
The value of Kavanah Garden is immeasurable in terms of impacting a child’s mind and early experiences. Watching the garden grow and being a part of the process from the soil, to seed, to bloom, to harvest to putting the garden to bed for winter are important rituals for children to know nature and become custodians of the earth as they grow. With this vital connection to nature and our food system, we are creating a lasting relationship between nature and child to be nurtured as they grow up. Nature is a great teacher of humility and respect and getting dirty in the process is great fun! “In our fast paced world so many of us rushing from one thing to the next or glued to screens and chairs, visiting the garden is an excellent opportunity to be outside, slow down and take in the beauty of the precious moments we have with the little people in our lives. A sense of ‘everything grows at it’s own pace, at the right time with nurturing conditions’ is the essence at Kavanah, a message we can all benefit from for ourselves and for how we see and raise our children.”
9.Value of Giving
We love to support the Kavanah Garden for the subtle yet intentional value of giving as the food grown is given to those in need. Our appreciation for nature and for what we have grows along with all the plants in the garden.
10.Getting Outside
In our fast paced world so many of us rushing from one thing to the next or glued to screens and chairs, visiting the garden is an excellent opportunity to be outside, slow down and take in the beauty of the precious moments we have with the little people in our lives. A sense of ‘everything grows at it’s own pace, at the right time with nurturing conditions’ is the essence at Kavanah, a message we can all benefit from for ourselves and for how we see and raise our children.
