It turns out that gardening lessons may help kids develop maturity. There are a bunch of activities out there for children to take part in. There are social clubs and camps to join, there are sports and other activities that they can take part in. All of these have benefits to their mental health and wellbeing, but there are also some that fly under the radar and that parents don’t always think of when it comes to activities to get their children involved in. Gardening may be one of them, and there are advocates out there who want more children to get involved.
According to Express and Flipboard, one expert is speaking out on how gardening lessons would help children grow and mature. There have already been studies that have shown that gardening can have a positive impact on a child’s mental health, but structured lessons may be even better.
Carol Klein is a TV star, but she is also calling on the UK government to help place gardening into the school curriculums for children and youth. She stated that it would help the education of the senior school pupils, and it would improve their mental health.
She also stated that she used to teach at a school in London, about 40 years ago, and it was on the curriculum back then, but it is no longer there. Carol also stated that the world is just starting to learn about the importance of gardening, and this is especially true for children. She stated that it is also helping them get off their screens and get back outside.
The pandemic has forced a lot of youth onto their devices and tablets, and getting children interested and empowered to garden is one way to get them back outside.
She used the example of watching a child plant a seed and see it become something else. There is something calming in that, and there are a lot of things to learn.
Gardening has a calming effect on a person, which can only benefit children, possibly those with special needs even more. It is too early to tell if the government will place gardening back in the curriculum in the UK, or if it will travel west to the US, but it is definitely something interesting for parents and educators to keep in mind when thinking of what they want their children to learn in school.