I have never been interested in gardening, nor have I liked to garden. I tried a vegetable garden many years ago, but bugs and critters gained more benefit from it than our family did. I sometimes get physically sick when I get too hot, and gardening in Kansas involves heat. My back hurts frequently, and being bent over to garden can exasperate the pain. Therefore, I simply purchase our vegetables at the grocery store.
With that background, I want to share a story with you. When one of my daughters was thirteen years old she wanted to garden. So we equipped her with gardening books and gave her a slot in her homeschool schedule to study gardening. The next summer, her dad purchased necessary equipment: seeds, fertilizer, fencing to keep the dog out, mulch, stakes, gardening gloves, and gardening tools.
With summer’s arrival, our daughter planted and started caring for her gardens. One day, I realized that while I was not a gardener, I could help her keep up with both the vegetable and flower gardens. “Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour” (Ecclesiastes 4:9). I enlisted myself, and her two younger siblings, for a half hour each morning to work with her. Together we tackled weeding, watering, and deadheading the flowers. The work went quickly, was manageable in half-hour increments in the morning before the worst of the heat set in, and gained us good fellowship time.
After making the plan to garden every morning, I dreaded the thought of spending a half hour a day in the heat, bent over in the dirt with the bugs. However, I wanted to help and encourage my daughter in her gardening skills and in the blessing her work was to our family. That desire overcame my dislike of the task. Do you know what happened in the process? I realized I could go for an early morning walk on a hot Kansas summer morning, come home, get down on my hands and knees, and pull weeds for half an hour, continuously dripping sweat, and survive! Not only did I survive, but I was happy.
I enjoyed the results of our work. I liked spending time with my children, working together. I even developed an interest in the gardening. Every day as we worked together, my daughter thanked her siblings and me for our help. She owned the gardening as her project and was grateful for others pitching in to assist her. We were blessed to give her some encouragement for her investment of time in the family gardening.
I wonder if I might, through that summer gardening experience from my past, encourage others to explore a child’s area of interest with that child. As a homeschool mom, I preferred to be my child’s teacher or learn with her than to send her to someone else for that part of her education. I didn’t know anything about gardening nor did I even like it, but I could find the resources to teach both my daughter and me about gardening. I could give her time to study gardening, plus I could learn right alongside her.
It is important to build and develop relationships with your children. That is a vital part of keeping your children’s hearts. Spending time with them in an area of their interest, learning and working together, is one perfect vehicle for doing this. We are turning our hearts to our children when we do this. “And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Not only do you gain the benefits the particular interest affords, but you make precious memories.
As a homeschooling mom, have the perfect opportunity to help and encourage your children in their practical interests. Even if it is an area you dislike, you can choose to set those feelings aside while you plunge into the endeavor with the child. While it is likely you won’t be qualified to be a teacher for every interest, you can be a learner with your child. May you be a mom who steps out of her comfort zone to join her children as they pursue their education in practical areas of interest in their lives.