After you divorce you may only have a chance to spend time with your children one or two days each week. If you are looking for meaningful activities to reconnect with your children when your time is limited think about starting a garden.
Garden is a wonderful way to share time with your children while teaching them to care for the environment. You will also be able to talk to them while you are planting and watering. Children who garden have higher self esteem, social skills, and care about the environment more than children who have never been exposed to gardening, according to many child psychologists.
After your divorce either you or your children most likely had to move to a new home. This can be unsettling, even for adults. By planting a garden you and your child are literally putting down roots. Over time you can tend a nurture plants, flowers, and vegetables while you nurture your child at the same time.
Gardening can also be a healthy activity for you and your children. Gardening burns calories as you dig, rake, water, and pull weeds. These activities require the use of muscles that may not be used in other activities. Your children may also be more likely to want to eat vegetables that have been grown in their garden.
If your child has been struggling in school after the divorce they may be able to put together science and math lessons in a different way after seeing the real life applications of these subjects while gardening. Taking care of plants and vegetables requires math to figure out watering and flowering schedules and science to learn about soil composition and climate.
This is valuable time spent with your children after a divorce. Your garden does not have to be perfect and pulling weeds may be something that you don’t spend time worrying about. The important thing is that you set a goal and work on achieving it together.