I recently had two of my grandchildren stay over. My garden, although small, is always a place of excitement and interest for the children to plant seeds and pick the harvest. With baskets in their hands, they were excited to receive instructions to gather salad veggies for dinner.
Their happy little faces revealed their success as they came running into the kitchen with a good supply of salad, excited for the next step to wash and help prepare it.
I am always looking for an opportunity to teach life lessons, and there is nothing like a hands-on experience to remember a lesson. It may take longer and be a little messier, but it is so worth it in the long run.
Lettuce, tomatoes, capsicum, cucumbers, carrots—we had it all, uniquely chopped up and put together, a few grains of soil included for nutritional value, but it was the best salad I had in a long time.
Clean-up came, and my grandson was quite amazed when he discovered 94 seeds in the two capsicums he had picked.
What a perfect lesson opportunity—he asked what would happen if he planted all 94 seeds.
I replied, “You would grow 94 capsicum plants.” His inquisitive mind churning, he then asked, “How many capsicums grow on each bush?”
“Around 10 capsicums per bush, give or take,” I replied.
A silent pause, and then it dawned on him, “WOWWWW, that’s a lot of seeds!” He laughed, eyes wide open in amazement exclaiming he couldn’t do the maths on that.
We did the maths—it turns out to be 470 seeds per plant times the original 94 seeds sown. That’s 44,180 seeds from 94 seeds from his two capsicums, plus all the seeds they then produce … countless seeds!
It was a fun lesson, equipped with a plan to give away capsicum seeds to friends and neighbours and plant them to share.
At that moment, I realised how children pick up these concepts so clearly. My grandson was so excited to share these seeds with others. I saw something in him that sparked something in me. He understood that a simple seed quickly multiples, and by sharing them with others, they can also plant them, grow them and be part of the multiplication of seed sharing.
He realised this lesson, which I’m still learning—that one little gesture can multiply so quickly. One simple gesture of sharing can impact so many people.
“When you put faith, hope and love together, you can raise positive kids in a negative world”.
– Zig Ziglar
Seeds of Hope Community 