VOA健康报道2022--培养孩子对园艺的兴趣的方法

Ways to Grow a Child's Love of Gardening

From VOA Learning¹ English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

If you want your children to become ready, willing, and able gardeners, take steps early. It is not difficult, but you might need to change your thinking about children in the garden.

That is one of the many suggestions made by Jeff Lowenfels. He writes about gardening for the Associated Press. Lowenfels says that gardeners are made, not born. He suggests several ways to help turn a child into a gardener.

The first step is to get your child interested in plants. This, he says, is getting more difficult because of competition from electronics².

Taking a child to a plant store is another good place to start. There they can smell the flowers and touch other plants.

Next, let your child buy a plant. Lowenfels says he still remembers the first plant his father helped him choose when he was six years old. He says that plant, called a lantana, is where his love of plants and gardening began to grow.

Teach your children well

Children not old enough to care for a plant by themselves, need adults to teach them. This may be the best way to get children interested in gardening. Children copy adults. So, let them see how much you enjoy working with plants.

Another great way to lead young people into gardening is to have them grow plants from seeds. This is very effective when the plants are things they like to eat. Carrots are favorites of many children.

Lowenfels suggests starting with larger seeds. Handling very small seeds may frustrate³ small children. He says there are plenty of seeds big enough for little fingers to pick up and plant. He suggests marigolds, cosmos⁴, zinnias, sunflowers, corn, peas, and beans.

They are all also easy to start in containers as well as directly into the garden's soil.

Give them a job

Don't forget that children like responsibility. Find a gardening task that fits their age and is just for them.

They can fill containers with soil. You can show them how to water and how to place labels. You can also show them how to provide the right amount of light.

Small children can help in other ways. Lowenfels says his first garden job at age 5 was deadheading dandelion flowers into a container. To deadhead means to take dead flowers off a plant.

When his own children wanted to be in the garden, he gave them the job of hunting worms. Then they moved on to deadheading dandelions and pulling weeds.

Take it easy in the garden

Most important, however, is to have the proper attitude as head gardener and teacher.

Any adult teaching⁵ a child about gardening, he says, needs an easygoing, "go with the flow" attitude. If not, they could put a child off gardening forever.

Learning is about making mistakes. And with gardening that means stepping on plants and accidentally⁶ pulling things that are not weeds.

Lowenfels shares a story of his own daughter. At the time, she was 4 years old and was helping⁷ him prepare their flower garden for a flower show the next day. Unbeknownst to Lowenfels, she was following behind him and "cleaning up," which to her meant removing all the flowers. Instead of getting angry, he simply put the flowers into containers and set them near the bare plants.

"Because of a little attitude adjustment on my part," he writes, "40 years later, my daughter still loves to garden. And she is pretty good at floral arranging, too."

Words and Their Stories

garden - n. a plot of ground where herbs, fruits, flowers, or vegetables are grown

frustrate - v. to cause to feel angry or discouraged

label - v. a slip (as of paper or cloth) inscribed⁸ and affixed⁹ to something for identification¹⁰ or description

deadhead - v. to remove the faded flowers of (a plant) especially to keep a neat appearance and to promote reblooming by preventing seed production

weed - n. a plant that is not valued where it is growing and is usually of vigorous¹¹ growth especially one that tends to overgrow or choke out more desirable¹² plants

attitude - n. a mental position with regard to a fact or state

go with the flow - phrase to do what other people are doing or to agree with other people because it is the easiest thing to do

put off phrasal verb : to cause someone to lose interest

bare - adj. having nothing left over or added

1 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

2 electronics   

n.电子器件，电子学，电子技术

参考例句：

• About 45000 people worked in electronics in Scotland.苏格兰约有4.5万人在电子行业工作。
• He wants to brush up his knowledge of electronics.他想温习他的电子学知识。

3 frustrate   

v.使失望；使沮丧；使厌烦

参考例句：

• But this didn't frustrate Einstein.He was content to go as far as he could.但这并没有使爱因斯坦灰心，他对能够更深入地研究而感到满意。
• They made their preparations to frustrate the conspiracy.他们作好准备挫败这个阴谋。

4 cosmos   

n.宇宙；秩序，和谐

参考例句：

• Our world is but a small part of the cosmos.我们的世界仅仅是宇宙的一小部分而已。
• Is there any other intelligent life elsewhere in the cosmos?在宇宙的其他星球上还存在别的有智慧的生物吗？

5 teaching   

n.教学，执教，任教，讲授；(复数)教诲

参考例句：

• We all agree in adopting the new teaching method. 我们一致同意采取新的教学方法。
• He created a new system of teaching foreign languages.他创造了一种新的外语教学体系。

6 accidentally   

adv.偶然地；意外地

参考例句：

• Mary accidentally let out that her mother had telephoned.玛丽无意中说出她的母亲来过电话。
• As I turned around,I accidentally hit him in the face.我转身时不经意撞了他的脸。

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 inscribed   

v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接

参考例句：

• His name was inscribed on the trophy. 他的名字刻在奖杯上。
• The names of the dead were inscribed on the wall. 死者的名字被刻在墙上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 affixed   

adj.[医]附着的，附着的v.附加( affix的过去式和过去分词 )；粘贴；加以；盖（印章）

参考例句：

• The label should be firmly affixed to the package. 这张标签应该牢牢地贴在包裹上。
• He affixed the sign to the wall. 他将标记贴到墙上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 identification   

n.视为同一，证明同一，确认

参考例句：

• He's made a formal identification of the body.他正式确认了死者身份。
• We should have identification card on the person when we go out.我们外出时应随身携带身份证。

11 vigorous   

adj.有力的，用力的，精力充沛的

参考例句：

• The old man is still vigorous and lively.那老人依然精力充沛。
• She had a vigorous opponent.她遇到一个劲敌。

12 desirable   

adj.值得拥有的；可取的，有利的

参考例句：

• Some reasonable adjustments seem desirable.某些合理的调整似乎是可取的。
• Prolonged negotiation was not desirable.拖长了的谈判并不是大家所想要的。