A Sprinkle of Ordinary Magic
All children should learn how to grow their own food.
If that sounds radical to you, consider how impactful it could be to a community if every child knew how to grow just one life-sustaining thing that could thrive or adapt to our environment. Children with complex needs should especially learn, as they live in a world that does not adapt to them. It is up to us as mothers and as a community to ensure these children have the skills they need to be self-sufficient.
It is also up to us to consider that children with complex need’s capacity to learn life (sustaining) skills is ordinary magic. It is a capacity that all humans have to adapt to their environment and to become resilient in the face of adversity. All of us have that, how beautiful and ordinary is that? That we are more alike than different, that even our differences in experiences and development make us more human.
At Emlen Elementary School, Black Girls With Green Thumbs supports the Autism Support Class. We are teaching students to make connections between plant life cycles, where food comes from, how to start their own seedlings, and then plantain their own mini gardens. This garden differs from the sensory garden we built with Green Tree School and Services. The sensory garden provides students with autism and emotional support needs respite within their daily routine (as well as the teachers!).
Black Girls With Green Thumbs are equipping children with the skills they need to thrive.
