By Kristie Thorson, Communications SpecialistThere is much more ‘being planted’ in this backyard then simple seeds and seedlings.聽 These Minnesota children, along with their family child care provider, are also developing a perennial love of gardening, and with that, a desire to always eat their veggies!
Taking turns watering the garden is a favorite activity.
It鈥檚 all part of 澳门六合彩图库鈥檚 Early Sprouts program 鈥 a hands-on curriculum which teaches children about healthy eating and guides family child care providers through planting, gathering and serving nutritious foods in their programs.鈥淓arly Sprouts is focused on giving providers experience and knowledge around adding a garden to their program,鈥 said Rochelle Mateffy, an early childhood coach at 澳门六合彩图库.Thanks to the generous support of the Cargill, 澳门六合彩图库 is able to offer the Early Sprouts program to providers in the Twin Cities area at no cost.聽 Family child care providers attend training classes and then they work with an Early Childhood Coach from 澳门六合彩图库 to incorporate a garden into their family child care setting.聽 This past planting season, twelve child care providers participated in the program.聽 There were four from St. Paul, four from Minneapolis, one from Brooklyn Center and one from Brooklyn Park.The children participate in the full garden experience from planting to harvesting.鈥淔or the kids, the focus of this program is to give them the garden to table experience,鈥 said Mateffy. 鈥淭o teach them where their food comes from and also give them an opportunity to try these vegetables.鈥
Family child care provider, Wendy Prokosch, harvests green beans with one of the kids.
Family child care provider, Wendy Prokosch, owns and operates Lil鈥 Pro Family Child Care, a four-star Parent Aware rated program in Brooklyn Park.鈥淚 have a lot of picky eaters and I was hoping Early Sprouts would give them more exposure and because of the ownership in the process that they鈥檇 actually experiment a little bit more,鈥 said Prokosch.聽 鈥淎nd it worked!聽 They are trying things that they normally would not even try.鈥To see the Early Sprouts program in action, check out this video from Lil鈥 Pro Family Child Care.
By Kristie Thorson, Communications SpecialistThere is much more ‘being planted’ in this backyard then simple seeds and seedlings.聽 These Minnesota children, along with their family child care provider, are also developing a perennial love of gardening, and with that, a desire to always eat their veggies!
