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From Bulbs to Bonds: How a Winter Garden Project Sparked Family Connection

For those that follow – see below for a less academic version of Chapter 1 from my dissertation draft (and yes, writing is finally coming along :))

When snow blanketed rural New York and the world turned inward during the pandemic, something unexpected began blooming—curiosity, care, and conversation.

Through a 4-H Family Fun Online Project called Boots and Blooms, families received winter gardening kits delivered to their doorstep—bulbs, soil, pots, and a little surprise. What came next wasn’t just about growing plants. It was about growing relationships.

Kathy, a grandmother caring for her grandkids during remote school days, described how her grandson paraded a budding forsythia in front of his brother’s kindergarten Zoom class. “Is your brother carrying a tree?” the teacher asked. Laughter followed, and so did a spontaneous science lesson—from student to teacher.

Around dinner tables and across phone lines, conversations sprouted. Kids reached out to older relatives and neighbors with plant questions—reversing the usual flow of who teaches whom. One family marveled over daily changes in their bulbs, their eight-year-old convinced he’d discovered a bean inside a flower bud. It wasn’t, of course—but the conversation it sparked lasted days.

While some followed the online platform step-by-step, others watched videos, skipped the tech, and just dug into the dirt. No matter the path, the result was the same: moments of wonder, learning, and togetherness.

In a time of isolation, Boots and Blooms reminded us that learning doesn’t need to be complicated—and that the best growth happens when families get their hands dirty together.

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Want to bring Boots and Blooms or a similar project to your community? Let’s talk about how simple materials, thoughtful prompts, and a little dirt can help families reconnect and grow—together.   I will be presenting on this at the upcoming  Ag in the Classroom “In Full Bloom” Conference coming Aug 6-8🌱

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“In what ways can a 4-H STEM/nature experience in the elementary school classroom bridge learning environments for students, families, and teachers?”

Wicked problems, like climate change, will require the next generation to be judicious in STEM knowledge and critical thinking skills. Building a generation of responsive problem solvers implies that schools will need to increase STEM/nature opportunities leading to improved engagement and test scores. What is not explicit in this statement is the value of what is learned out of school – at home, during chores or work, in after-school programs, and in other non/informal settings. Research shows a connection between youth interests in STEM/nature and out-of-school time (OST) experiences. At the same time, the literature suggests that experiences might feel unconnected for students if there is no acknowledgment in the classroom and value placed on learning that happens outside of school and at home.

For my Ph.D. research, I will be studying the integration of OST nature experiences in formal schools for 4th-grade students. The study includes an intervention that places a 4-H STEM/nature experience in an elementary classroom in four different school districts for 10 weeks each. The interventions will include facilitated hands-on activities, local experts, kits sent home for family-centered STEM/nature play/practice opportunities, and opportunities for youth-driven conversations with family, friends, and neighbors. The intervention will end with students sharing back their reflections about their experience with the classroom, families, teachers, and administrators.

This research project employs a qualitative case study approach to consider the context of how each school district communicates with families about OST learning opportunities, perceptions about OST learning experiences, and a study of the intervention. Methods include textual analysis of current school district websites including policy and procedures, and qualitative analysis of field notes and artifacts from the 4-H STEM/nature experience. Additionally, the study will include semi-structured interviews with school administration and focus groups for youth, families, and teachers working with students.

Stay tuned here (or subscribe) for insights, observations, and considerations for moving this work forward.

 

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Dialogue Based Learning Experiences

Talking with each other is not only fundamental in building relationships but it is critical in learning.  In informal education around family-centered museums, research looks for exhibits where families linger and talk about the exhibit.  The talking is noted as an indicator for family learning (Borun et al., 1997).  In more formal learning experiences, dialogue-based education is intended to activate learning by building on pre-existing schema, add new knowledge in small bites for better cognition, give learners an opportunity to apply the ideas, and then reflect on their next steps.   In the 1980’s Dr. Jane Vella constructed dialogue education as a method of lesson planning based on the ideas of educational psychologists.  Dr. Joye Norris popularized the concept with her book From Telling to Teaching (Norris, 2003).

Dialogue-based learning theories are used as the foundation of the 4-H Family Fun Online Learning Projects because of the simplicity, and the intent to level the playing field between adults and children so that it is not an adult teaching experience but a family learning experience.  Paulo Freire wrote in The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, “The teacher is no longer merely the one who teaches, but one who is him/herself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teaches.  They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow” (Freire et al., 2014).

4-H Family Fun Online Learning Projects are intended to get you talking with one another, learning with one another, laughing about what doesn’t work (it is refreshing for youth to hear that things don’t only go wrong for them :)), and getting curious about what might work the next time around.  The instructions are “an” option…but the activities are not meant to get only one right answer.

  • Borun, M., Chambers, M. B., Dritsas, J., & Johnson, J. I. (1997). Enhancing Family Learning Through Exhibits. Curator: The Museum Journal, 40(4), 279–295.
  • Freire, P. (1993). Pedagogy of the Oppressed (M. B. Ramos, Trans.; 20th Anniversary edition). Continuum Publishing Company.
  • Norris, J. A. (2003). From Telling to Teaching: A Dialogue Approach to Adult Learning. Learning By Dialogue.
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What does REGISTERING for something do for us?

Do you ever wonder what helps motivate you to DO things?  I spend a lot of time thinking about and trying out ways to help develop staff trainings that work (you can read into that…lots of things I’ve tried never amounted to people using the training that I’ve provided LOL).  Recently, I’ve turned my attention to considering what helps youth and families try new things together.  I came across the idea of “affordances” and keep thinking more about the value of registering (or investing in) for a future experience.  What does registering “afford” us the opportunity to do?

Affordances

While the concept of affordances began with influential experimental psychologists like Donald Norman (did you ever hear of “Norman Doors” as a theory that visual perception is linked to action?).   Similarly, urban environmental education has been noted to help youth realize the affordances offered by nature and social interactions (Delia & Krasny, 2018) and STEM projects have been cited to afford youth, families, and new audiences an opportunity to connect to others, voice their ideas, and try on new experiences including leadership (Schmidt et al., 2020).  In these cases, signing up to do something meant the participants had a chance to have new experiences.

These ideas suggest that registering for an opportunity affords families the intention to do a project together, as you pledge to set aside time to work on a project with children and grandchildren, engage with each other, do something different, and share with others and the community.

I like the idea of warming up to something.  I believe registering helps us set intentions to invest time with each other.  And (as mom of three) I know sometimes it is easier to sell the “we are committed to” idea over surprising the family with a last-minute project.  I’m interested in knowing your experiences…has registering for an educational opportunity “afforded” you time with your family?