Lesson 4: Working with Groups and Children

Working with Children 

For all of our volunteer projects, children must be supervised by their parents, teachers or guardians. Our job is managing the project, not keeping up with the children.

Smaller children need shorter projects and/or several different tasks with breaks in between. Have them pull weeds, plant seeds, or deadhead flowers (with blunt end safety scissors) for a few minutes.

Make sure to let their grownups know that you don’t expect children to work like older volunteers. We want children to learn & have fun. Give them places to dig in the dirt. Keep a bin of donated toys to pull out during volunteer projects. Encourage them to look for bugs or explore.

Small watering cans and kids-sized tools and gloves make projects more fun and easier for kids’ to participate. Look for end of summer sales of kids garden tools at Target or Wal Mart. Water is heavy, and small one gallon or less watering cans allow children, people with disabilities, and the elderly to participate in your projects. 

Back-to-School sales or dollar stores are great sources for blunt end safety scissors. Kids can harvest some produce with scissors, deadhead flowers, and cut flowers for bouquets with them.

Working with Groups 

Throughout the year, E.A.T. South works with many different groups including schools, churches, scouts, military, and corporate groups. When these groups have good experiences, they tend to come back year after year.

Groups can get a lot of work done very quickly. For larger groups, recruit additional leaders from your garden to help you manage the project.

Often, the most challenging part of working with large groups is keeping them busy for two hours. Remember that list of projects in your garden journal or log? Have that list handy.

Groups can also help you with projects like painting or building, if the task is appropriate to the volunteers’ age and skill level. 

Stage your project. By that, we mean set up the different work stations/locations with the tools and materials you need to get the work done before the volunteers arrive.

Only adults (and teens with a whole lot of supervision and specific parental permission)  get to use power tools on a project. You still need to train them, explain how to use tools safely, and make sure they have the items they need to stay safe (ear and eye protection, etc.).