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How to Place Your Transplants in the Ground

April 6, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Home and Garden

Disclosure: This post has been compensated by Monsanto Co. and the “Hey Let’s Grow Monsanto Home Garden Program”. All experiences and opinions are mine alone. #HeyLetsGrow

This week it was time to plant everything in the ground–my transplants, my seedlings, and any seeds to be planted directly into the garden.

Hey Let’s Grow sent me thirteen different packets of seeds. There were two types of tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, three types of hot peppers, bell peppers, lettuce, a type of beans, cucumbers, and spinach.

By the end of last week, I had tomato transplants, the beans and cucumbers still in seeds, and the rest in seedlings. All were ready to be placed in the garden.

How About the View from My Garden!

Which brings me to last Friday, when I was able to finish the job.

Tilling

Chuck tilled the ground for me with a tiller rented from Home Depot. We made sure not to over till, though.  It is important to not bust up all the clods of dirt.  My garden this year is about 7′ x 9′. I purposely try to keep my garden small. One plant can sometimes supply more than my family can eat.


Laying Out the Garden

Then I mapped out my garden. I decided to plant my four tomato bushes at the four corners. In between the two tomatoes at the west end I planted broccoli and some of the cauliflower. On the next row are lettuce and the rest of the cauliflower.

Frankly, the broccoli looks puny. I’m wondering if it will make it, but the cauliflower looks good.

Next row over is spinach and the bell peppers.

After that row is a row of the three varieties of hot peppers. I only had two of each variety to plant, though. My peppers were the last to germinate, and not all did.

Finally in the last row before the far eastern row, I planted seeds for cucumbers and beans. I placed the beans near the northern fence line so they would have something to climb. Jack might need a way back down someday.

Lastly, the other two tomato transplants were added to the eastern corners. There is still more room for other plants if I decide to add them later. I did hold back two transplants of each kind for later planting if needed.

Getting the Soil Content Correct

After Chuck tilled, we spread eight bags of mushroom compost and an equal amount of top soil. Then I hand tilled them together and raked them smooth. I usually use Black Cow, but we have a mushroom farm nearby, so I decided to try mushroom compost this year instead.  We knew what to add to the soil because of past years of gardening.  Remember, we let this ground take a break last year.

Making Rows

Next, I made rows, banking up little parallel hills.  Sadly, my rows aren’t straight; but I didn’t take the time to run a string line between two stakes.

Planting

All plants were spaced at least 1 foot apart. The tomato transplants were planted deep, all the way to their colydon leaves, their lowest set of leaves.

The rest, seedlings, were planted only as deep as they had been before.

Finally, the seeds were planted about a half inch deep.

Next, I put out some ant bait near one of the tomatoes. We disturbed an ant colony while planting, and they gave me a fit.

Fencing

We have a lot of problems with critters.  So, surrounding the garden is a fence made of rebar. I get this from Home Depot, and it is fencing that requires hardly any fence posts. It is actually used to reinforce concrete, but I learned a long time ago that it is rigid and will stand up like a fence with little effort. I connected the pieces with wire.

You see, most of us in our backyards are not trying to fence out cattle. We just want to deter deer and small animals. Rebar can be used to stop deer from walking into your garden, but it alone will not stop a rabbit. And that is my second possible problem.

So I purchased some bird netting and stretched it around the perimeter using the rebar as a form making sure I secured it at the bottom and top. If I later have trouble with animals coming in through the very top, such as squirrels or birds, I can stretch the bird netting up there, too. I’ll let you know how it works.

I’ll let you know how it works.  Like my rows, the fencing isn’t that straight either; but if it does the job, I’ll be happy.

So this is what the garden looks like now.

I planted on a very overcast day with rain expected overnight. I didn’t want to plant my ? seedlings and transplants on a hot sunny day, so I had been watching my weather for a week looking for the perfect day to plant.

Also, I mulched with pine straw and banked the straw around the new delicate plants, using the straw for some added shade and protection.
Stay tuned. I’ll let you know how it’s going in another couple of weeks.

Do you have any special techniques you use to plant your vegetable garden? Do you use any other type of fencing that may be easier? Please share!

When You Should Transplant Your Seedlings

March 30, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Home and Garden

Disclosure: This post has been compensated by Monsanto Co. and the “Hey Let’s Grow Monsanto Home Garden Program”. All experiences and opinions are mine alone. #HeyLetsGrow

 

It was time for transplanting this week. But when should one transplant?

Update on My Vegetable Garden

To reiterate, I planted about thirty tomato plants of two varieties in small jiffy pods a couple weeks ago, and now it is time to transplant them. These got a little leggy, due to a problem with the amount of light vs. dark that they got during the first week.

Why a Timer is Important

I cannot impress enough that a timer is essential, especially if you plan to take a short weekend trip away. While I was gone, I left a light on and best I can tell the tomatoes jumped out of the ground sometime during the weekend.

The light was a little too far above the plants; and after they sprouted, they stretched for the light, especially since it stayed on the entire weekend. Not good, as I later learned.

So I dug around my garage until I found an old timer I bought years ago. I set the timer to turn on at 8 am and turn off at midnight, giving the plants 16 hours of Grow light. They began this part of their growing journey a little leggy, but I think I can correct that when I transplant them.

Thinning the Herd

A few days ago, I snipped off all but one plant in each pod, a thinning which made for ten tomato plants. Then I waited for the ten to grow their second set of leaves.

So When Do You Transplant

So that brings me to today. This morning I noticed another set of leaves beginning to form. This is their third set. The first being the seed leaves also called colydon leaves, then the next set called the plants’ true leaves, and now another new set. This means it is time to transplant.

 

Transplanting

In the past, I collected and have quite a collection of various empty pots from when I earlier brought flowering transplants home from the store, but they needed to be sterilized. So I used the sink in my laundry room to spray Clorox on the little plastic pots, and then I rinsed them very well. This way I know that there can be no fungus or other problems for the delicate transplants.

Next, I mixed half and half of seed starter soil and potting soil. I do not use dirt from my yard.  Why add more problems to the process.  I mixed the starter soil and potting soil in a bucket.

Placing a thin layer of soil in the bottom of each small pot, I added the pod and plant being careful not to hold the plant by its stem. Its little stem is its spine, its lifeline. If you crush it, it cannot survive. Then I filled the soil all the way to the top of the pot, completely burying the stem of the tomato plant up to its first leaves.



A tomato plant will grow roots from its stem if the stem is covered in soil. Only a little of its stem and its leaves peek out from the soil. Hopefully, this solves the problem of my leggy tomato plants. I’m also careful not to hold the plant by its stem.

Fertilizer

Next, I used a water soluble fertilizer and added it to water in my laundry sink, using the package instructions. I bottom watered each of the pots, adding a little to the top to soak it.

Hardening

After waiting an hour for the plants to soak, I took the pots outside to sit on my potting bench for another hour. This last step begins the “hardening” period. This will get the plants ready for finally planting them in the ground. I made sure they got no direct sunlight, though, the first day.


After their hour outdoors, I took them back into the garage to bask under the Grow lights. I added two more lights finally using the $50 ‘Hey Let’s Grow’ gift certificate to buy more lights.

Thanks, Monsanto! Until now I already had everything I needed, but the bigger pots required more lights. All four are on the timer now.
For the rest of the week, I’ll take the pots outside to sit in the dappled shade underneath a tree lengthening the time each day. An hour at a time at first and increasing daily.

Next week we’ll place everything in the ground! I’m also hardening off the rest of the seedlings as they produce their second set of true leaves. Two varieties of my peppers, though, still have not completely sprouted.

Why You Should Start Your Vegetable Garden from Seeds

March 24, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Home and Garden

Disclosure: This post has been compensated by Monsanto Co. and the “Hey Let’s Grow Monsanto Home Garden Program”. All experiences and opinions are mine alone. #HeyLetsGrow

 

For years I’ve had less than great results when starting my garden from seeds. I’ve tried to do it under the regular lights in my kitchen. I tried it on my potting bench in the shade. And I even tried it under a tree with dappled shade.

Sometimes the seedlings get really leggy like when I tried to start them in my kitchen. On my potting bench, I forgot them; and they thirsted for water and died. So I tried starting them in the dappled shade where the irrigation took care of the water problem, but they were less than healthy. I even gave up and did several gardens from transplants.

But with transplants, you don’t get exactly what you want, and this is why you should start your vegetable garden from seed.   There is so much more variety.

Years ago I was on a quest for great tasting tomatoes, but I found that the ones I planted from transplants tasted about the same as the ones I got in my grocery store. Which is to say they tasted grainy and not sweet.

I knew better ones existed. When my daughter lived in Romania, I had fabulous tasting tomatoes there. I even thought about smuggling some seeds back to Florida. I knew that better ones were available but only from seeds.

Now, of course, the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, also known as IFAS, developed a commercial tomato that actually tastes sweet. It is called the Tasti-Lee tomato, and I buy them at Publix. You can read more about them here. … But I digress.

So it was time for me to invest in a grow light system.  It is vital to starting your garden from seeds.

This year Monsanto asked me to do a little field test for them; and subsequently, they sent me some seeds.  I wrote about it here.  In the post, I explained how I keep the deer out of my garden and how my gardening isn’t always successful.

Now, though,  I didn’t want to experiment with these Monsanto seeds, so I started researching for a detailed step-by-step guide for how to plant the seeds. I found a very good one at the website for the National Gardening Association. You can find it at this link on my Pinterest board Gardening for Grannies. If you do not have a Pinterest account you can also find it here.

My biggest problem was lighting for my seeds, and I’m cheap so I didn’t want to buy an expensive light growing system. With a little research, I discovered that I didn’t have to do so. I ended up making mine, using information found on Pinterest. You can see it here.

I used their idea and made up my own grow light system using lights I already had, the proper light bulb as explained in a pin I also found on Pinterest (you can see it here,) and existing shelving in my garage.

I arranged it, and this is how it worked for me. It cost me nothing, and it worked like a charm. I used a timer that I already had for the Christmas tree to turn the lights on each morning at 8 am and off each evening at midnight.

My tomato, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower seedlings are now getting their second leaves so I’m getting close to transplanting. My tomatoes are a little leggy, but nowhere near as bad as in the past.  Their legginess wasn’t the fault of the lamps, but my own fault.  I left to go off over the weekend, and they weren’t to the stage yet where I needed the lights.  It is amazing how fast they grow all of a sudden.  I’ll update you then.

I’ll update you when I get to the next steps.

My Garden–Not Always a Success

February 27, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Home and Garden

Disclosure: Monsanto Co. has compensated this post and the “Hey Let’s Grow Monsanto Home Garden Program”. All opinions are mine alone. #HeyLetsGrow

 

‘Hey Let’s Grow’, a home gardening program of Monsanto just sent me a box of garden goodies. Every year I have a vegetable garden, except for last year. I decided not to grow one because we were gone so much of the summer. We were out of town for almost two months.  

Still, though, a volunteer cherry tomato plant came up, and I staked it and added some fertilizer to keep it producing until almost the end of July. It would have continued, but there was no one to harvest it after we left to go on vacation. 

Every year I try to talk family members and even the housekeeper into harvesting and taking home the veggies, but no one seems to take the time.  Or they just forget.  Two years ago I got a bumper crop of okra, but when I got back I had a lot of giant tough inedible okra.  Of course, it stopped producing, too. 

Let’s See What’s in the Box

In the box from ‘Hey Let’s Grow’ there’s almost everything I need for this year. There are all kinds of seeds, a medium for planting them in, a couple of cute coffee mugs, some honey to go in my coffee, a new gardening apron, and several gardening implements. There are even markers, so I’ll know what I planted and where. I can’t wait to get started.


Another reason I did not plant last year was that my little bed needed to lie fallow for a year. I broadcast some rye and let it go. So yesterday I walked down the hill towards the lake and checked out my little plot. I pulled down the fence and started preparing it. 

Gardening is Risky

Speaking of the fence. I had to fence off several of my citrus trees and my garden down the hill.  Two years ago I planted a new grapefruit tree that was about 4 feet tall. Sometime within the next month, a deer had a run-in with that tree, because one morning I walked down there and all that was left was a stub. It looked like it had a fight with a deer, and the deer won.

All that was left of my grapefruit tree.

 

Parts of the grapefruit tree were snatched about all over the place.  I thought the tree was surely dead, but my nurseryman Uncle Ferrell suggested that I simply let it regrow. I did, and this past winter I got 9 grapefruit off of it. 

Two years ago I planted some lettuce and spinach in my little garden, and I think the deer ate all of that too.  So I learned over the years that cheap pieces of rebar can be used to make a fairly tall fence to protect whatever it is that needs protecting.  Here’s how I use it around several of the smaller citrus trees.  You can cheaply fasten it together with some wire.

Using rebar for fencing

 

And Then There are the Weeds

It has been an unusually warm winter this year in north Florida. Our temperatures only dropped into the 20s about twice.  It has also been a rainy winter, and this means that the weeds are going to be harder to control this coming year.  My azaleas are already blooming.

Gardening in Florida

I do a lot of flower gardening in my four and a half-acre yard and spend a lot of time weeding it. It is so bad that I nicknamed it “the Garden of Weeden”.  All we can hope for down here in damp sunny Florida is a good hard winter.

The yard was a lot easier to take care of when I had teenagers who were always getting into trouble–all three of them.  There was frequently someone back there working off their punishment, but now they are all grown up and have ‘weeders’ of their own.

My Flower Garden

My garden includes knockout roses, antique roses, azaleas, several varieties of camellias, sago palms, elephant ears, several kinds of gardenias, and volunteer impatiens, to name a few.  We also have an orchard of blueberries, satsumas, mayhaws, grapefruit, kumquats, a Key lime, and a Myers lemon.  

Gardening in Florida

I planted several sweet potato vines for aesthetics a few years ago, and last year I noticed that I have sweet potatoes underground.  This will be the third year they’ve over-wintered.  They are growing in one of my flowerbeds.

Success Or Not, I still Love it!

I wished I could say that I am always successful with my gardening; but certainly, it is not so.  The Satsuma some years gives us a bumper crop and then other years nothing.  Also, the flower beds get away from me by August, and it’s a jungle out there.

Satsumas

 

One year I decided to try my luck with container tomatoes.  I got a grand total of about 2 to 3 on each very nice-sized lush bush.  My husband the comedian started passing information around Tallahassee that friends needed to make sure they asked me about my bumper crop of tomatoes.  Several people stopped me on the streets to ask me if they could have some.  I could’ve killed him.

There’s a variety of lettuce in the kit, but I have no idea if I can grow lettuce.  The deer ate my one and only try.  Plus my Mayhaw to this day has produced zero Mayhaws, and I even got it a mate.  So stay tuned!

It Makes Me Respect Someone Who Does This for a Living

By the way having your own vegetable garden gives one a newfound respect for farmers.  Raising one’s own food is such a risky undertaking that we’re all very lucky that there are those who will do it for us.  I wish to shout out a big ‘Thank You’ to America’s farming community.

 

 I used to can and freeze a lot of produce especially when I was younger, but hardly do it anymore.  Now I spend my time extra time writing, traveling, and visiting grandbabies. I’ll keep you up to date on the successes and failures of my vegetable garden inspired by ‘Hey Let’s Grow’. 

Our Descent to a Victim Mentality

February 10, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life

I had a problem with teaching each of my daughters to a mental victim. But I’m jumping ahead of myself. Let me explain what has led me to my latest tirade.

But First

I am sick and tired of people insinuating that I am less than my male counterparts. So in case you are left of left, you might want to stop right here, because I come at this from the right. I guess you might say I’m about to kick the hornets’ nest.

The Audi Commercial

I’ll begin with the Audi commercial aired during the Super Bowl. I’ve been mulling on their message for over a week now.  How dare they imply that I am less or that my daughters are less than our male counterparts. I guess you can tell that I hated this commercial.

Audi Commercial

https://mobile.twitter.com/Audi/status/826811795117465601/video/1

I was raised a little differently than most of my friends. I come from a very conservative small town in north Florida, an agricultural town. My father did not have any sons but did have three daughters, and I am the oldest of the three. I hunted with him, my sisters and I camped all over America with our parents, and all three of us were so encouraged to reach beyond ourselves that I believed I could be anything I wanted to be.

I was so convinced of this, that it appalled me when two kids down the street said that there was no way I could be like the prima ballerina we had seen the night before on The Ed Sullivan Show. I told them that they were wrong, that all I had to do was work very hard to be just like her.

They said that I couldn’t do it, because what she had was real talent.  I argued that she learned by repetition and hard work.

I might have done it, because I thought I could. They could have never done it, because they thought they couldn’t. See, I am still convinced.

I was raised with the opposite of victimology. In no way was I raised to think I couldn’t do anything. I even remember arguing with those two, that if I wanted to be President of the United States enough and if I worked hard enough, I could do it. Looking back, I realize now how fortunate I was to have had the parents I had.

Today, I realize that some of this relates to the American Exceptionalism doctrine that I was fed. It is a doctrine that is under fire, and I’m not so sure this is a good thing. And I’m not talking about supremacy, which I think has nothing to do with American Exceptionslism. It is a doctrine that made us reach beyond ourselves to achieve.

My parent’s teachings held me well.

Today, I am an elderly woman looking back on my years of education and career. In over twenty years I obtained a Ph.D. in Communication; worked in Florida’s legislative process for almost forty years, and now spend my time writing books and this blog. I made good money, more annually than many of my male counterparts. I busted my ass, and I represented my clients well.

I also raised two daughters, and I actually remember other women suggesting that maybe I was setting them up for disappointment. Outsiders were concerned that I didn’t tell my daughters what they should expect in the marketplace.

Frankly, I never wanted my daughters to feel like victims, so I held back on teaching them what I thought would turn around by the time they reached the marketplace anyway. I wanted them to enter the marketplace not looking for a slight at every turn  or just waiting for someone to knock that chip off their shoulder. I wanted them to enter the marketplace the same way I did.

In case you think I had it easy, I’ll explain. In one job, I resigned and set my date of resignation to take advantage of a pending vacation. My boss’s boss who had made several passes at me, changed my date so I couldn’t take a vacation between the two jobs.

I sued the company in small claims court and won. There was no claim of sexual harassment, just a claim upon the money I believe I was owed. My boss, also a male, at great risk to himself made sure I had the information needed to litigate the case. I represented myself against their corporation’s local lawyer. I refused to be a victim.

Thank God, my Dad never had the attitude of the Dad in that Audi commercial. He sent me forward with an attitude that I could do what I wanted to do. All I had to do was be truthful and work hard.

By the way, my Dad never graduated from high school; but he raised three strong-willed women who have seven college degrees between us. And all of us had good careers. And in case you think my Mom was a doormat, think again. Anyone who truly knew her knew that she was the strongest willed of all of us.

Role Models

And since I am on the subject, there is someone else who I could never identify with. That someone was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. From day one, I questioned why she remained the wife of someone who obviously did not have respect for women, let alone for her. Why did she stay with him, other than to pad her own future.  Why did she remain a victim.

Frankly, I have little respect for a woman that is only herself through her husband. I did not want my daughters, who were growing up while she was First Lady, to think that men had the right to treat them the way her husband treated her.  And I also didn’t want them to think that they had to hitch their star to a man in order to achieve.  I hated that all of the sordid affair was on our televisions every night.  I also resented that the Republicans made it so public.

While I was working in my first job as a secretary, they let me do some of the buyer responsibilities.  I quickly realized that I was more successful with the latter if I never let the seller know I was female. I did my business by teletype and by snail mail. There was no internet then.

I signed my correspondence as C. E. Raker, my married name at the time. It was a man’s world, but I found a way to achieve in it. I found a way to not be the victim.  Later when I had my daughters, I chose for them androgynous names so they would never have to deal with this problem.  I didn’t want them to be victims either.

So Audi, this is why I hated your commercial. You basically tried to relegate me to a second class citizen if only in thought. I understand that you were trying to make a point, but for me you missed the mark.  You targeted me and all women as victims.

The Audi commercial was there for everyone to hear, including my six-year old grandson. I don’t want him to be raised with that attitude either, that girls are less than boys; but I’m afraid Audi may have started that terrible thought in his mind.  And this perpetuates the victim ization of women.

To the rest of America? Raise your daughters passionately optimistic and protect them from ever feeling like a victim. All this feminist talk I believe is making the wrong impression on very impressionable minds. And it wouldn’t hurt to remember the old adage, that you draw more bees with honey than with vinegar anyway.

Besides I didn’t raise my daughters to be advocates, I raised them to work in the marketplace and to be good American citizens.

.

Bored?  Go Outside and Find Something to Do

February 3, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life

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What’s Better? Supervised Play or Unsupervised Play?

January 29, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life

Did you know that the time that today’s children spend playing is far less than the time we spent at play? How can that be with so many overwhelmed mothers who spend their time running children from one event to the next?

Siblings Wrestling in the Grass When They Thought No One Was Looking

Meanwhile, in our schools, there is a decline in recess. And at home, there is an increase in screen time. Altogether, this means there is an overall decline in unsupervised play.
From time to time, my husband Chuck and I reminisce about our childhood experiences and compare them to those of our grandchildren. The one that we feel is the most different is playing outdoors unsupervised.
Neither of us would trade our experiences for our grandchildrens’. Not only do we see fewer children playing outdoors, but we also see that those who do are almost always involved in some sort of competitive, adult-supervised play.
T-Ball

We feel that outdoor play is important to the development of children, but we also think that unsupervised play is equally important.
I learned in October while at the Type-A Parents Blogging Conference that we are not alone in our beliefs. Researchers say that free play significantly improves kids’ problem-solving skills. Play is also one of the best ways to stimulate children’s brain development. Active kids are more likely to be active adults.
Girls Playing

But is free play the same as unsupervised play?
Chuck likes to talk about the traditional pickup game and how he feels it helped him develop into an independent adult. I wrote an earlier blog that described his experience. You can find it here.
I like to tell about my and my sister Pam’s imaginary world of playing house, using a stick to draw our homes in the dirt road driveway leading down to our home. They didn’t pave the driveway until I was much older.
Also, many of us in the neighborhood liked to play down in the woods behind our houses. We built forts and dammed the stream back there. Those were wonderful days, and there wasn’t an adult in sight for hours at a time.

Teenagers hanging out.

At the Conference, I found the expo a kiosk about a movement called, “The Genius of Play”. This is a national movement whose mission is to give families the information and inspiration to make Play an important part in every child’s day. You can read about it here.
Their research says that play is more than fun and games; it is essential for child development. Their mission is to “give families the information and inspiration needed to make play an important part in every child’s life.” It advises playing tips and ideas based on a kid’s age and developmental stages.
Since the conference, I found other groups with the same purpose, such as PortlandFamily.org and www.Care.Com.
The Genius of Play and the other groups feel that there are six key benefits of play that are crucial to healthy child development. I’ve taken the liberty to regurgitate what they said, melding it all together below.

Key Benefits of Play

1. Play Improves Cognitive Abilities – There are studies that show a correlation between outdoor play and a reduction in ADHD symptoms. Outdoor play requires children to use their brains in unique ways. Also, it helps them to incorporate concepts learned in the classroom.
They may have learned about the parts of an insect in school, but in the outdoors they can study an insect up close, by themselves, and experience it in a hands-on way where they can see it and touch it, bringing to life the lesson they learned at their school. My daughters used to bring me rolly pollys and would also let the little green lizards bite their earlobes and wear them as earrings until they let go. Scientists tell us that outdoor play also decreases anxiety.
Exploring New Ground

2. Play Hones Communication Skills–Unstructured play helps with honing our communication skills. Not everyone can be chosen first nor can everyone take a turn on the slide first. Kids who take part in unstructured play with each other learn these communication and behavioral skills on the playground.
They also learn to change and enforce their own rules. Chuck and I both were involved in unstructured, unsupervised play. His story is about the pickup game you heard about earlier. Mine, though, was in a big field across the road from my home. It was surrounded by houses, as we lived at the edge of a small town. Kids from the houses met in that field and played football, baseball, or whatever was in season. As a girl, I loved football the best. I think it had something to do with getting tackled by the boys.
3. Play Increases Creativity–Outdoor play helps children use all their senses, such as insects to see, rustling leaves to hear, freshly mown grass to smell, rabbit weed to taste, and acorns to touch and throw. TV only gives them hearing and seeing, and it can seriously affect their perceptual abilities.
For example, biking develops self-confidence and satisfies one’s exploratory interest, and playing outdoors provides opportunities for imaginative play. Children invent things like Pam and I used to do with the imaginary houses we created. And it was dirt that presented limitless opportunities to invent our world as we pleased.
Building Creativity

4. Play Increases the Ability to Process and Express Emotions – Remember how excited we all got when someone made a touchdown or someone jumped across a wide ditch. Well, this is how we learned to process and express our emotions. We were challenged by the other kids; and that was a good thing, because we learned how to cope.
5. Play Develops Physical Skills – Did you know that children who play outdoors have better distance vision? A study by Optometry and Vision Science found this to be true. Also, outside play is relaxing and destressing for children.
Research shows that third graders who get 15 plus minutes of recess a day are better behaved in school. Playing outdoors also helps kids develop muscle strength and coordination. For example, the simple act of swinging requires a child to engage all their muscles to hold on, balance, and coordinate their body to move back and forth. Skating requires balance, too.
Climbing Trees

6. Play Enhances Social Skills – Outdoor play requires kids to learn to get along with each other. Unchaperoned play requires it, too. It also helps kids gain self-confidence. Children invent rules and negotiate their way through play. This increases their creativity, intelligence, and negotiation skills—all social skills that we need to function in society.
But I would like to add a seventh benefit.
7. Play in the Outdoors Develops Good Health – Lots of children suffer from vitamin D deficiencies according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This vitamin is important to future bone and heart health, but too much sun is a problem as well. My mother and I both made our kids come indoors during the hours of 10-2 p.m. Florida gets quite hot during the middle of the day anyway. But children need to play outdoors without sunscreen for some part of the day, and I don’t remember using sunscreen as a child at all unless we were swimming or out all day on the beach. I can remember playing outdoors without my shirt until I got to be about 6 or 7 years old. I believe outdoor play for children is vital to their good health.
So grandmothers, encourage your children to read this. They need to understand that unstructured play is as important as school and adult-supervised sports.
Nothing like a sprinkler on a hot summer’s day.

Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychologist noted for her work on bipolar disorder, says it best, “Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

The Genius of Play

January 29, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life, Health

Did you know that the amount of time that today’s children spend playing is far less than the amount of time we spent at play? How can that be with so many overwhelmed mothers who spend their time running children from one event to the next?

Children Playing

Siblings Wrestling in the Grass When They Thought No One Was Looking

Meanwhile, in our schools there is a decline in recesses. And at home there is an increase in screen time. Altogether, this means there is an overall decline in unsupervised play.

From time to time my husband Chuck and I reminisce about our childhood experiences and find ourselves comparing them to those of our grandchildren. The one that we feel is the most different is playing outdoors.

Neither of us would trade our experiences with our grandchildren’s. Not only do we see less children playing outdoors, but we also see that those who do are almost always involved in some sort of competitive, adult-supervised play.

Children at Play

T-Ball

We feel that outdoor play is important to the development of children, but we also think that unsupervised play is equally important.

I learned in October while at the Type-A Parents Blogging Conference that we are not alone in our beliefs. Researchers say that free play significantly improves kids’ problem-solving skills. Play is also one of the best ways to stimulate children’s brain development. Active kids are more likely to be active adults.

Children at Play

Girls Playing

But is free play the same as unsupervised play.

Chuck likes to talk about the traditional pick up game and how he feels it helped him develop into an independent adult. I wrote an earlier blog which described his experience. You can find it here.

I on the other hand like to tell about mine and my sister Pam’s imaginary world of playing house, using a stick to draw our homes in the dirt road driveway leading down to our home. They didn’t pave the driveway until I was much older.

Also, many of us in the neighborhood liked to play down in the woods behind our houses. We built forts and dammed the stream back there. Those were wonderful days, and there wasn’t an adult in sight for hours at a time.

 

Teenagers at play

Teenagers hanging out.

At the Conference I found in the expo a kiosk about a movement called, “The Genius of Play”. This is a national movement whose mission is to give families the information and inspiration to make Play an important part of every child’s day. You can read about it here.

Their research says that play is more than fun and games; that it is essential for child development. Their mission is to “give families the information and inspiration needed to make play an important part of every child’s life.” It provides advice, play tips, and ideas based on a kid’s age and developmental stages.

Since the conference, I found other groups with the same purpose, such as PortlandFamily.org and www.Care.Com.

The Genius of Play and the other groups feel that there are six key benefits of play that are crucial to healthy child development.  I’ve taken the liberty to regurgitate what they said, melding it all together below.

Key Benefits of Play

1. Play Improves Cognitive Abilities – There are studies that show a correlation between outdoor play and a reduction in ADHD symptoms. Outdoor play requires children to use their brains in unique ways. Also, it helps them to incorporate concepts learned in the classroom.

They may have learned about the parts of an insect in school, but in the outdoors they can study an insect up close, by themselves, and experience it in a hands-on way where they can see it and touch it, bringing to life the lesson they learned at their school. My daughters used to bring me rolly pollys and would also let the little green lizards bite their earlobes and wear them as earrings until they let go. Scientists tell us that outdoor play also decreases anxiety.

Children exploring

Exploring New Ground

2. Play Hones Communication Skills – Unstructured play helps with honing our communication skills. Not everyone can be chosen first nor can everyone take a turn on the slide first. Kids who participate in unstructured play with each other learn these communication and behavioral skills on the playground.

They also learn to modify and enforce their own rules. Chuck and I both were involved in unstructured, unsupervised play. His story about the pick-up game you heard about earlier. Mine, though, was in a big field across the road from my home. It was surrounded with houses, as we lived at the edge of a small town. Kids from the houses met in that field and played football, baseball, or whatever was in season. As a girl, I loved football best. I think it had something to do with getting tackled by the boys.

3. Play Increases Creativity – Outdoor play helps children use all their senses, such as insects to see, rustling leaves to hear, fresh mown grass to smell, rabbit weed to taste, and acorns to touch and throw. TV only gives them hearing and seeing, and it can seriously affect their perceptual abilities.

For example, biking develops self-confidence and satisfies one’s exploratory interest, and playing outdoors provides opportunities for imaginative play. Children invent things like Pam and I used to do with the imaginary houses we created. And it was dirt that presented limitless opportunities to invent our world as we pleased.

Children at Play

Building Creativity

4. Play Increases the Ability to Process and Express Emotions – Remember how excited we all got when someone made a touchdown or someone jumped across a wide ditch. Well, this is how we learned to process and express our emotions. We were challenged by the other kids; and that was a good thing, because we learned how to cope.

5. Play Develops Physical Skills – Did you know that children who play outdoors have better distance vision? A study by Optometry and Vision Science found this to be true. Also, outside play is relaxing and destressing for children.

Research shows that third graders who get 15 plus minutes of recess a day are better behaved in school. Playing outdoors also helps kids develop muscle strength and coordination. For example, the simple act of swinging requires a child to engage all their muscles to hold on, balance, and coordinate their body to move back and forth. Skating requires balance, too.

Child Playing Alone

Climbing Trees

6. Play Enhances Social Skills – Outdoor play requires kids to learn to get along with each other. Unchaperoned play requires it, too. It also helps kids gain self-confidence. Children invent rules and negotiate their way through play. This increases their creativity, intelligence, and negotiation skills—all social skills that we need to function in society.

But I would like to add a seventh benefit.

7. Play in the Outdoors Develops Good Health – Lots of children suffer from vitamin D deficiencies according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This vitamin is important to future bone and heart health, but too much sun is a problem as well. My mother and I both made our kids come indoors during the hours of 10-2 p.m. Florida gets quite hot during the middle of the day anyway. But children need to play outdoors without sunscreen for some part of the day, and I don’t remember using sunscreen as a child at all unless we were swimming or out all day on the beach. I can remember playing outdoors without my shirt until I got to be about 6 or 7 years old. I believe outdoor play for children is vital to their good health.

So grandmothers, encourage your children to read this. They need to understand that unstructured play is as important as school and adult-supervised sports.

Children Playing

Nothing like a sprinkler on a hot summer’s day.

Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychologist noted for her work on bi-polar disorder, says it best, “Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.”

When a Dad is the Best Role Model

January 4, 2017 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life

I don’t think I’ve talked very much about my Dad, but he was quite a character. He had a great personality and always seemed to be very comfortable living in his own skin.

Dad & Daughters

Dad, Pam & Me

He was a special person–witty, strong, courageous, spontaneous, decisive, honest to a fault, considerate, inclusive, frugal, fair, and fun-loving. He was handy with his hands. He built our home–literally built it with his own two hands from the ground up. It sits where my Grandparents’ chicken house used to sit, where over a hundred chickens once lived.

I now own that home, and I remember years ago asking him about a light switch that didn’t seem to be connected to anything. I said, “What does it go to?”  And he replied, “I don’t know. No telling what that twenty-five year old boy was thinking when he wired this part of the house.”

That light switch is in the oldest part of the house which he built when he was in his mid twenties. He also added that as far as he knew there was not a right angle in this entire section.  Well, that part of the house is almost sixty years old, and it is solid as a rock.

Parents

Mom & Dad

Year after year I worked legislative sessions. Florida’s legislature only meets for sixty days during each spring. We work non-stop, live on adrenaline, and the sessions in my memory flow one into the other. But there is one that will be forever etched into my mind.   It was the session of 2003, when I took a call and stepped out of a meeting over in the Hilton Hotel (now Doubletree) to talk to my Dad’s doctor.

The news was not good. The doctor told me that he believed that Dad had pancreatic cancer. One of the worst kinds. We talked procedures, chemo, radiation, surgeries, and strategy; but the prognosis was weeks to possibly months to live.

Still he was not sure, and there would have to be tests. As it turned out, lots of tests and several months before we were sure.

That session I moved from meeting to meeting and room to room in a deliberative manner. It was like I got an extra shot of adrenaline, and I was firing on all cylinders. I had energy like no get out. My memory of those days is as clear as a bell.

It occurs to me now that Dad had that Doctor call me. I remember asking him if Dad already knew about the cancer, and the doctor said yes.

Three Generations

Dad, Linda & Savanna

For years after Dad died I thought the Doctor  called me on his own, but now I feel certain Daddy wanted me to hear the whole thing because decisions had to be made. My Dad and I conferred off and on over the next months as to what procedures to do and not do. My Mom was already sick both physically and now mentally too, so that wasn’t an option. I became his sounding board. I learned how useful the Internet was under these circumstances.

I also remember during that legislative session moments when my mind wandered to my childhood–to memories of our times together when I was a child–memories of Mom, Dad, Ranny, Pam and later Linda Baby, the littlest sister who was born when I was almost 15.

These memories were different, though, because this time it was like I was looking back across a void that I never noticed before. Until then, I still felt like I was young. I was still his little girl, but all of a sudden I wasn’t anymore. Something shifted as if a new dimension opened up in my life. I guess it was about time, because I was 49.

I look back now and realize that anything that I was, anything that I did successfully in helping to take care of him was by his mentoring. If I was strong, it was because he had always been strong. If I was reliable, it was his reliability that set the tone. He was the best role model.
Today, he would have been 87. Happy Birthday, Dad!

Geechie Roe

Dad

The Real Truth About the Pickup Game

December 14, 2016 by oldageisnotforsissies54 Filed Under: Family Life

The pickup game is fondly remembered for its hours of unsupervised play.  Those halcyon days when we played outdoors until dark when we were expected to come back home for supper.

Every once in a while Chuck and I reminisce about how good we had it as youngsters.  Some of our best experiences were those without the intrusion of parents.  We both were allowed to experience life and freedoms that kids today don’t seem to have.

Chuck was raised in cities, like Richmond, Knoxville and Jacksonville; and I was raised in a small rural town in Florida. But both of us ran free.  We were just expected back home in time for supper; and if we were wandering out of our range, we had to check back first with our parents.

It was a wonderful sort of freedom.  We spent hours making our own forts in the woods, fishing in ponds, playing in pick up games, and just generally hanging out with the neighborhood kids.  Those were special times.

Chuck said that the pick up games are what he remembered most fondly.  The pick-up game is a game spontaneously started by a group of kids. Chuck said that the kids in his neighborhood knew that generally there would be a game going on when the kids were out of school.  Sometimes it was in a local park or a school playground within walking distance.

He said that there was no referee or adult present, so the kids made their own rules and refereed themselves.  The total number of players was always different with sometimes more than normal and sometimes less.  They played baseball, dodge ball, basketball, and football this way.

Kids were chosen for each team, and he remembers being chosen last and working harder to be chosen earlier in the lineup.  He said that he threw many a ball at a concrete wall in the neighborhood just to get more practice.
We did the same in my neighborhood in Monticello, but we did it in an old pecan grove across the street from my home.  A couple of the trees died, and we used the large open area to play.  There was always a gang of kids over there.

Children at play

Photo from Pixabay

I just read a rather long, but good article from a young woman who had the amazing opportunity of growing up in both the US and Estonia. She experienced two types of parenting cultures and talks about their differences. Chuck and I wondered if growing up in Estonia was a little like growing up in the 50s and 60s here in the US.

Read here what she had to say.  It is entitled “What Living in the USSR as a Kid Taught Me about Parenting.”

So how was it in your neighborhood?  Did you have helicopter parents or were they stealth parents like mine?  Mine were always there, but they just mostly watched from afar.

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