The boys got out the rakes today. They had a great time dragging them over the lawn, collecting leaves behind them. While walking through the garden bed with his rake full of pierced leaves, my youngest proudly announced, “We’re mulching!” Both boys got really excited about what they were doing and increased their efforts at that point, revelling in how pleased Daddy would be to see what they’d done when he arrived home from work. And justly so!
These are the moments that cement in my mind that living permaculture is the best way to teach it. My children are immersed in a lifestyle where mulching is the norm. It is also in these brief glimpses of their demonstration of knowledge that I am reassured that we are in fact teaching by example. When you’re always swimming upstream, it is often difficult to track your incremental progress.
