Farm Visit Teaches Young Students Real Life Lessons

By Dr. Marciene Mattleman

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Kids from Adelphi Elementary School, most of whom live in apartments, recently learned how to feed a goat. His yellow eyes with horizontal pupils were scary. They were told not to shriek and by the time they left Hard Bargain Farm in Prince George's County, Virginia, they were smiling.

The farm is run by the Alice Ferguson Foundation to connect students from Washington area schools to nature, to sustainable agriculture and the watershed.

Kids learned why some farm families have goats instead of cows and that it would take hundreds of thousands of years for the white Styrofoam cups we so easily discard to decompose.

We use terms like agriculture and recycling expecting kids to understand, children's books talk about farms; but real experiences give the context for reading, so important for comprehension.

An article in The Washington Post shows that a farm visit is more than fun; it's teaching.