Students build 'flowerpot farm' at home during holiday

                            Huang Yuhao and colorful flowerpots on his home's balcony. Photos from Sohu News

Huang Yuhao, a Grade 1 student from Shenzhen Primary School, was excited about growing seeds his teacher gave him to grow for the summer holiday.

“There are various seeds. I want to grow food and plant flowers for my mother,” Huang said. The seeds were provided by his teacher, Chen Chuncheng, for a summer holiday labor task, Shenzhen Evening News reported.

Chen prepared the seeds for students to pick up. “The summer holiday is long. I designed the task to let students grow vegetables, fruits and flowers they like. I believe the flowerpot farm will help them calm down during the holiday,” Chen said.

Students were required to share the growing process of their vegetables. “Many students shared photos and written records,” Chen said.

Huang chose to grow sunflower, tomato, kale and lettuce seeds. After planting the seeds, Huang observes the plants every morning, and at the same time, ensures the crops got sufficient sunshine every day.

All four of the vegetables sprouted July 10. “Although it just popped up a little bit, I was very excited,” Huang said.

Taking care of a plant is much harder than Huang thought. After consulting with his elders at home, Huang added some fertilizer to the vegetables in late July. However, several seedlings withered.

Huang and his mother figured out that fertilizer cannot be directly put onto the seedlings, otherwise they will corrode. Huang tried to rescue the seedlings by adding some soil to the flowerpot and used rice water.

Seeing that the vegetables didn’t grow ripe enough to eat, Huang considered giving up. However, to encourage him to keep growing his plants, Huang’s mother took him back to their hometown to observe how farmers cultivate their crops.

Huang wrote that planting made him understand that it takes a lot of effort and time to grow a small seed into a vegetable. These must be cherished because it represents hard work.

“Kids in cities are far away from rural life. The special homework arranged by the teacher this time made the children understand that nothing is easy to get, and they must learn how to cherish it. They also learned how to persist,” Huang’s mother said.

                      Xu Hehua waters one of his plants, hoping it will grow faster. 

Huang’s friend, Xu Hehua, chose to grow spinach and Chinese cabbage. Spinach grew very fast at the very beginning. However, the young spinach seedlings almost wilted not long afterwards. Xu didn’t give up and finally saw spinach start growing again, after putting in more efforts.

“I hope the spinach will soon become a dish on table,” Xu said.

Xu’s mother observed the activity has not only improved children’s hands-on abilities but also cultivated their sense of responsibility.

The Guangdong provincial education authority has recently published the list of the second batch of primary and high schools with labor education characteristics. A total of four schools including Shenzhen Primary School are on the list, according to the News report.