Who are we?
We are a group of dedicated local parents with a view to contribute to our home and city, Toledo, and even beyond. We believe the key to making the world a better place lies in our children and the younger generations.
A beautiful garden needs ground-tilling, water, sun, plucking of weeds and dedicated time. We think a garden is a perfect picture of how children need engagement and nurturing.
"Garden Toledo" aims to cultivate young minds in a healthy environment focused on building up children's characters, touching their sense of humanity, and cultivating the whole child. “Garden Toledo” believes that a human being has three parts - body, soul, and conscience. In order to be healthy, all three parts must be taken care of. As we focus on the health of the body and the intellect, we also acknowledge that all children have an inward sense that can be developed. This sense will help our children recognize and cultivate deeper and more meaningful relationships in their family and at school. Ultimately, this sense of life will benefit them and lead them towards productive and full lives as they become adults.
A beautiful garden needs ground-tilling, water, sun, plucking of weeds and dedicated time. We think a garden is a perfect picture of how children need engagement and nurturing.
"Garden Toledo" aims to cultivate young minds in a healthy environment focused on building up children's characters, touching their sense of humanity, and cultivating the whole child. “Garden Toledo” believes that a human being has three parts - body, soul, and conscience. In order to be healthy, all three parts must be taken care of. As we focus on the health of the body and the intellect, we also acknowledge that all children have an inward sense that can be developed. This sense will help our children recognize and cultivate deeper and more meaningful relationships in their family and at school. Ultimately, this sense of life will benefit them and lead them towards productive and full lives as they become adults.
A beautiful garden needs ground-tilling, water, sun, plucking of weeds and dedicated time. We think a garden is a perfect picture of how children need engagement and nurturing.
CONFIDENCEGrowing confidence to tackle the world's biggest problems
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CONSCIENCEBuilding a healthy conscience, in and out of school
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COMMUNITYConnecting with their world, locally and globally
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Our urgency for coming together as Garden Toledo stems from our observations of the society surrounding our children. Most notable, even in grade school, is the disrespect towards adult authority figures. As parents, we have heard alarming conversations like this between parents and their children.
Tragically, many young adults in America deal with sexually transmitted diseases, eating disorders, and depression. The national news reports a general trend of binge drinking and drug use, as well as alarming issues of violence and rape, on our college campuses.
Indeed, the troubling thing is that the abuse seen in adult life can be traced back to childhood habits and activities. For instance, consider the all-too-common, consuming use of cell phones and video games by children as young as five years old. According to Stanford-trained physician Dr. Ruston, who produced the documentary “Screenagers,” “The dopamine from screen time is the same chemical released with activities such as drinking alcohol. The many hours of dopamine released with screen-based activities can affect the brain in serious ways. For example, research shows that those who play a lot of video games — about three hours a day — have M.R.I. brain scans that reveal similar patterns as people addicted to drugs.” While our modern-day technologies of convenience have made many aspects of life easier, they have replaced the real ways children learn, communicate, entertain themselves, solve problems, and consider their physical world. The result is the insidiously invisible loss of crucial skills they need to mature, cope, socialize, and become self-sufficient, productive members of society.
As parents, we must realize the serious necessity to inoculate our children with the values we treasure and know are healthy, before they face life-changing decisions when they leave our care.
We recognize that who we are today is because of our peers, our homes, and how we were raised. We can’t passively allow our children to grow up affected by outside forces but must actively influence who our children will grow to be. Therefore, Garden Toledo believes strongly in parent involvement and for parents to be on the same page in order for their children to be thriving and successful adults. We believe you will be benefited by the ecology we provide. Together, we can raise a voice for this concept.
Lastly, we believe our youth need to have the companionship of their peers to share joys, difficulties, and life experiences. To this end, we gather once a week to participate in activities centered in this view, such as children's yoga, singing and music, cooking, and reading. By providing a healthy understanding of their everyday lives, we aim to equip children to grow up to succeed in today's society. When our children are strong and healthy, together they will produce a better world.
Please check back on our website where we will regularly post new insights, events, and stories as food to nourish the body, soul, and conscience. We are proud to share our lives with you, and hope that this platform will inspire more people, at home and beyond Toledo, Ohio to have the same mindset to cultivate our children in a rich and healthy way. We welcome any interested parents to join our initiative--we would love to hear from you.
Tragically, many young adults in America deal with sexually transmitted diseases, eating disorders, and depression. The national news reports a general trend of binge drinking and drug use, as well as alarming issues of violence and rape, on our college campuses.
Indeed, the troubling thing is that the abuse seen in adult life can be traced back to childhood habits and activities. For instance, consider the all-too-common, consuming use of cell phones and video games by children as young as five years old. According to Stanford-trained physician Dr. Ruston, who produced the documentary “Screenagers,” “The dopamine from screen time is the same chemical released with activities such as drinking alcohol. The many hours of dopamine released with screen-based activities can affect the brain in serious ways. For example, research shows that those who play a lot of video games — about three hours a day — have M.R.I. brain scans that reveal similar patterns as people addicted to drugs.” While our modern-day technologies of convenience have made many aspects of life easier, they have replaced the real ways children learn, communicate, entertain themselves, solve problems, and consider their physical world. The result is the insidiously invisible loss of crucial skills they need to mature, cope, socialize, and become self-sufficient, productive members of society.
As parents, we must realize the serious necessity to inoculate our children with the values we treasure and know are healthy, before they face life-changing decisions when they leave our care.
We recognize that who we are today is because of our peers, our homes, and how we were raised. We can’t passively allow our children to grow up affected by outside forces but must actively influence who our children will grow to be. Therefore, Garden Toledo believes strongly in parent involvement and for parents to be on the same page in order for their children to be thriving and successful adults. We believe you will be benefited by the ecology we provide. Together, we can raise a voice for this concept.
Lastly, we believe our youth need to have the companionship of their peers to share joys, difficulties, and life experiences. To this end, we gather once a week to participate in activities centered in this view, such as children's yoga, singing and music, cooking, and reading. By providing a healthy understanding of their everyday lives, we aim to equip children to grow up to succeed in today's society. When our children are strong and healthy, together they will produce a better world.
Please check back on our website where we will regularly post new insights, events, and stories as food to nourish the body, soul, and conscience. We are proud to share our lives with you, and hope that this platform will inspire more people, at home and beyond Toledo, Ohio to have the same mindset to cultivate our children in a rich and healthy way. We welcome any interested parents to join our initiative--we would love to hear from you.
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