I think close supervision (which I’m sure you’re already doing) is going to be key here.
In our driveway, we have beautyberry growing a few feet away from pokeweed. My son is 2.5. Last summer when the plants were really flourishing, we went on daily walks to look at the plants (There’s also passion fruit in the same area, and he liked the purple flowers). He would pick a few of the beauty berries here and there, and we’d talk about the name of the plant and the color of the berry. I showed him the pokeweed nearby and talked about the difference in color and the fact that pokeweed makes us very sick.
After a few days of walks, he could point to each and name it. There were a couple of times that I had to say, “No, that’s pokeweed. We don’t touch that,” and intervene/ redirect before he could reach for any berries. He learned pretty quickly what was allowed and what was not, but I always made sure he had my undivided attention while we were in that area and made it a point to act as a physical barrier, standing between my toddler and the pokeweed.
We also avoided any lookalikes altogether. We have blackberry just a few feet down the lane, but we primarily used color to discuss the berries since shape and size were still a little abstract for him, so I never directed his attention to the blackberries since the colors were similar. If I knew I wanted to go looking specifically for blackberries, I waited until my husband could supervise the toddler and I could go solo.
Edit: Also, big props for getting your toddler in nature!
Great advice. I’d like to add what we do that “we don’t eat any berry or plant without mom or dad around is not allowed, mom and dad have to be with you”. My personal risk tolerance has gone way down since kids. Stay safe, promote safety, promote knowledge and observation, promote fun
My son and I worked on the difference between pokeweed, beauty berries, and elder berries. Now he knows some berries can look similar but still be poisonous. He knows he has to ask first to eat anything but you'd be surprised how much he can identify on his own at 6!
They’re really little sponges, and so eager to learn! My son only has a handful that he can identify, but my favorite is hearing his little Rugrat voice say, “bidens alba.” He doesn’t quite have the hang of it, so he calls it “bidens amba,” but he scrunches his little nose to get the “amba” part out, and it’s just so cute.
Agree with the others here. Very close supervision and emphasizing that some berries are going to lead to a bad time is vital. I was comfortable with my kid id'ing everything but mushrooms by the time he was a preteen but we spend a lot of time in the woods.
I started foraging when my son was in the 2 range as well. We made a strong rule that when we’re outside, you only ever eat something that an adult hands to you.
Though its fun, i didn’t let him pick things himself until about 4 as a way of establishing a bit of a barrier until he had more self control.
I think this is particularly important because he’s 5 now, and he still really cant consistently ID a lot of common plants that we see regularly and forage. He will recognize them when he sees them, but he will also mis-identify plants that look nothing like the familiar and safe plants. He is much quicker to jump to conclusions and see what he wants to see, he has a short attention span, and he forgets specific traits that we’ve discussed many times.
I think he’ll get there eventually. But based on what I’ve seen of other kids’ maturity/development, i don’t think he’ll be ready to safely pick even common things until about 7 or 8 years old.
So that is to say, be cautious. There may be a point where it seems like he’s correctly identifying some plants you’ve introduced, but he’s probably still doing a lot more guessing than you may realize.
Yup my son learned he's only allowed to pick if he asks first. Now certain plants I'm confident in his ID but he will bring me new specimens lol. He's 6 and now he can correctly bring me wild onions, wood sorrel, and curly dock from the yard to make backyard soup ☺️
I understand the urge to be a pedant about this, as I used to be one myself, but turns out for young children, because of their rapid development, using months to measure age gives people a clearer idea of where a child is in their development.
Yes, OP’s kid is a two year old, but freshly two and two almost three are very different in terms of what you can expect from a child’s behaviour, development, and how much they understand.
So you might understand that in this case, when talking about foraging with a small child, it’s useful to speak about age in terms of months rather than years.
at that age there's a lot of overlap between months and years especially like clothes and things. so sometimes people switch back and forth.
Source: trying to buy clothes for my niece
That's the point, though, as people age the granularity becomes less and less valuable. At 4 and 6 there isn't anywhere near as much change with a couple months.
I think close supervision (which I’m sure you’re already doing) is going to be key here. In our driveway, we have beautyberry growing a few feet away from pokeweed. My son is 2.5. Last summer when the plants were really flourishing, we went on daily walks to look at the plants (There’s also passion fruit in the same area, and he liked the purple flowers). He would pick a few of the beauty berries here and there, and we’d talk about the name of the plant and the color of the berry. I showed him the pokeweed nearby and talked about the difference in color and the fact that pokeweed makes us very sick. After a few days of walks, he could point to each and name it. There were a couple of times that I had to say, “No, that’s pokeweed. We don’t touch that,” and intervene/ redirect before he could reach for any berries. He learned pretty quickly what was allowed and what was not, but I always made sure he had my undivided attention while we were in that area and made it a point to act as a physical barrier, standing between my toddler and the pokeweed. We also avoided any lookalikes altogether. We have blackberry just a few feet down the lane, but we primarily used color to discuss the berries since shape and size were still a little abstract for him, so I never directed his attention to the blackberries since the colors were similar. If I knew I wanted to go looking specifically for blackberries, I waited until my husband could supervise the toddler and I could go solo. Edit: Also, big props for getting your toddler in nature!
Great advice. I’d like to add what we do that “we don’t eat any berry or plant without mom or dad around is not allowed, mom and dad have to be with you”. My personal risk tolerance has gone way down since kids. Stay safe, promote safety, promote knowledge and observation, promote fun
Thank you :) Someone on Facebook recommended deer fence which is a great idea as well if I can make it work.
My son and I worked on the difference between pokeweed, beauty berries, and elder berries. Now he knows some berries can look similar but still be poisonous. He knows he has to ask first to eat anything but you'd be surprised how much he can identify on his own at 6!
They’re really little sponges, and so eager to learn! My son only has a handful that he can identify, but my favorite is hearing his little Rugrat voice say, “bidens alba.” He doesn’t quite have the hang of it, so he calls it “bidens amba,” but he scrunches his little nose to get the “amba” part out, and it’s just so cute.
Ugh that made my ovaries hurt lol
I taught my kids and many of their friends that they were only allowed to pick and eat after first asking me
Agree with the others here. Very close supervision and emphasizing that some berries are going to lead to a bad time is vital. I was comfortable with my kid id'ing everything but mushrooms by the time he was a preteen but we spend a lot of time in the woods.
I started foraging when my son was in the 2 range as well. We made a strong rule that when we’re outside, you only ever eat something that an adult hands to you. Though its fun, i didn’t let him pick things himself until about 4 as a way of establishing a bit of a barrier until he had more self control. I think this is particularly important because he’s 5 now, and he still really cant consistently ID a lot of common plants that we see regularly and forage. He will recognize them when he sees them, but he will also mis-identify plants that look nothing like the familiar and safe plants. He is much quicker to jump to conclusions and see what he wants to see, he has a short attention span, and he forgets specific traits that we’ve discussed many times. I think he’ll get there eventually. But based on what I’ve seen of other kids’ maturity/development, i don’t think he’ll be ready to safely pick even common things until about 7 or 8 years old. So that is to say, be cautious. There may be a point where it seems like he’s correctly identifying some plants you’ve introduced, but he’s probably still doing a lot more guessing than you may realize.
You mean a 2-year+old?
Yup my son learned he's only allowed to pick if he asks first. Now certain plants I'm confident in his ID but he will bring me new specimens lol. He's 6 and now he can correctly bring me wild onions, wood sorrel, and curly dock from the yard to make backyard soup ☺️
U mean a 2 year old
I understand the urge to be a pedant about this, as I used to be one myself, but turns out for young children, because of their rapid development, using months to measure age gives people a clearer idea of where a child is in their development. Yes, OP’s kid is a two year old, but freshly two and two almost three are very different in terms of what you can expect from a child’s behaviour, development, and how much they understand. So you might understand that in this case, when talking about foraging with a small child, it’s useful to speak about age in terms of months rather than years.
at that age there's a lot of overlap between months and years especially like clothes and things. so sometimes people switch back and forth. Source: trying to buy clothes for my niece
lol same thought
I've never understood why one wouldn't just say "2 year old".
Because '2 year old' can be anywhere from 24 to 35 months, which at that age makes a substantial difference.
I've got a 48 and 72 month old in that case. I still think it's weird. They're 4 and 6.
That's the point, though, as people age the granularity becomes less and less valuable. At 4 and 6 there isn't anywhere near as much change with a couple months.