Do you or have you spent some gardening time with your kids? Leave your comments below! Spring is just around the corner and now is a great time to start thinking about ways to get your children outdoors for the warmer seasons. Gardening with kids is probably...or usually one of the most pleasurable activities you can do with them. The learning possibilities alone are enough to motivate both you and your child to grow beautiful flowers, plants, and home grown veggies and fruits. There are a lot of resources out there that offer some wonderful tips and products for gardening with kids. From my research became really fond of kidsgardening.com. They have some great products and although they say they are for the “classroom”, they would be excellent for any homeschooling family or any mom out there who wants to be more involved in teaching their children. They have textbooks, tools, and any and everything else that goes along with the educational experience that can be gained through gardening. Gardening is also a great time to teach your kids about health, especially highlighting the importance of water & remember, it's not just for girls!
In The Kitchen: The ideas as far as where to start are endless, but I would suggest that you try to at least pick what you want to grow, and then maybe try to pick some sort of theme(etc. Italian herbs and veggies for making Italian food or fruits for making fruit salads, etc.) Once you and your child becomes really good at gardening, you and the entire family could work on putting together your very own gardening cook book with easy recipes that your children love making from the garden.
Garden Journals: Another idea is to keep a live sketch book to go along with your gardening adventures. Let them keep a sketchbook or 3 ring binder and let them sketch different veggies and flowers and if they are at the writing/reading stages, then you might try letting them write short reports on the flowers, plants, and foods that they are growing in their garden. They will enjoy drawing all of the things that they experienced while outside gardening, basically this is a Gardening Journal you would create for them.
Tip: If you will be growing fruits and veggies and herbs, then you will want to make sure that your seeds are not genetically altered/organic. A few resources include: Gurneys and Organica Seed and Home Harvest Seeds
Happy gardening with you and your little and be sure to check out a few of our favorite products below that are filled with learning fun and excitement that you and your children will enjoy!
Container Gardening Year Round
Roots, Shoots, Buckets, & Boots
Kid Size Garden Tools: Back To Basic Toys: $25.99
Paint & Grow Sun & Moon Garden: Garden Tykes: $14
Grow Lab: a Complete Guide to Gardening in the Classroom: Kids Gardening Store: $19.95
Kid Garden Tote with Tools: Garden Tykes: $15.50
Windowsill Herb Garden & Herb Curriculum: Kids Gardening Store: $29.95
Green Thumb Classroom Greenhouse: Store For Knowledge: $49.00
I've also gotten my kids
I've also gotten my kids involved in the garden my wife and I love planting every season especially vegetables since we can eat them our kids love salads so getting them involved in the garden was easy so this year as a mothers day gift we got my wife some new tools for the garden.
Green Thumbs
Not only is gardening on my top 10 list of Things To Do As Home-Schoolers, it is definitely one of the McVay family's favorite bonding times. Our children love digging in the dirt, planting, and watering. The grandparents purchased a gardening tote and gloves for them, and those things have been used faithfully. We find the most interesting bugs and other little creatures. Sometimes we pause to watch them squirm or crawl to another location. From shrubs, to bushes, to flowers, they have enjoyed being a part of the planting process. My husband just purchased some trees! Looking forward to that bonding time as well.
Itiel~wife, mother, teacher,entrepreneur, friend
Smell Goods '98™
la vie est aromatique blog
"Mmmm, you smell good!"
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Gardening with the Youth!
My children love working in the garden. It gives them a sense of responsibility and they are learning to appreciate the Earth. We have the herb garden in the front and the veggies and fruit in the backyard. My two year old became a master at identifying and eating the stevia plant. She calls it 'sweet sweet' Good thing the more she picks, the more it grows. Maybe this year I will get some of the neighborhood kids involved as well, make it a mini neighborhood project. Thank you for the article.
Much Love,
Aremisa
www.indigenousremedies.com