Teaching kids about gardening
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Bright Horizons | Teaching Kids to Garden: Tips & Activities
Article posted by Bright Horizons on June 15, 2020
British horticulturist and garden writer Gertrude Jekyll said, "A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust." These are lofty character traits—ones we want our children to gain. Teaching kids to garden also encourages an attitude of conservation and respect for nature. Perhaps most importantly, though, gardening with children is downright fun. Children are natural explorers who find joy in the simple pleasures of planting seeds or searching for earthworms.Gardening doesn't have to be expensive, complicated, or time-consuming. With just a few minutes per week, you can grow a simple garden project with your child. Below are a few ideas to get you started:
Tips for Teaching Kids How to Garden
- Start small. You don't need a large yard to teach your child about gardening. In fact, small and simple is generally better because children are more likely to maintain interest and less likely to become overwhelmed. Plant beans or sunflowers in cups placed in a sunny window.
Grow a tomato plant in a pot on your patio. Or plant a window box with herbs. Use simple projects like these to teach your child about gardening basics, such as healthy soil, sunlight, and water. As your child gains experience and interest, you can graduate to a small vegetable or flower garden. - Choose high-interest plants. Let your child help decide which plants to grow, based on his or her interests. Cherry tomatoes make a tasty snack and generally produce fruit earlier than larger tomatoes. Leaf crops, such as lettuce and spinach, grow quickly and can be harvested more than once. Radishes, peas, and carrots can be planted in the spring for an early harvest. How about growing a giant pumpkin for carving or some gorgeous sugar pumpkins for pies? If your child has a yen for flowers, consider quick-blooming annuals, such as snapdragons, marigolds, or petunias.
- Use the right tools. Every gardener needs a set of high-quality tools and gardening gloves, and children are no exception.
Give your budding green thumb a child-size shovel and hoe, along with a durable pair of gloves. - Cultivate good habits. Like many things in life, gardening success has as much to do with consistency as with luck or skill. Teach your child to store the tools away after use. Set aside 15 to 20 minutes once or twice a week to tend the garden. Show your child how to pull weeds and water the garden. These experiences offer bite-size lessons in responsibility and organization.
- Eat the fruits of your labors. Children get firsthand experience of the food cycle when the plants they grew appear on your dinner table. Have your child help in the kitchen by preparing and cooking a tasty meal. Make Margherita pizza with tomatoes and basil. Scrub carrots for a quick snack. Slice strawberries for your breakfast cereal. Better yet, invite friends to join the feast or give your surplus vegetables to a food bank.
- Visit a farm or farmer's market.
Through gardening at home, children begin to understand where their food comes from. A visit to a farm or farmer's market helps them connect the dots even further and fosters an understanding of and appreciation for the earth and the farmers who work hard to bring us food.
As you plan gardening activities with children, consider the growing season and climate in your area. Choose plants known to grow well there. Think about your schedule, including vacations, and plan accordingly. It's much better to grow a small garden successfully than plan an unrealistic larger project that ends with poor results. Visit reputable local nurseries or your state's online university extension service to learn more about gardening in your area.
More About Children and Gardening
- Watch how you can include babies in gardening through vegetable exploration using their senses.
- Learn the important role that the great outdoors plays in a child's development, from learning to emotional to social.
- Find our educator's favorite gardening books for children.
- Find Earth Day activities and ideas to help you teach your children to go green on this special day and every day.
How to teach children gardening? | Gardening
Gardening is a world in which we all have a place. Regardless of our age, gender or social status, each of us can enjoy plants and all that is needed to care for them. Of course, children are no exception, quite the contrary.
They are one of the main beneficiaries, not only because they can have fun while learning to sow, plant or even do a little pruning, but also because this knowledge will help them understand a little about how nature works. That's why below we are going to explain how to teach gardening to children adults tomorrow.
index
- 1 Choose the most suitable plants for children
- 2 Prepare the material that they need
- 2.
1 Baby Garden Gloves - 2.2 Flower pot
- 2.3 Earth 9001 seeds
- 2.
- 4 Create a plant care routine for them.
Choose the best plants for children
Image - Wikimedia / Francisco25
Children, especially the youngest, tend to put their hands to their mouths. This is their way of learning about what surrounds them, and what, therefore, is the most important thing to consider when choosing the right plants. To, First, you need to discard those that have spikes. like cacti, or latex like spurge (also poinsettia).
To move to a safe place, it is best to choose plants suitable for human consumption , because this way you will teach them how to grow their own food. And most of them are herbs that will be ready to be harvested in a few weeks. For example, these are:
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- Lettuce : sown in late winter / early spring, harvested after three months.
- Tomato : sown in early spring and harvested 4-5 months later.
- spinach : sown in early spring and harvested about 4 months later.
- Strawberries : sown in late winter/early spring and harvested about 5 months later.
Prepare the material they will need
Once you have chosen the plants you are going to plant, you must prepare a number of things so that they can perform this task safely and comfortably. Therefore, they will need:
Children's gardening gloves
To ensure that your hands are well protected, it is important that you wear special gloves. Obviously they should be in your size as the fact of wearing big or small ones will be uncomfortable for them.
Flower pot
There should be several holes in the base of the pot for water to drain out. . Otherwise, it doesn’t matter if it is made of plastic or clay, but just in case, we recommend plastic.
Although other options are also interesting, for example, a plastic cardboard box, milk containers or yogurt glasses pre-washed with water.
Earth
Earth it must be special for plants . Ideally get a seedbed substrate ready to use, but an all-purpose substrate for all living things (like the one they sell here) provided it's mixed with a little perlite, pumice, etc.
Water Can
Last but not least you should provide them with a small shower water so they can keep the soil moist.
Teach them to sow seeds
The best way to teach children (and adults, I would say) is to watch others do it. With that in mind, It's very interesting that you first plant the seed in the pot and then explain to the little ones how you do it and why. . In this way, they can more easily understand the whole process.
Explain that the seeds need to be buried a little because direct sunlight can burn them and spoil them.
In addition, they must know that the ground must always remain moist as they need water to stay hydrated and thus be able to germinate.
Also, if you are going to sow seasonal plant seeds, children should understand that some, like lettuce, will be harvested before they bloom, while others, like sunflowers, will be allowed to bloom because that way they will be able to produce more seeds, which are nothing but tubes that we later eat.
When it was their turn to stay by their side to resolve their doubts that they have.
Create a plant care routine for them.
Children should be the main characters. To do this, it is important that they not only see you planting the seed for the first time and consult with you on any doubts that arise, but also take care of the plants they have planted. Of course, You, as an adult, must explain to them when and why to water them, and in case of problems, why they have arisen, and what they must do to make their plants grow healthy.
You may find this article useful for this:
Article subject:
Environmental plant repellents and fungicides
It's great to feel that the smallest family members love taking care of their plants; In other words, they take responsibility and also do it with pleasure.
GARDENING FOR PRESCHOOL CHILDREN
The material is placed in the All-Russian collection of practice-oriented materials “Preschool and primary education - modern methods and education technologies”, July - 2021
Kutepova Julia Andreevna
Oliinichuk Marina Yuryevna
Erokhina Julia Sergeevna
Caucasus
9 »
Belgorod
Activation of the senses and motor skills, dissemination of knowledge about the importance of environmental protection - these are just some of the benefits of gardening for children. Gardening helps children explore the world: understand the cycles of life, the seasons and the importance of nature.
Growing your own crops is a great way to help children understand where food comes from and learn the skills they need. But what can you do with the children in the garden and how involved can they be? Give them simple tasks and use the situation to tell them something new and useful. It is important that children can actually participate in the process without having to worry about dirt. If you are going to often spend time together in the garden, it is worth allocating or purchasing garden clothes and shoes, gloves. Of course, you can take old jeans, but a “working” overalls will be more practical, especially on your knees.
Gardening with small children is a real challenge. Their boundless enthusiasm and their inability to tell valuable plants from weeds can be a powerful combination that can make you lose your temper. The key to the solution is preparation. You need to think in advance about what you are going to do and what they can do to help, and be prepared for certain actions that are not related to your goals.
The best way to teach little ones is to imitate: you plant and they, you weed and they. Your task is to provide a working front, allocate space and tools. Children under 5-6 years old do not need to be criticized, so as not to discourage the desire to engage in gardening and not deprive them of the joy of creativity. Older children should understand how important it is to follow the technology of planting, growing, timely watering, feeding plants, etc. One of the activities in which babies can do more harm than good is weeding.
You won't be able to weed and watch what they're doing, and in the end you'll see a lot of valuables torn out. It is helpful to talk about weeds and show them what they look like. Children will be happy to help in the harvest: they will bring ripe tomatoes or berries.
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Another outdoor activity that can be fun is painting a fence, a door or just a board. It is important to praise the child, tell how he is doing well, and suggest a new place for drawing.
Considering that children have the greatest ability to learn at an early age and that contact with nature, being in nature and growing plants positively affect overall health, reasons for including children in gardening are many.
⦁ Gardening for children activates their senses and motor skills.
In the garden, in addition to being able to touch the soil, use different tools and seeds, children can also notice the differences between different plants in terms of color and size, smell different smells, and hear the sounds of different insects. Interaction with the environment stimulates the learning process. Playing with earth, hoes and water buckets, digging, planting, watering, pulling weeds stimulate body movements, especially hands. These activities help develop motor skills and through their own experience children learn what is hard and what is easy, small or big, smooth or rough, cold or warm, dry or wet.
⦁ Children learn about natural processes through play.
From the moment they sow the first seed, they will follow the growth and flowering of plants, the formation and ripening of fruits with immeasurable curiosity. They will have countless questions and therefore learn about natural processes. They will learn about the importance of insects and worms to plants and understand that everything in nature is interconnected. Comparing plant growth and fruit size, counting seeds, fruits or flower petals are fun games for kids, and recognizing plants by their appearance and name is a great memory game.
⦁ They acquire responsibility, patience and understanding of the importance of the environment .
By actively gardening, children quickly learn that they need to be patient and responsible and wait for the seed to germinate so that their plant can grow and bear its first fruits. They learn that it is necessary to water them regularly, clear weeds and dig around them, that plants need enough sunlight and wait for the seed to grow into a plant.
They will quickly understand why it is so important to take care of the environment. This is an opportunity to learn about pests, pesticides, pollution and recycling.
⦁ Gardening builds self-confidence and healthy eating habits.
Planting and growing plants, picking fruits and vegetables, peeling vegetables, and involving children in cooking from the plants they helped grow will certainly make you want to taste and eat the food they prepare. They will be happy to try vegetables and fruits that they themselves have planted and grown. This is the best way for kids to understand the importance of healthy food and proper nutrition.
5. Excellent family and preschool activities.
Gardening can become a family tradition that brings the whole family together at the same time every year. Parents and children will spend quality time working as a team, and later they will all participate in cooking, which is a rarity today.
