The love of nature and gardening often starts at an early age. Many of us have fond memories of digging in the dirt with grandparents or eating snap peas fresh off the vine. These days playing around in the garden create memories – and teach lessons – that last lifetime.
LESSON #1 – PLANNING
The process of laying out can teach kids a lot about planning. They’ll learn which plants work well together (and those that don’t) along with how much sunlight and water each plant needs. But it’s not just a science lesson. Planning encompasses many other subjects. For example…
- Planning and sketching out a garden involves math. Measuring the garden, whether on paper or physically staking out an area, will determine how much space is available for growing. Measuring the recommended spacing between plants or calculating each plant’s potential yield is another way to add math to your outdoor classroom.
- Researching various plants is an ideal way to add more reading minutes to your child’s day. There are also several garden-centric books for kids that are perfect for storytime.
- Do you have a garden budget? Welcome to economics class, kids! It’s never too early to explain the why’s and how’s of creating and implementing a budget.
- When it’s time to purchase seeds, plants, and supplies, use cash and let your junior gardener do the shopping. Coach them to make good selections based on quality and cost. It becomes even more real when they see the cash leave their hands.
LESSON #2 – MAINTAINING
When the planning is done, the real work begins! The planting phase offers a variety of hands-on learning opportunities for young gardeners.
- As kids get their hands dirty planting seeds and starter plants, they’re seeing science at work.
- If working with seeds, have your young apprentice track daily activity in their own gardening journal. They will soon see how the life cycle of a plant is affected by sunlight, water, and nutrients.
- Have them measure the progress of the plant once it begins to sprout. Yay! More math!
- Even weeding a garden is a lesson on how weeds can deprive other plants of nutrients. It’s science!
LESSON #3 – HARVESTING
Whether you planted a vegetable or flower garden, the harvesting phase is an exciting time. Your kids are more likely to eat their vegetables if they’re the ones who grew them!
- Math is an easy addition (no pun intended) to this phase. Ask your kids to count how many different plants they harvest as they sort them by color and size.
- Introduce some easy equations to see if their originally-anticipated yield compares to the actual harvest.
- If gathering flowers, teach a simple lesson on how to create a lovely floral arrangement.
Gardening is a great way for your kids to apply their school smarts to real-life situations in your own backyard. However, many of life’s most valuable gardening lessons can’t be found in a textbook. Dedication, patience, teamwork, the importance of sharing from abundance, and spending quality time with loved ones are lessons that your children will remember for the rest of their lives.
If you or your kids have any questions, bring your gardener-in-training to our greenhouse. We love to teach! But don’t worry, kids. There won’t be a pop quiz.
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