*This is a collaborative guest post*
Gardening is a great way to share some memorable experiences with kids. Research supports the fact that children who do gardening perform well in school. How do you ensure your kids capture the interest of planting? Giving children gardening tools teaches them to be independent. Gardening also teaches children some of life’s essential characteristics, such as patience and responsibility.
Here’s the main issue: children don’t find gardening to be fun. How do you instill gardening ideas for kids?
Photo by Dirk Scheuble on Unsplash
Place the garden under your child’s responsibility
When parents teach kids new skills, it is easy for them to take over and expect the child to watch. You don’t need to take this course of action as many children need to interact with their environment. As a parent, you need to learn when to take a step back and let the children lead. Parents should guide their kids along the way, such as allowing them to construct the flower bed. Let the kids pick which plants and spring flowers they want to grow. Messing it all up is also a learning experience.
Teach uninteresting lessons first
There are several tedious facts when it comes to gardening. You need to get these boring lessons out of the way first before focusing on the exciting parts. Some of the boring topics include site analysis, checking soil conditions, draining, and checking sunlight. Most children will groan and moan unless they are future geologists. Before you plant the seeds, you need to ensure the environmental conditions are perfect.
Give kids their roles
All children need guidance. If they don’t get offered any advice, don’t expect them to start gardening. Make sure you establish roles by making them fun and unique. If you have two children, let one plant plants while the other plants vegetables. Make sure you teach them how to plant seeds as well as watering them. Teach them how often to water the plants as well as inspecting the gardening. Having roles will ensure kids come back to the garden to check their progress.
Allow kids to play in the dirt
Expect your kids to be gross. Parents are known to stop kids from taking part in gross activities. Some of these kids are excited by gross activities, such as playing in the dirt. Kids love playing in the soil, and it is an activity parents should encourage. They play in the ground because they like to feel and touch things. Kids don’t understand dirt and are curious about it. Make sure you allow your child to play while gardening. Let them play in the soil, but not where they are gardening.
Playing with bugs is allowed
Do you know what else kids love almost as much as dirt? Bugs. Yes, the creepy crawlers found in the garden should be viewed as toys. The soil has plenty of insects, and if you are the type of parent who hates bugs, you will easily scream at them. If you steer away your kids from bugs, it will automatically reinforce the fear of the outdoors. Kids will be afraid of nature and have no interest in gardening. In most cases, bugs are harmless and won’t harm your kids. Just make sure to watch from a distance and ensure they don’t wind up on an anthill.
Use plants for practical purposes
Kids can easily be distracted so ensure they are doing a fabulous job with the gardening. Make sure to teach them the variety of uses of plants in the garden. You can tell them plants can make the perfect gift as well as fresh fruits and vegetables. If you are fond of baking, teach your kids the importance of using fresh ingredients. You can cook these ingredients together with your kids as you cook. Kids love growing flowers and it’s sure to be a great way to ensure that gardening is fun and memorable.
Track their progress
Gardening involves a lot of work. You must track your kids’ progress as they are planting. Make sure to reinforce the idea of achieving goals after gardening. The right way to do this is to ensure your kids have a journal. They can take measurements of how much plants have grown after a week. Tell them to take pictures as it helps to measure the progress visually. When kids see they are making progress, they will fall in love with gardening.
Have small gardening tools
If you have standard everyday gardening tools, kids will see them as machines. Children will see your usual gardening tools as old folk implements. If you want your kids to enjoy gardening to the fullest, make sure to have small gardening tools. Find small enough gardening tools that are just right for them. It will make kids feel involved, and having their own tools makes them have fun with gardening. These tools should be child-friendly and the right size.
Create gardening contests and games
Why not have contests to see who can pull out the most weeds around a flower? You can also give some of the flowers funny names. Teach your kids that impatiens are also referred to as Bizzy Lizzy. Giving flowers funny names will ignite kids’ imagination, and they will offer to provide them with names. You can also associate fairy tale plants with your gardening plants. If your kids associate their plants with fairy tales, this will keep them more involved.
Don’t stop the learning process
Make sure you have science books that will help with the gardening process. Get books that show how each flower blossoms and how they create perfect patterns. Have books that help illustrate how flowers best reproduce in different ways. Ensure you take note of what your kids get attracted to most from gardening.
Gardening can be a fun activity for kids. Being out in nature will keep your kids away from video games. Ensure gardening with your kids is engaging and entertaining. All kids like to experiment and play. The above tips will ensure kids create a masterpiece when it comes to their garden.
Allow your kids to also do some of their own research. Make sure to promote their efforts and ideas as a way to encourage them to garden.
For bigger gardening and landscaping jobs check out https://www.thelocaltreeexperts.com/wa/seattle/
Resources— Decks Nursery, House Beautiful, Morning Chores, Garden Season
