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Kids in the Garden Growing Memories that Last

Kids in the Garden Growing Memories that Last

Children Thrive in the Garden

Kids and gardening go hand and hand… or hands-in-dirt! We’ve never seen a kid who didn’t love to play in the dirt. Heck… some of us big kids never grew out of that, right?!?  Kids in the garden is as natural as peas in a pod.

Lessons from Nature

Teaching children gardening provides a wonderful hands on education on so many levels. We hear from many adults whose fondest memories are gardening—or related to gardening in some way—with their parents, grandparents, relatives or neighbors.

Gardeners know that the lessons learned from nature through observation and contemplation are endless and profound.

“Kindergarten” – Means Garden for Children

Including kids in the garden and all it’s aspects, teaches all about nature, cycles of life, where food really comes from, how to nurture, and so much more. After all, the word “Kindergarten” was originated by German Friedrich Froebel, based on the concept of teaching and nurturing children, each according to his/her needs in much the same way a gardener nurtures each plant.

Fond Memories for Life – Stories From the Garden

Sherri Norman shared this on our Facebook Page, and gave us permission to share it:
“I grew up my entire life with a backyard garden that my parents started. My siblings and myself always were out working in the soil. It got to where the neighbor kids would come over to watch stuff grow or to help. If one of my friends helped—pulling weeds or such—my parents would give them veggies to take home. I now do the same with my garden. Anyone in my neighborhood that’s interested and helps, reaps some of the harvest. Amazing to see now, neighbors with window box veggies growing. I love watching things grow! Pure bliss when I’m working in the dirt.”
~Sherri E. Norman, Gardens All Facebook Page. [1]https://www.facebook.com/gardensall/

On Kids and Gardening:
“The neighborhood kids would come over to watch stuff grow, or to help.”
~Sherri E. Norman

We love hearing these stories of folks share their fond memories of gardening as children. Some gardened with parents or as a family. Others gardened when visiting grandparents or helping neighbors. Most children who grow up in and around a garden, also grow up loving gardening, plants and growing things.

“Nurturing the soil nurtures the soul.”
~GardensAll.com

Planting More Than Seeds

Sherri’s family gardening tradition beautified more than her family’s yard and fed more than their tummies. For Sherri, it nourished her soul and cultivated a lifelong tradition of nurturing plants and people through gardening.

“In ever gardener is a child who loves to play in the dirt. In every child is a gardener ready to grow.”
~LeAura Alderson, GardensAll.com

Kids in the Garden – Scrapbook Memories!

Dirt, spade, rake, kids, seeds, hose and water!

Most little kids love digging around in the dirt, holding lady bugs and finding earthworms and roly-poly’s. Including kids in the garden activities fosters a well-earned sense of being a part of something important to the family, and cultivates a sense of self worth only found from effort and contribution.

Introducing children to the gardening early on, provides priceless experiences and invaluable education that lasts a lifetime.

I would educate human beings who with their feet stand rooted in God’s earth . . . whose heads reach even into heaven and there behold truth, in whose hearts are united both earth and heaven.
~Friedrich Fröbel, German pedagogue and founder of the word kindergarten

Activities for Kids in the Garden

  1. BUGS: Have kids learn, look for and destroy the bad garden bugs, such as:
  2. WATERING: Let the kids water the plants. Kids enjoy watering the garden, and yes, they’ll be drinking from the hose… and end up as wet—or wetter—than the plants before they’re done, but that’s part of the fun, and it helps them develop a fond relationship with the garden while growing memories that last.[2]https://www.kidsgardening.org/garden-activities-start-early-and-end-late-to-beat-the-heat/

The kids can do this with you at first, then later it can be their area to manage. They can be the “garden pest manager”, and gain a sense of importance by the responsibility of being in charge of something in the garden. If they don’t do their job well, you can redirect them to their task and focus on praising the things they get right.

Focus on the good things to help children grow fond memories of their time with you. This will help them develop many fond memories together and help their love of gardening to take root.

These two simple things can be turned into entire gardening curriculums, and we touch on that next.

I grew up with a vegetable garden and I love being close to the earth and growing things.
~Curtis Stone, author, The Urban Farmer

Lessons from the Garden — Things to Do Together

Garden Planning

Children can be included in each process of planning the garden. You can start by discussing as a family what to grow. Make this fun by making a list of everyone’s favorite vegetables. Kids will usually immediately jump into naming theirs.

Once you have a list, write next to each item, how tall it will grow and how much space it needs. We won’t go into a lot of detail here. We’ve written about garden planning in other articles, but the bottom line, at each stage, consider what the children can do to participate and assign them that.

If for instance, you create a garden sketch on graph paper, they can color in the veggies. For the older children, they can help with the garden app, if you choose to use that (our favorite tool).

Ordering Seeds

When it’s time to order seeds, you can do that together as well. Make a list of your family’s favorite veggies, then comb through the catalogs (or online) together to order or shop for the seeds them locally. Once you’re done, the kids may also enjoy cutting out veggie pictures and making your own garden map on poster paper. It could become your own “secret garden map”. ?

The Best Teacher is Experience

There are so many ways to include children in gardening. We all learn best through hands on experiences. You know… learning from life and doing real things. That’s the best learning, and those are the lessons we all remember most, and in those lessons wonderful memories are also planted.

Whether you homeschool, or just want to provide hands-on learning and growth for your kids, it’s easy to create entire curriculums around gardening. See a list of curriculum ideas next.

“If man is to attain fully his destiny, so far as earthly development will permit this, if he is to become truly an unbroken living unit, he must feel and know himself to be one, not only with God and humanity, but also with nature.”
~Friedrich Fröbel, German pedagogue and founder of the word kindergarten

BOOK: Gardening Projects for Kids by Jenny Hardy

Here’s a gardening curriculum starter list to jumpstart yours tailored to your kids:

A Children’s Garden Curriculum Teaches Real World Lessons