Spring is upon us and as a parent you may be looking for new, fun ways to get your kids outside and learning. Gardening is a great activity as it lets kids play in the mud while also helping them learn. Here are five tips on getting your kids in the garden this year.
- Let them pick
Talk to your kids about plants and vegetables and let them pick what they want to grow. If they are engaged from the beginning, they will be more inclined to see the process through and what it will become.
Bonus: suggest different plants that they may not have seen before, like edible flowers.
- Tools for everyone
Kids love to have things to call their own. There is a large selection of gardening tools made for little hands that come in a variety of fun colours and patterns.
- Start small
Your local greenhouse, hardware store or Amazon may have little kits with seeds and soil that are basically fool proof! Especially perfect if you don’t have a green thumb yourself. They are great for indoors too so you don’t have to wait for spring thaw either.
Bonus: many greenhouses and hardware stores offer curbside pickup.
- Their own space
If you have a garden with enough room, give them a small plot that they can be solely responsible for.
Bonus: if you don’t have a plot available, let them decorate pots instead.
- Record the process
Take pictures along the way so at the end of the growing season they can look back at how their seeds went from hiding in the soil to a blossoming plant to eating the veggies they grow themselves!
