Spending time gardening with your children can be as exciting and worthwhile for yourself as it can be for them. Children love to explore, get their hands dirty and try new things. Just imagine the excitement on your child's face when their first sunflower sprouts through the soil, or when they eat their first home-grown strawberry - it's a moment that both of you will treasure forever.
Gardening with your kids has great educational benefits - children can be very curious about nature from an early age. Gardening allows children to discover new insects, learn how plants grow, develop sensory and physical skills, and learn the value and importance of sustainable living.
Gardening is a healthy, outdoor activity that will give you time to bond with your children without having to turn a computer system on.
Here are some tips to get started:
Start small
Rome wasn't built in a day! Don't dive in the deep end and attempt to do something too difficult for your child's first project. Start with something simple that gives you the opportunity to teach a number of skills. Growing sunflowers is a great project to teach your children the basics of gardening. You can show them what's needed for them to grow and develop their numeracy skills by counting seeds and measuring water.
Keep a scrapbook
Starting a scrapbook is a great way for them to keep track of their activities. Take pictures every day to see how much they have grown and stick them into the scrapbook. You could even turn it into an activity book and set them different challenges each day.
Lookout for insects
Keep an eye out for any insects that they might come across in the garden and teach them something about each one. Ask your children to describe the actions or movements of the insects to help develop literacy - wiggly worms and buzzing bees. Play a game to see who can do the best impression!
Remember.....it's their project!
It's important that you don't get carried away - remember it's your children's gardening project, not yours! Let them make their own mistakes and then you can teach them where they went wrong and how to do it better next time.
Gardening with your children really can be a magical experience so, even if you don't like gardening, embrace it and make the most of it. You never know, you might learn something yourself!
