Share your love and passion for gardening with your kids by
bringing them into the garden to discover the pleasure of growing food. Gardening
may be the solution for parents struggling to find ways to encourage their kids to eat a
healthy and balanced diet. Allowing your child to pick fresh produce
from your garden will increase their desire to eat fresh vegetables. Tomatoes warm from the sun are
delicious. My son loved green onions and
once harvested and ate an entire row! Fresh peas are so delicious. Help your child build a snack using 5 foods from my plate harvested from the garden or purchased from a local farmer’s
market. Think of all the brain-building
vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients your kids will be eating and how that
will improve their nutrition.
Give
them a small piece of ground that is their own, along with gardening tools and
gloves. Provide instruction on how to plant
seeds and plants. For more information see the U of I Together Class offered August
10 to prepare a garden template using a paper towel, seeds, and glue. (More information and registration here.) Show
them the flowers, bugs, worms, and growing plants. Let them dig a hole and plant something. It is about time to plant your fall garden.
· Allow
the kids to emulate your garden activities in their own plot. Show them the
difference between weeds and plants, pull and cultivate weeds, water, fertilize
and care for their plants. Don’t forget
to show them the importance of bugs in the ecology of gardening.
· Take
your kids to an orchard
and allow them to help you pick fresh fruit.
Build a snack around that. Observe the bees and teach them about making
honey and pollination of plants.
Spend time in the outdoors with your child and applaud their discoveries and experience. Provide
ample opportunities for sensory experiences, such as varieties of colors, water
features, insects, water skippers, frogs, polliwogs, fun textures and treasures. Remember the mud pies you used to make as a
child, those provide excellent sensory experiences.
· Kids who participated in gardening projects scored higher in science achievement than those who did
not. Seeing a garden grow may spark your kids to ask questions like: Why do the
plants need sun? How does the plant “drink” water? Why are worms good for the
plants? Why are spiders needed in the
garden? The questions your kids will ask will provide plenty of subjects for discussion.
