Involving Your Kids In The Gardening Process
Kids tend to become bored at seemingly warp speed. Keep your kids interested by making the experience as fun as possible. Allow them some creative freedom as far as the design and gardening accessories go. Allow them to decorate with flags, pinwheels, garden gnomes, and bright colored potting plants. The more colorful and entertaining your garden is, the more time your little one will want to spend there. Having them make designs with rocks is another great way to get them involved and keep them interested and excited about gardening.
Gardening can be hard work, but remember not to push your kids too hard. You want things to remain fun so they enjoy gardening for leisure, instead of looking at it as a chore. Children have shorter attention spans than adults, so try and keep their tasks as simple and fun as possible. Trial and error is a great way for kids to learn so don't be afraid to give their ideas a try, even if you are unsure of what the outcome will be. It can be fun to experiment with your little ones and make records of the results of your experiments.
Gardening is great because it is an activity that the entire family can participate in. Decide as a family what vegetables and fruits you will grow and allow everyone to have an input. If your children are older, you can give them specific tasks like watering or weeding. Seeing the fruits of your labor and eating a meal of freshly picked food from the garden can really bring the family closer as you will know you accomplished something as a team. Taking photos of the food in your garden, and also the meal you cooked with it, can help make lasting memories to look back on someday.
Incorporate flowers into your garden that will attract butterflies, humming birds and other garden friendly wildlife. Adding bird feeders around the garden will attract birds of all kinds. Your kids will be delighted every time they enter the garden and encounter the wonders flying and fluttering all around them. This will help your kids understand nature better and how the cycle works. They can learn about the relationships between plants and animals and how they need each other to live and grow.
Gardening is a wonderful activity that the whole family can take part in and enjoy. Hopefully this article has given you some great ways of incorporating your kids into the joys of gardening. Apply the tips from this article and you will be on your way to teaching your kids the wonders of the garden.