Gardening inspired activities for kids

"Why try to explain miracles to your children when you can have them plant a garden." -Janet Kilburn Phillips

Gardening is a great way to get kids outside and give them a better sense of how plants grow.There is no better feeling than to watch your plants grow and produce food for you and your family. It is such an accomplished feeling. This way of life and feeling should be passed down from generation to generation.

BENEFITS OF GARDENING FOR KIDS

"Gardens and children need the same things - patience, love and someone who will never give up on them." -Nicolette Sowder

As outdoor activities go, gardening is hard to beat for promoting well-rounded development in youngsters. Whether the garden is in pots on an apartment balcony, a community patch or right out the back door, kids who engage with it are harvesting a whole lot more than food and flowers.

Gardening encourages healthy eating.
It is a great family activity.
Garden tasks such as digging, raking and turning compost use a variety of muscles in the upper and lower body and provide engaging, moderate exercise.
It enhances fine motor development ,from picking up tiny seeds to gently caring for seedlings and plants.
It improves focus,mood and memory.For example, flowers produce powerful positive emotions and have both immediate and long-term effects on emotional reactions, mood and social behavior.Children learn to relax on their own when they garden.The symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are relieved by outdoor green space, helping children focus both while they occupy the space as well as later in the day.
It develops STEM and analytical abilities.Children work on math and science skills by observing the plant life cycles.
It engages the senses.
It builds self confidence and teaches patience and responsibility.Learning how to care for the plants properly,from watering to weeding , is a great lesson in responsibility for kids. Gardening is an opportunity to chat with your kids about research and planning.

HOW TO GET KIDS INVOLVED IN GARDENING

"To plant in a garden is to believe in tomorrow." -Audrey Hepburn

Teaching kids to garden is as important as teaching them how to swim.

Letting them get dirty will make it more likely they will want to help next time, knowing that they are free to get dirty and have fun.A pair of garden clothing can ease of your worry on dirt.
Take them into the garden to pick a snack.
Make gardening even more fun for kids by planting a "themed" garden.
Let them observe the growth of a plant making sprout houses.

Allow them to water the plants daily.
Get some new gardening play tools like a pair of gloves, shovel, watering can, etc .
Let the kids transplant the plants into their new homes in the garden.Be sure to water after you've transplanted so the soil settles around the plant.
Working side-by-side with your kids will show them you love doing it too and give them even more of a reason to do it.
Offer a special treat after working in the garden, this could be a fresh snack right from the garden.
Let them harvest the crops along your side.
Add gardening activities to learning as they will be more interested in creating real ones.

MAKE YOUR OWN SPROUT HOUSE

STEPS:

We created a little sponge house,joined with tooth picks,and spread soaked green beans(green gram) over the roof and floor.It was a struggle spreading on the roof.
The house was kept in a tray and water was added to it.
Kids watered the roof with dropper daily(heavy water made the beans to fall down,so used a dropper).
We kept it near the window for the sunlight kiss.
Our proud STEM project ,which took a period of 10days, was accompanied by a sequencing set of a seed growing into a plant .

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DIY MICROGREEN POT MAN

This microgreen set from @flintobox has a pot,coco peat,seeds,watering can,scissors and facial stickers.

Create a pot man adding facial features to the pot.Add cocopeat and enough water to expand it.Spread the seeds on the peat bed.

After getting daily water and sunshine, you will see the small plants shooting up.Your microgreen pot man is ready.

OUR GARDEN DIY BOARD GAME

This is a diy cooperative game, inspired by 'my orchard' game.

It consist of a gameboard, a dice, brainflake flowers and a bottle cap honeybee.
The 6 faces of dice are coloured red, blue, orange, green, purple and a bee on sixth face.
The aim of the game is to pluck all the flowers before the bee reaches them.
Flowers are collected in the basket as per the rolled out colour.
If the rolled out one is a bee, the bee can move a space.
The game is won if all flowers are plucked before the bee reaches the top of the column given on the side of the board.
The board can be used for colour recognition by younger kids, rolling the dice and adding flowers to the specific plant.
The game focusses on colour recognition ,social bonding and hand-eye coordination skills.

DIY BAMBOO PLANT POT

You need a bamboo piece of 4-6 inch diameter. Create an opening along the length and add a mixture of cocopeat and compost. Close the ends with geofabric so that the mixture does not drip out. Shallow root plants are preferred. Water daily if kept outside or on alternate days if inside. You may varnish the bamboo to prevent from getting rotten with water.

DIY FOAM FLOWER GARDEN

You need straws, foam sheets, air dry clay and pistachio shells.
It all began by creating spring flowers with straws and foam sheets. The flowers were fixed vertically using clay. This is a repurposed activity from @flintobox to which I added a few more straws and foam flowers to create a ten frame.
Pistachio shells were turned into little bees. These bees act as ten frame counters.

GARDENING THEMED BOOKS

Getting kids exposed to garden and gardening based book will arouse the curiosity and help in getting kids involved in gardening.Here are a few suggestions.