Gardening with children has many benefits including developing fine motor skills, learning valuable life skills, and building confidence. However, if you are a first time gardener, introducing you children to the world of gardening may seem like a daunting task. Fear not, we have some tips for you that will help make the process a little easier and more fun! Gardening with children doesn’t actually have to start in the garden. An important step to gardening is teaching your little ones about what they will be growing and how different fruits and vegetables form. Thanks to Mama’s Happy Hive we have a few activities that will get your little ones interested in what you will be growing in your garden!
Matching Game
A great way to introduce your little ones to gardening is to start with learning what will go into your garden! Make your own flashcards with pictures of whatever fruits, vegetables, and plants will go into your garden. Then, have your little ones match the real life fruit and veggies to the cards! If you have older children that are interested in gardening you can write out what different gardening tools are used for and have them match the use with the object!
Exploring the Seeds
A fun way for your little ones to learn more about how fruits and vegetables grow is to let them dig right in! Start with small and squishy fruits like tomatoes. Your little ones can easily get into the middle of a tomato and look at the seeds. This is a fun and interactive way for your little ones to learn more about how things grow.
Seed Matching
Another matching activity to help your little gardeners identify seeds! Take some seed packets and empty their contents into different cups. Show your children which seeds are associated with each fruit or vegetable. Then use the packets of the seeds and the pictures you have from the first activity and let your children match the seeds to the picture of what they will become and to their seed packet!
We hope you decide to give these activities a try with your aspiring gardeners! Even if you aren’t planning to garden with your little ones, they might still enjoy tearing into a tomato and finding the seeds! Let us know in the comments if your family enjoys gardening together! Remember to click the share button to share these tips with your friends and family!