As a parent, my children’s development is one of my main priorities. Everyday, I get them up and take them to school, where they are stuck in a classroom for hours with limited outdoor play. Although classroom education is important, there are awesome ways to help teach them in the comfort of home.
If you feel, like I do, that you need to nurture them a bit more, consider the benefits of gardening. The garden is a fantastic stimulating space to nurture your children, both intellectually and emotionally. There are many ways that the garden can be a wonderful learning space for your children.
Related: Planning a Spring Vegetable Garden
It Highlights Family Time
I don’t know about you, but my family is so bust these days. Family time has become sacred. Starting a garden and doing it as a family, provides a one-on-one environment with your children. Help get your children involved! Consider how they would like to design the garden, what plants they would like to include and other additions they can add (consider a gnome or a bird feeder).
A new backyard patio could make all the difference, and the article Top 10 Materials to Consider for a New Backyard Patio can give you some inspiration. The garden is a perfect place for your family to get away from screens and be involved with each other and the outdoors.
It Teaches Them Responsibility
I’m sure you’ve heard that daily chores are good for children. Consider gardening as a great opportunity to teach responsibility. Spend time daily: watering, weeding, planting and pruning. The benefits of hard work will be seen in the beauty of the garden and the wonderful fruits and vegetables that your child gets to pick. There are very few things as rewarding as working with your hands, and being able to eat your rewards is even more fulfilling!
Related: Nine Things I Try and Do For My Kids Daily
It Teaches The Benefits of Horticulture
As a society, we have lost the connection we used to have with plants and animals. Learning the basics of plant care is such a great skill to teach your children. Some of these concepts include: companion planting, growing food and working with your hands. These basic skills can lead to a lifelong love of nature and the outdoors. It’s such an important interest to cultivate if we want to raise out children to love the world around us.
It Provides Mental Health Benefits
Depending on where you live, gardening may be the closest your child can get to nature. Getting your children into gardening may seem daunting, but gardening helps your children to develop essential skills. While it’s fantastic for their body management skills, motor skills, and their sensory stimulation, gardening is a fantastic tool to provide a sense of calmness. As children can be overstimulated, pressurized, and forever feel the weight of needing to perform well in school, having a garden for them to tend to can help them relax as well as develop their cognitive skills at the same time.
It Allows Them To Play Outside
So many children spend a lot of time in front of screens. Getting them outside for an hour has numerous positive impacts on their health. It is absolutely important to get our children outside running and playing. Gardening gets children outdoors, which always seems to turn into a game. We make games out of picking tomatoes, watering plants and pruning leaves! The time outside starts as just 20 minutes, but before we know it, the children are outside running and playing for hours!
There are so many benefits to gardening. Learning to nurture a child’s love for gardening, and staying away from screen time can make such a huge difference in our childen’s development. If we can get them in touch with nature just a little bit, it can provide them with skills they can use for the rest of their life.
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