Gardening with your children

Gardening can be a wonderful opportunity with your children.  There are so many opportunities to learn in gardening you will have to pick and chose what to do. You can talk about seeds and how they grow. Where plants are on the food chain. Use digging and planting a garden for a physical education slot. There are also many jobs associated with gardening that you could encourage your child to try. Many children are much more willing to try vegetables that they have helped grow!

Two weeks ago we started some seeds indoors. I had a large plastic container to put soil and water into. Then my sensory seeker Squire went to work stirring and in general making a mess.  Even my sensory defensive daughter Smiley thought that it looked like fun. She put her hands in the dirt and stirred twice.  That was enough she cleaned up. I was so proud of her to try something that was clearly outside her comfort zone.

seedling flats

I noticed that my sensory seeker who is always a bit of a large movement guy  had to watch his movement carefully with the seeds.  The flats made for a wonderful project in fine motor control. Each little square gets only one seed. I made sure that Squire got the larger seeds such as Marigold and Calendula.

Then there were the small seeds. I thought that they were dead, but we decided as a group to give them a try. Much to our surprise tons of them came up!  So now the kids are  incredibly excited and actively helping me with the seedlings care.

Alyssum

This is our journey into seeds and gardening. I hope I encourage you to try your hand at it.  Happy Gardening! God bless!