I love having our kids in the garden with me, gardening is teaching them more about life, the science of how the food grows, and why we want worms and bumblebees. They learn more from doing in the garden than a science book is going to tell them about the process.
Kids in the Kitchen – Gardening with your Kids
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Remember this: Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn. – Benjamin Franklin
We love watching our garden grow each summer, and we can’t wait to start snacking. Which is the whole reason we garden when we think about it.
As much as kids like to snack, providing an (almost) all-you-can-eat veggie buffet is the best way to get them to have healthy snacks, and try new fruits and veggies.
Making a salad from fresh garden vegetables is a great way to show how tasty vegetables are, to practice cutting with knives, as well as the growing of food.
Introducing Growing Food
The first thing you can do is to let your kids pick out something to grow themselves. Of course, this is going to come after you have decided whether you are having your garden in the ground, raised beds, or even container gardening.
The one thing my oldest always picks is cauliflower. She loves it.
Try to let them grow it themselves. From the planting to watering it, to the harvest. And the cooking which is what this series is all about.
In the case of cauliflower, they need to cut it, and then decide what they are going to do with it. Are they cutting it up for veggies and dip, or to steam, or maybe for making a pizza crust?
We have grown a pizza garden in containers around our patio. It was amazing to walk out the front door to fresh herbs and tomatoes growing and waiting to be used in pizza. Growing herbs is something your children can grow throughout the year on a window sill too.
If you don’t have the space for a garden, or maybe you don’t want to or can’t grow vegetables for whatever reason, another great way to garden with your kids is to grow flowers.
Growing flowers that bumblebees love to help them out, teach your kids about the importance of bumblebees and their place in growing food.
You can find more posts about gardening with your kids all over Forgetful Momma. It’s something we love to do!
Gardening with Kids
Getting your kids outside and gardening is a great, fun activity for the summer, a way to learn a great life skill and get some science in.
Seasonally when we start new topics the first thing I do is grab some books, this time, it’s gardening books for gardening with kids.
Being curious and the experimenting type we did some soil testing in our backyard. Not just on our soil in the backyard, but did the whole thing in the windy yard.
It’s that time of year when we are planning our garden, watching how our garden grows, or maybe you’re already enjoying some of your gardens spoils.
Since I love knowing what we planted where, garden stakes are quite important, and they can look great too.
We’re planting a fun herb garden together that I know my kids will love. Because they love pizza.
This year we also have a bee garden of sorts. We are planting flowers around our yard for bees.
Earlier this week we planted some seeds in a mini greenhouse.
Having a place to have a vegetable garden was a top priority when we were house hunting.
More Gardening with Your Kids
Fun Herbs for Kids to Grow in Their Garden