We all know that kids are bundles of boundless energy, so it’s no surprise that the coronavirus lockdown is proving exhausting for many parents! If you’re looking for ideas to keep your little ones occupied, look no further. As a base for homeschooling lessons, art projects, nature exploration and healthy exercise, your garden might just be the best - and most fun - classroom your kids ever have. In this short video we’ll share some handy tips to keep kids busy – and you sane!
This video shows what happens when you use ash from a fire in the vegetable garden and around fruit trees.
Self Sufficient Me is based on our small 3-acre property/homestead in SE Queensland Australia about 45kms north of Brisbane - the climate is subtropical (similar to Florida). I started Self Sufficient Me in 2011 as a blog website project where I document and write about backyard food growing, self-sufficiency, and urban farming in general. I love sharing my foodie and DIY adventures online so come along with me and let’s get into it! Cheers, Mark 🙂
Now is the time to learn about what are the BEST Vegetables to Grow with Kids this year in your garden. We are excited to share with you the our top picks of vegetables for gardening with kids.
Becky of Kid World citizen, master teacher, talented writer and expert in Global Education is our guest writer today. She has a fabulous backyard garden and her kids are willing to try new vegetables for dinner because of it.
It’s just about that time of year to end this miserable cold (finally) and start enjoying spring weather and thinking about what vegetables to grow with kids in our gardens! Gardening is the ideal outdoor learning experience: playing in the mud, learning about underground ecosystems, watching our plants grow with sunlight and rain and some tender care, and getting the gratification of growing a food that we can eat at the end of the process (and maybe even trying something new!). If you’d like to get your kids more involved this year, here are our best veggies to grow with kids.
VEGETABLES TO GROW WITH KIDS: FASTEST GROWING FOR (ALMOST) INSTANT GRATIFICATION
Kids want it, and want it NOW! All of these choices will germinate from seed in just days when you add water and sunlight, giving kids a chance to see how crooked or straight their seed lines were! What about spreading the seeds in the form of their initial? What’s great about these three choices is that you can pick and eat them while they are still young, shortening growing time even more.
VEGETABLES TO GROW WITH KIDS: MOST PROLIFIC VEGGIE FOR RAW MUNCHERS
3. Herbs (try mint, lemon balm, parsley, or chives)
One of the best part of gardening is being able to eat raw veggies straight from the plant. To be honest, I don’t remember ever being able to pick enough snap peas to actually make them because my kids eat the entire harvest from the vine before I even get to snap a picture. Cherry tomatoes are a given, because varieties nowadays produce fruit the entire growing season (65-85 F during the day, and nights should be above 55). As for herbs, mint grows, and grows, and if you’re not careful it can take over your herb garden! That being said my kids think it’s cool that they can walk by and grab a leaf to eat. If your kids don’t like mint, try parsley or chives, or even lemon balm for a sensory blast every time you walk past it.
VEGETABLES TO GROW WITH KIDS: BEST CHOICE FOR THOSE WITHOUT A GREEN THUMB
If you are looking for the absolute easiest to grow- meaning you forget that you even have a garden- look no further. My green beans have been re-seeding themselves for years and grow like a jungle with little care. Asparagus sounds challenging, but it is incredibly simple. From the snowy Midwest to tropical Houston, plant it once, and it will grow in the same spot every growing season for 20 years! Potatoes are so easy it is almost a joke. I once sent my 5 year old out to the garden with a container of forgotten purple potatoes from Whole Foods that had gone bad, forgotten in the back of our pantry. I told Ricky to plant them and I honestly forgot he had done so for a couple of months. We went out to prepare our garden in the spring and found the ground peppered with TONS of purple potatoes that had grown during our mild winter!
Explore art in the garden with this herb painting with kids craft idea, a simple but creative garden themed preschool activity. With just paint and herbs your child will create colorful art and a love of herbs in the garden.
I’m am beyond thrilled to share today on the Educators Spin On It, and to be included in this fabulous “Kids in the Garden” series. ~Melissa of Mama Miss
ART IN THE GARDEN: HERB PAINTING ACTIVITY FOR KIDS
I am the daughter of a botanist and an artist, so having those two things co-exist together only seemed fitting in the activity I am sharing with you today.
I have been surrounded by plants, flowers, and herbs my entire life, and I am even named after one (so is my sister). Melissa officinalis is commonly known as lemon balm, a fragrant lemony herb.
My little ones love to paint and love the process of painting, painting with different materials, and using different mediums in painting. Now, why I don’t happen to have any lemon balm in our garden this year just yet, we do have several other herbs, that are quite common, that we are experimenting with today for painting. So get your little ones out in the garden, identify some common herbs, and bring them in to paint with.
My kids adore our backyard garden. There are so many benefits to spending the time, money, and efforts to starting a garden with young children. This newest Garden Classroom resource will amaze you with the simple, easy to prepare hands-on activities in math, science, literacy, and art that you can do with your child to help them learn and grow while spending time outdoors.
Cathy James has gifted me with this amazing resource, so that I could share it with you! THANKS! She is a hands-in-the-dirt kind of teacher that is always inspiring me to take our gardening to the next level.
Learning and Growing with Kids in the Garden
Often, we overlook the learning potential of a garden. Yes, the benefits of gardening are numerous: from the natural produce harvest from the garden to the life lessons in responsibility. But a garden can also take art, reading, math, and science and truly bring academics to life.
As a an educational writer, I have had the opportunity to connect with others who are passionate about getting kids in the garden learning and growing. Cathy James, creator and author of Nurture Store has just released her newest book, The Garden Classroom: Hands-On Activities in Math, Science, Literacy, and Art. She is an advocate for fort building and hands-in-the-dirt learning.
This resource is a combination of how-to garden and how-to connect kids and acadmics in the garden. The activities are hands-on, outdoor based projects designed for young learners ages 4-8.
