WHY TEACH KIDS ABOUT GARDENING ?
A garden is an outdoor classroom. Be the teacher that leads a child to a garden. Here are reasons to engage children and teens in gardening: Gardening is a fun way to learn and explore the world around you. When engaged in hands-on learning, children remember and learn through their experience. They ask questions to understand what they see first hand, then learn how things are connected.
Gardening with children brings families and people together. Spending quality time together, and doing something fun builds bonds among those working together, making new friends. Youth leaders emerge. Children experience pride in their results of teamwork as garden tasks are accomplished and various garden activities are carried out.
Stewardship, and caring for something that grows helps kids care more about people and other living things around them. Children learn to respect the environment and understand cycles in nature leading to sound conservation practices and environmental protection.
Gardening with children, teaches so many things. Outdoor safety is practiced and children experience how to carry and use tools. Kids learn to like science and art and exploring outdoors! When gardening, children become engaged in hands-on learning in science fields: botany, soils, biology, chemistry, entomology, ornithology, dendrology, etc. and for those who are interested, they can expand into photography, art, creative writing, journals, and more. They learn to identify, classify, and use observation skills and notice the beauty and details in nature. They might learn bird calls and insect sounds and learn about wildlife. Kids learn how to behave around insects and other wildlife that may visit a garden. Children become engaged in cross-curricular activities and many areas of interest.
If kids grow vegetables and eat their own vegetables, they eat healthier and become very proud of themselves. They learn about different kinds of vegetables and parts of plants. Some kids may learn to cook vegetables and try a food that is new to them. Garden activities help kids learn skills. They practice following directions.
Gardening is a good physical exercise outdoors, involving motor skills, coordination, and balance. It’s healthy to spend time outdoors and move your body. Children learn patience and trust and the importance of doing things right the first time. When caring for a garden, children learn responsibility about participating in planned activities. Kids learn about volunteerism and feel pride about giving back to their community.
For teens, there is an opportunity to earn Community Service hours volunteering in community gardens required for National Honor Society, or Scouts, or to include on a resume for a scholarship or college admission application. Some teens may use their gardening community service as job experience and a stepping stone to a job on a college campus caring for a college student garden or for a garden related job elsewhere. Reach out to a young child or a teen. Be the reason they discover gardening. They may teach others and carry what they learn, for a lifetime.
