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Share your love for gardening with your most precious possessions. Kids DO love gardening! But you may have to tweak your traditional gardening routine.
Here’s a list of questions to ask yourself before you throw them into the dirt!
What Types of Crops Do Kids Like To Grow?
All plants are NOT the same. Here we have examples from CityGrowers.org.
“Borage Flowers
“You can eat this?!” Yes! Students gently remove the flowers from their fuzzy, thorny-looking stems and taste them, watching your face assuming you’re trying to trick them. Not only are they an edible flower that tastes like cucumber, but they are also a favorite of honey bees and a companion plant for tomatoes.
Cherry Tomatoes
Juicy, sweet and colorful – orange, red, even near-black – they make for the perfect farm snack. Cherry tomatoes are also great for some messy seed saving come fall.
Mint
By far the most recognizable herb for students on the farm and one that draws the most associations. Gum! Toothpaste! Mint chocolate chip ice cream! Medicinal herbs? You bet! Kids leave the farm armed with the knowledge that a cup of mint tea can help abate their next tummy ache.”
Source: https://citygrowers.org/top-10-crops-kids-love/
How Do I Make It Fun For Them?
How do I incorporate crafts and projects into gardening? Here’s a great project idea from KidsGardening.org on how to make a butterfly garden!
“Plant a Butterfly Garden
Overview: Kids love butterflies! Encourage your child’s sense of connection to the natural world and invite butterflies into your landscape by planting a butterfly garden. A butterfly garden provides a colorful array of nectar-producing plants that not only attract butterflies (and often hummingbirds as well), but offers plants to feed the caterpillar stage of their life cycle. With the appropriate plantings, a butterfly garden provides opportunities to educate your children about the life cycle of a butterfly, allowing them to view each stage of growth and explore the intricate relationships of plants and animals.”
Source: http://www.kidsgardening.org/plant-a-butterfly-garden/
Follow the source to get all the details. If your kid doesn’t like butterflies, KidsGardening has TONS of projects you can skim through to find the perfect idea for your little gardener.
How Can I Make Cooking The Food We Grow Fun?
SheKnows.com stresses an important point that makes cooking the most fun for kids: being together. And we can’t stress this enough.
“Plan a weekly menu together”
“Go grocery shopping together”
“Prepare meals together”
“Enjoy lessons learned and time spent together”
Source: http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/826485/make-cooking-fun
Just One More Tip
Simple Bites tells us that get ready, kids are going to be very messy!
“ONE LAST THING: DON’T FEAR THE MESS…
Over on Simple Kids, Jaimie dishes 7 Tips for Successful Cooking With Kids and she definitely nailed it with that post. I loved what she said about mess:
“I’m not a big fan of cleaning the kitchen, so more mess in that room certainly adds to my stress level. And I understand, too, that when you’re extremely short on time, the last thing you want is more cleaning to do. But this kind of mess is temporary. The more skilled your kids become in the kitchen, the less messy the results.”
That is so true! So pick a few recipes, pour a cup of coffee, and summon the kids!”
Source: http://www.simplebites.net/easy-recipes-that-kids-can-cook/
Follow boards on Pinterest (like this one) for lots of great project ideas to get your kids fully engaged in gardening!
Looking for more recipes? Here’s a good link from Artful Parent. 50 Different recipes and ideas for kids having fun in the kitchen.
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