Gardening with Children
Nowhere else but in nature can the cycle of life be observed best. The garden is a protected space where children can freely develop. In this blog post, we introduce you to where children can help with gardening, how to inspire them to enjoy gardening, and many great ideas about gardening with children.
Exploring Nature with All the Senses
There is so much for children to discover in the garden. It is a place where all the senses are flooded with stimuli. You can hear, see, and sometimes even touch animals. Grass, soil, trees – everything feels different and smells and scents differently. Children see how flowers slowly emerge from the ground in spring, and life can also be discovered again on the trees when buds and leaves sprout.
How Gardening Supports Children's Development
Gardening with children is educationally valuable. Children get to know animals and plants and understand biological processes. Their mental and physical development is promoted. They learn to understand the world and their place in it. The garden is a space for playing and learning. The little gardeners not only acquire practical skills but also take on responsibility. They learn about animal and plant species and create something with their hands. Gardening is also good for the soul and provides a balance to the hectic everyday life. This applies to both the little ones and us adults.
Awakening Curiosity
Children can satisfy their urge to move in the garden and pitch in themselves. When growing food in their own garden, children can follow step by step how a seed grows into a plant and what can be harvested and tasted in summer or autumn. Their own vegetables also taste much better than those from the supermarket. Curiosity is sparked, and ecological connections quickly become clear to the little explorers. Children like to help, imitate adults, and try gardening themselves.
A great booklet about gardening with children can be found here: http://www.kgv-kriegerhofstrasse.de/der-paedagogisch-wertvolle-garten.pdf
Toddlers
For the little ones, there is first of all a lot to discover. Fine and gross motor skills are in demand in the garden. Digging can be rough, but when stroking a ladybug, one should be gentle. Toddlers can help under supervision with sowing seeds, pressing down the soil, and watering with a small watering can, preferably with hardier plants that tolerate a lot of water.
You can explain plants and animals to the children, what nettles and thorns are, what weeds are and what are not. What can be eaten in the garden and what is better avoided? How does lemon balm smell, a freshly mown meadow, and how does mud feel? You can listen to birds and explore the environment. How does a bird build a nest, what do ants and bees actually do?
Gardening on the Windowsill
If you don’t have a garden, you can grow cress in a shallow container on the windowsill with toddlers. You can see the seeds germinate after just one day and harvest after a few days. Cress tastes delicious on buttered bread or in a salad.
DIY – Water Station for Insects
We need an old plate or a plant saucer, some pebbles, and water. Simply pour some water into the saucer. The stones should stick out a bit so that flying insects can land there. Then find a nice spot in the garden. Insects get thirsty too, but it may take some time before they find the water station. After a while, you can observe various small animals there. But please don’t be startled!
From Preschool Age
Older children can already create their own bed with guidance. They learn to take responsibility and thus strengthen their self-confidence. You can start with strawberry plants, radishes, carrots, herbs... Just let the children decide. Small snack gardens with berry bushes are also nice and quite easy to care for.
On the windowsill, children can start plants early in spring, for example, peas and beans grow very quickly and can be well observed. Later, they can transplant the plants into the garden bed.
When working in the garden, you also see all the crawling and buzzing. Take away children’s fear of creepy crawlies. For the curious, there is help online for identifying insects: https://insektentrainer.nabu.de/insektenbestimmungsschluessel/
Great experiments and suggestions for preschool and elementary school children can be found here: http://www.naturdetektive.de/fileadmin/NATDET/documents/Kapitel_1-10/15884-15933-1-kapitel2_garten.pdf
Getting dirty is expressly allowed in the garden. Best with mud and digging clothes and rubber boots. Here children can be creative, cook flower soup, make mandalas with blossoms, sticks, stones, and leaves, craft flower cards, and just let off steam.
More crafting ideas with natural materials can be found in our blog post https://www.howa-spielwaren.com/holzspielsachenblog/basteln-mit-naturmaterialien/
A guide to creating a snack bed for children can be discovered in the PurGrün magazine:
Creating a snack bed for children – easy in 5 steps https://www.purgruen.de/blogs/magazin/naschbeet
Very important: Poisonous plants have no place in a garden with children! Garden ponds and pools are rather unsuitable and must be well secured if present. Then work can be done without worry. We wish you lots of fun and a successful harvest!
Image credits: Canva pro, howa Spielwaren GmbH
