There are many important life lessons that you can choose to pass on to your kids. One of them can and should be how to garden. If you have the space to host your own garden, why not make the best possible use of it? Gardening can be a great way to bond with your kids. It can also be the perfect way to teach them to be more responsible.
1. Make Sure to Start Out Easily
You should never just dump a whole whack of gardening lessons off on young children. The point should be to start small. Give them a few easy tasks to do in your garden. Work with them in this area so that they see how easy and fun it is to get more involved. As they do so, they will see for themselves what the results can be.
You don’t even necessarily have to start gardening in your backyard. You can show your kids how to grow small things like tomatoes in a pot. You can also show them how to grow sunflowers and single bean plants. The idea is to get them involved in growing things. This will help them develop their interest and progress further on their own.
2. Grow the Plants They Are Interested In
Another very important point will be to grow the plants that they are interested in. For example, if your kid loves to eat tomatoes, you can show them how to grow a cherry tomato plant. These develop much faster than regular tomatoes. Growing them will show kids the quick reward of bringing a new life to fruition by giving them a yummy snack.
If your kid is more interested in growing flowers, there are plenty of great species that you can acquaint them with. You can show them how to grow quickly maturing flowers such as petunias, marigolds, and many others. They can make beautiful necklaces or floral displays using the flowers they have learned to grow on their own.
3. Let Them Visit a Local Farmer’s Market
Visiting the farmer’s market in your local area is a very good idea. This gives your children the chance to learn where their food comes from as well as how it is grown.
This will also help them get a better appreciation for the farmers who use their knowledge to grow this food. Your kids can use this experience to get a feel for the earth and the wonderful things that can grow in it. This is a valuable life lesson.
4. Conservation Should Be Part of the Equation
Another very important lesson that you can teach your kids about gardening is the value of conservation. For example, on your very street, you may notice several trees that are nearing the end of their life cycle. You can upcycle these into beautiful decor. For example, uses live edge wood slabs in California as decorative pieces in their backyards and in their homes. You might consider showing your children how to upcycle old things as well.
Another way to teach conservation to your children is to use autopots, to reduce the chance of overwatering. This will reduce your overall water usage, and make sure the plants aren’t overwatered.
5. Gardening Can Teach Your Children Good Habits
One of the best reasons for your kids to get involved in gardening is to learn some very good habits. These will be lessons that your kids can take with them all through their own lives. They can then go on to pass them down to their own kids. This will help to continue the cycle of teaching valuable lessons to the next generation.
Among these lessons are patience and the virtue of sticking to activity until it comes to fruition. The reward your kids will see from growing their own plants will be manifest. The lesson they get from having the patience to see the activity through to the end will be a reward in itself. They will learn to be responsible and dependable.
Gardening Has Many Lessons to Teach Children
At the end of the day, it will be up to you to pass on many valuable life lessons to your kids. One of them is the fact that gardening is an activity that should not be disparaged. It can help sustain the ecology in your immediate environment and all around the world. For this reason, your kids should be well advised as to its utility.
