Gardening is appealing on many different levels, and what better way is there to encourage your child’s love of gardening than to get their attention with one of the following unique kid-friendly activities?Â
1. Plant Something Unusual: Appeal to your child’s love for the unexpected. Plant purple and red carrots, blue potatoes or purple beans.Â
2. Create a Scratch & Sniff Garden: Scents evoke the strongest memories, so please your child’s nose with an assortment of smells: plant mint that smells (and tastes!) like chocolate, peppermint, ginger, lemon, orange, and apple, and geraniums that smell like roses, lemon, mint, chocolate, pine, nutmeg, and more. Long after the garden has faded any of these scents will bring back memories of walking (and working) in the garden together.
3. Grow a Craft Project: Grow gourds that you can turn into birdhouses or musical instruments. Grow flowers and berries that you can use for their natural dyes, which your child can use for artwork and other crafts. There are even certain plants with beads that can be used in jewelry.
4. Garden in Unusual Containers: Who says you have to plant seeds in the ground? Give your child a fun container (a great way to garden inside). You can use an old shoe, a discarded toy, or a plain pot with a face drawn on.
5. Eat Your Vegetables and Your Flowers: Grow a pizza patch garden full of tomatoes, peppers, basil, garlic, and other veggies and herbs that can be baked into homemade pizza. For a completely new level of edible fun, try growing flowers you can eat: nasturtium, clover, and lavender are just a few tasty varieties.
Global Montessori specializes in early childhood education providing daycare, preschool and elementary programs and has been serving Langley, Brookswood, Cloverdale, Walnut Grove, Surrey, High Point and Morgan Creek for over 26 years.