Why gardening is so good for kids

Gardening offers fun and interesting activities for children, and teaches them invaluable lessons.
They can learn about different species of plants and how to help them grow. They also get to know the different seasons and weather conditions, and how they affect nature. Being outside also offers an opportunity to learn about different shapes and colours, animals and insects and how nature makes things interact with each other.

Now that summer is here, what better way to spend your time than enjoying some gardening together with your kids?

Gardening engages all sorts of senses and helps children to develop and recognise them.
They can touch the texture of soil, seeds, flower and petals. They can smell all the amazing flower scents and see all the colourful elements. Being outside and interacting with nature also helps develop hand-eye coordination and physical strength. Gardening is a physical activity and it requires the body to work hard, doing things like lifting, watering, digging, etc. A child spending time in the garden will develop important motor skills that will help improve academic skills, such as writing, cutting and typing.

About grown-ups…gardening is a little like sports: it will keep your mind awake, your body in shape and your senses inspired with beauty. Interacting with your children, helping them with their little plants and garden jobs is an enjoyable activity that can remind you about so many things you had forgotten!

If you engage children in growing their own vegetables, they will also gain interest in eating them!
Sometimes, it can become a real struggle to get children to eat healthy food and enjoy them. Growing vegetables teaches them the hard work that it takes to grow them, and they can experience a sense of achievement knowing they are eating food they have grown themselves. It’s not just the process of growing them, but learning about all the different fruits and vegetables they can grow, the best timing to grow certain ones, and the process when it’s time to harvest. It’s good to teach children about how to prepare food too.
There are so many lessons they can learn, which all help towards encouraging healthier lifestyles for their future.

Growing any sort of plant, from the seedling or bulb stage, requires daily attention and care. A child will quickly learn, you get what you give. If the plants aren’t regularly watered and taken care of, they won’t flourish nor grow.
Gardening is a great way to teach responsibility, but it is a slow process: children will need to learn to be patient when waiting for their flowers and vegetables to grow. They will also need to keep engaged in the process and looking after their flowers, even when there are no clear results.

Gardening can be a very sociable activity, especially in schools: children can learn to work together and will enjoy discussing different types of flower, and how they have planted their seeds. Waiting for whose flower will shoot through the soil first, will encourage children to interact and engage. Gardening presents wonderful opportunities for children to help each other take care of their flowers.