Plant a Garden
With fall, fast approaching a garden may be out of the questions, but for those of us who live in the south now is the best time. The benefits of growing a garden are innumerable such as teaching children the art of: giving, responsibility, nurturing, productivity, and accomplishment. I am always astonished when I see the prices on the curriculum that "teaches" these things in a workbook format. Home education lends itself beautifully to incorporating all types of character formation, naturally in the form of life skills.
From a scientific point of view, the children could learn several specifics such as: soil analysis, seed germination, weather, seasons, calendar, insect control with and without pesticides, composting and fertilizers and best of all fruits of labor! You could study the body: eating, digestion, health, and nutrition.
My children have enjoyed planting gardens, especially my son, Nicholas. He is not one to sit still long enough to have his picture taken, but when his third garden was successful, he was excited to pose happily next to plates and baskets full of freshly picked produce.
Even if you can't physically plant a garden you can visit one. Even city dwellers are often found using window sill planters to grow herbs. There is nothing like fresh basil in tomato sauce, something we are able to successfuly grow!
If you have never tried srouting a bean you can do this easily with little ones. Take a dry bean (fava or something similar), wet a cotton ball with water and place both in a zippered sandwich bag. Keep the cotton ball moist but not wet, and watch your bean sprout! You can plant this or discard after your children draw or take pictures of it to record in their nature journals.
Do you have any garden memories? Please share them with me.
My favorite gardening memories are from last year with my daughter. My husband was deployed, so we spent a good bit of time working outside together. Her pride and joy was her herb garden. It was all hers. She planted it, watered it, and weeded it. She loved running out to pick herbs for our meals.
Now that we've moved, we really miss our fresh herbs from her herb garden. She still talks about it. We tried to start a little herb garden when we got here (Az), but it was just too hot. We look forward to the fall as we'll be able to start some of our gardening at that point.
For now, we have an aerogarden growing tomatoes. My daughter had fun seeing if the clippings of the plant would grow roots. She was excited to see that they did grow roots. We've had several other experiments that have come from these plants. Gardening is a fun and rewarding learning experience.
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Have you tried an indoor herb garden, like in a window or something? I have never planted herbs outside. I have always kept them inside. I just felt like they needed a little extra protection. I don't know why? I just always have.
We have done both, the boxed herbs and garden. I think it depends on where you live. Do what works!
I love the ideas! My children have started a flower garden. They love digging in the ground and examining the bugs. It is exciting to watch as they find something new to catch and research it. Thanks!
We planted a garden this year both for school and for a serious food source. The boys learned to watch the various plants and figured out once things began to produce how long it took for certain vegetables to be ready. My oldest knew how long it was for the cuccumbers to be the prefect size for his snack, he also learned about harvesting and second and third harvests on certain plants. Science and home economics in one lesson.
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