I cannot remember a time in my life when not surrounded with growing things. As an adult, I absolutely adore my garden and I’ve taught my children the same. Each of them began their gardening careers on the sidelines in a playpen. From there, they not only learned gardening but math, language, science and home economics — all while growing our food.
You don’t have to be a homeschooling parent to appreciate lessons from life. It is so rewarding to watch our kids “get it” while doing something as simple as planting corn. After planting four rows with eight seeds in each row I can recall that wonderful “aha” expression on my son’s face. “Now I see why eight times four is 32,” he said.
Preparation Time
It’s time to prepare our gardens for summer. Planning what to plant, buying seeds, and starting seeds are all activities that children love to do. How about stretching those activities to include some educational lessons? You’d be surprised just how much math, science, language and home economics is involved in gardening. Here are a few ideas to get you started.
Take the kids to a store that sells seeds three for a dollar and let them pick out a bunch of packets.
• Look at the label. Does it give the weight of the seeds or the count? Verify it. Weigh the seeds. Count the seeds. Weight 10 seeds, now ask how much would 100 seeds weigh? Create more problems like this.
• Look up how many seeds of a particular vegetable you need for a row in your garden. Have your child figure out how many seed packets he would need to plant a row (or more) in your garden.
• Have your child write her description and planting instructions based on the information on the back of the packets.
• It’s now time to plant the seeds and grow seedlings indoors.
Planting Season
Once the weather warms up and your seedlings are hardened off, planting season begins. Again, kids love this activity. Here are a few more things they can learn in the process.
A good layer of straw, grass clippings, or compost around your plants will hold moisture in the soil and deter weeds. Try this experiment. Plant identical rows side-by-side, mulch one row, but allow the other to remain bare. Keep a record of the two rows. Does the one require more water? Compare the weed growth between the two. Which plants appear to be healthier? Record your findings. Have the child take pictures to add to the notes.
Measure the length of your garden rows. Our rows are 16 feet long. If I plant one corn kernel every 12 inches, how many kernels go in each row? If I plant 8 rows, how many kernels have I planted? If each grows into a viable stalk with two ears each, how many ears will I have? Throughout the season notice how weather and other factors affect your estimates.
Watching it Grow
After all the sweat of planting a garden and getting it mulched, we tend to sit back and watch it grow until it seems the weeds pop up from nowhere, the bugs come in full force, and everything looks a little stressed. “Oh,” we think, “when was the last time it rained?” This is a great learning time for kids.
Discuss water conservation with your children. See if your County Extension Service offers classes in making and installing rain barrels. If not, do the research yourself and get to work. YouTube has plenty of videos teaching this.
Start a sketchbook journal for the garden. Devote a page to each weed or insect that you find. If your child feels inadequate drawing, have him take snapshots of each item and paste one per page. Label each one with both the common name and the scientific name. Include a brief description.
If you plant corn or sunflowers, chart their growth. Using a carpenter’s tape, measure the plant each morning and record it. You can make it a little more interesting by predicting when you plant it how high it will reach when full grown.
The Bountiful Harvest
Nothing beats harvest time for the gardener. Having jewel-like tomatoes line the kitchen window and bushels of beans waiting for the canner beats winning the lottery on our homestead. It also provides another crop of learning activities for the entire family to enjoy.
One of the most enjoyable harvesting projects is playing with pumpkin seeds. After washing and drying your seeds, count them. Count by twos and place the seeds in piles of ten on the table. Arrange the piles in straight rows of ten piles in each row. That will make 100 seeds per row. Set up ten rows. That will take 1,000 seeds. When you get to this point, stop and explain that you reached 1,000. Then have them count them by ten’s and by hundred’s. Since they are in straight rows, you can visually see that 10×4=40 or that 10×8=80.
Consider donating excess produce to the food pantry. Take your children with you for a tour of the facilities. If you do not have one, gift a less fortunate family in your community. If you know of someone who can use it, can or freeze the produce and gift that person with the already processed food.
Learning to garden is enjoyable in its own right. The other things that children can learn from the process are like icing on the cake. Once you start trying a few of these suggestions, your creativity will take over and you’ll discover more ways to have a great time making memories as a family.
Carol J. Alexander is a freelance writer who grows children, food, and stories – naturally.
