Having new skills that your children can participate in very important for them to grow up with a lot of information about a lot of things. Confidence in adults is usually developed when they were kids. Gardening is an activity that, along with being fun and play, teaches children a new skill and also self-confidence because they are taking care of and growing their own food.
Children anyway love being outside and playing the dirt. Use that to teach them the importance of food and how difficult it is to grow one plant. Teach them how, when they put in enough time and effort, they can grow their own food. They can learn how to nurture life and also how to respect it and its process. Different plants need different things to grow, this can turn into a very important lesson of respecting the process of different things and also being patient with things because not everything comes to fruition equally.
The new skills that they learn are not only in the sense of physical activity, but it also helps develop their personality. Because they care for the plants, they learn responsibility. They become more understanding because they get the first-hand experience in cause and effect of their options like how watering the plants every day will make them thrive and not watering will kill them.
Gardening is not only a physical activity that lets the children do something fun and productive, but it also teaches them about nutrition, about where their food comes from, and about how much work goes into growing them. This makes them appreciate what is put on the table, and they will learn to be generally less wasteful in their lives.
Talking about what they learn – gardening also teaches them about the science of growing plants and usually that is in the children’s syllabus. If you start them young, they will have practical knowledge of it already. Through this activity, they not only learn about plants but also learn about animals and how to protect what plants from which animals and birds, they learn about the weather and the environment, and what effects they cause.
Because you are making them do this activity with you and if they have siblings, then them too, they learn how to be cooperative, they learn to work in teams. Hoe to do the task assigned to them and how to contribute to the team is a skill that is very valuable and will be needed throughout their lives, but it is also one of the things people are generally bad at. This gives them a chance to learn early.
Because they have the opportunity to learn so many things early and also get a sense of achievement every time a plant grows, it boosts their self-confidence. All of us know how important that is. One of the easiest ways to start is by using a ready-made kit that is easy to grow and maintain at home. If you have several kids, you can put them in pairs, and they can take turns watching over their assigned plant. This is one way of teaching them accountability too!
Last but not least, with the current state of our planet, getting children interested in gardening, plants, and nature, in general, is the best thing to do in the grand scheme of things. Little steps towards a bright future!
