16 Mar Gardening with Children

Our seeds are ready to plant! A few weeks ago, our students helped us start our seeds. We used cardboard egg cartons to start our Chinese long beans, bush beans, pole beans, cucumbers, squash, cosmos and sunflowers.

Gardening with children is a rewarding educational experience. Children learn the process it takes for vegetables and fruits to grow (surprise – they don’t grow in the grocery store!). By starting the seeds in the classrooms, the students learn care and responsibility. Seeds are very fragile; they must be kept moist but not too wet.

Once the seeds have sprouted, we will plant them in our garden. That is when observation skills kick in. Our students watch as the plant grows slowly. Once the fruits and vegetables are ripe, the students help harvest them. We have used our veggies in cooking projects. It is amazing to see that children will try new and unusual vegetables when they have been part of the process of watching it grow.