Cherry-picking!
Green fingers!
You reap what you sow!
No, this isn’t a class on famous idioms (although wouldn’t that be a great idea, right?)
This is about unlocking the potential of a very cool activity for your kids! If you look closely, you’d see that all of these terms have something in common.
They’re all about gardening!
Gardening might have become a really popular hobby among adults post the pandemic, but the benefits of it extend to children too.
In fact, if studies are anything to go by, the benefits of gardening for children are many, encompassing a holistic approach to their growth so they develop into wonderful beings!
Eager to know more already? Well, we won’t keep you waiting! Here are the top six benefits of gardening for children –
- Promotes a healthy diet
- Enhances their motor skills
- Keeps the brain sharp
- Helps them connect with nature
- Relieves stress in kids
- Instills confidence
In the gardening world, “eat what you grow” is a mantra people swear by. Now you might think this only applies to adults as kids have a natural aversion to green veggies and you have enough experience to attest to that, but hold on to that for a minute.
If you get your kid in your garden and make them grow their own veggies, you’ll definitely see their interest increase in eating it. Even if it’s one of those nasty greens they used to make a disgusted face at!
The thing is that gardening instills a sense of responsibility in kids while fuelling their curiosity and fascination. These three combined create a potent mix which makes them more inclined to healthy eating when they grow their own greens.
Let’s not forget that gardening is an activity that requires a lot of skill. Sure on a small-scale, it might not look very physically intensive but it’s got its fair share of work.
Garden activities for children require them to indulge in low-intensity exercise that’s geared toward increasing their muscle movements and improving their hand-eye coordination.
Every part of gardening – be it weeding or digging, planting or watering, requires both skill and movement, exercising both the mind and the upper and lower parts of the body. What’s more, knowing the ripeness of your produce or plucking requires pressure sensitive movements, which can be great skills for kids to acquire.
As mentioned before, garden activities for kids are great for their mental development too. Not only do they fuel their scientific curiosity and acumen for learning, it also gives them the scope to analyze the situation at hand so they can make the best decisions concerning the care of their garden.
This further encourages them to think on their own so they can develop problem-solving skills should their gardening efforts encounter problems. It also gives them the chance to be creative while enhancing their ability to work both in a team as well as individually.
Another advantage is that plants for a children’s garden or otherwise take time to grow. Which means gardening is an activity that instills patience. And that can be a good quality for your kid to have, helping them grow into mature adults.
Living as we do in the middle of a concrete jungle, it can be really difficult to get your kids to develop a close bond with nature. However, organizing garden activities for kids is an excellent way for them to get in touch with nature while teaching them of the crucial role nature plays in our very existence. You can be sure they’ll have fun discovering the many miracles of nature this way.
Did you know that 63.5% of students in India feel academic stress on a regular basis? That’s a hell of a lot of kids if you think about it! Stress might feel like an adult thing, but as you can clearly, it affects your kids just as much.
According to research, stress among kids can be mitigated with a little bit of gardening therapy! Getting their gardening game on can help kids combat stress, relieve anxiety and achieve a meditative state that is nothing short of therapeutic. It can also improve mental focus while giving your kids that much-needed break from their screens. So overall, it’s a complete win-win!
Although like everything else gardening does have its own set of rules, yet it gives kids the opportunity to make their own decisions as they learn the ways to sow, plant, prune and water.
This free reign to decide for themselves can also help make kids more responsible as they get a better idea of the consequences of the decisions they make while gardening – irrespective of the outcome being positive or negative.
This in itself can be a learning experience, which can, in turn, help boost their confidence and propel them to practice innovative solutions to any problems that may arise. Especially if you let them be on their own, figuring out the rules of gardening as they go.
In fact, gardening has also proven to be a great activity for kids with learning disabilities. This simple exercise can help them improve their non-verbal communication, develop essential skills and learn to be more aware and cooperative.
At EuroKids, we understand the importance of plants for kids and the several benefits that gardening brings to the table. Our curriculum devotes extensive time to outdoor learning activities for kids such as gardening so they can grow up to be well-rounded adults. If you want to know more about our curriculum or how we balance classroom learning with outdoor learning, be sure to visit your nearest EuroKids center.
