Spring is almost here and we couldn’t be more excited! After the winter, getting out into our garden and getting prepared to sow seeds is a breath of fresh air! Learning the ins and outs of gardening has been a truly educational experience for the entire family! This year the littles have studied the science of plants with Apologia’s Exploring Creation with Botany, my older girls have participated in gardening seminars through 4-H, I’ve attended a few gardening seminars, and we’ve volunteered with our local community gardens through our local food bank!
We’ve already learned so much and now we get to put what we’ve learned into action with our garden! With our first attempt at a square foot garden under our belts and lessons learned, we will hopefully have a much more successful season raising healthy, tasty vegetables! Gardening has been an excellent experience for us, especially for my youngest daughter and my son, who both love working with their hands. As a mom always looking for creative, hands-on experiences that are affordable and unique, gardening checks all the boxes! Here are some additional benefits of gardening that I hope inspires you to take the plunge and add gardening to your homeschool!
Gardening is Great Exercise
Nothing gets out the fidgets out like a morning spent weeding the garden! By the spring, my kids are antsy. They don’t necessarily want to start their homeschool day at a desk. Gardening gives them an opportunity to burn off energy and work their muscles before they read and write. They’re constantly moving, bending, and kneeling around the perimeter of the garden. Burning the extra energy actually helps them to focus better during sit-down activities like reading and writing.
Gardening Teaches Patience and Delayed Gratification
In this digital age of video games and instant entertainment, gardening teaches that good things come to those who wait. It teaches kids the value of patience and working diligently in order to enjoy the fruits of their labor. This is an important lesson for our kids that counteracts the fantasy of overnight success or instant success without putting in the time and effort.
Gardening Teaches the Power of Teamwork
There are days as a mom when I feel more like a referee, managing bickering siblings. Often it’s my younger ones pitted against my older ones and vice versa. It can be extremely frustrating! However, gardening is our white flag. My kids, from elementary to high school age, can come together and work in the garden with hardly a complaint. Everyone is engaged. Everyone has something vital to contribute. Everyone can take direction from each other, problem solve, and work together because they have a common goal. At harvest time, they each have a sense of accomplishment. It’s beautiful to see my four out in the yard working together to get weeds pulled and seeds planted. It gives me hope that one day, the childhood drama will mature into adult siblings able to enjoy each other and work together when necessary.
Gardening Teaches Project Management
In essence, gardening in your homeschool is an excellent project because it involves a number of task that have real life applications—planning, cost estimating, budgeting, execution, effective communication, problem-solving, delegation of work, evaluating processes, and producing a quality product. These acquired skills can help your kids in the future as leaders, entrepreneurs, and simply navigating life.
Gardening Teaches Skill Building
Once kids master the basics of gardening, their knowledge can expand into a number of different areas—horticulture, hydroponics, starting a community garden, becoming a master gardener—the possibilities are endless. There are so many paths gardening can take that provides kids with a deeper knowledge in how plants grown and inspires them to really take off.
Gardening Teaches an Appreciation for Life
It’s so easy for us to take for granted the labor and time it takes to grow vegetables and fruits, when we can simply go to the store and purchase what we want to eat. Gardening, however, helps us to appreciate the beauty of God’s creation. It helps us to better appreciate the sanctity of all life and helps us to appreciate the simple pleasures of life. It may appear to be a small thing, but gardening helps us to be better stewards of what God provides and to think of how we can use what He provides, not just for ourselves, but for others. We can grow and harvest much more food than we can eat, but we can share it with those who may need fresh vegetables. We can grow flowers that help our kids to appreciate beauty and see God in His Creation.
