Gardening is beneficial for more than just growing your own food. Gardening with kids can be educational and emotionally and socially beneficial. Though, I will admit that fresh produce is definitely the most delicious perk.
Gardening With Kids for Holistic and Global Education
Science:
Playing and planting a garden is ideal for learning hands-on science and ecology.
- Playing in the dirt and have various tactile experiences. Compare the differences between mud and dry dirt or between soil and sand.
- Do an experiment regarding how much water different plants need.
- Compare the shapes of leaves or heights of plants. Watch the plants’ buds change into food.
Sociology, Anthropology, History, Foreign Languages:
Playing in the dirt next to another person gives you something to talk about. Go even deeper with these ideas.
- Use gardening with kids to learn new languages
- Label your flowers with their Latin names.
- Read stories about different cultures and the food they eat and the flowers they grow.
- Meet people from different parts of the world in community gardens. Minneapolis and St. Paul and the surrounding areas has hundreds of community gardens. Find one near you by checking with your municipality.
Language Arts:
The garden can increase a greater vocabulary or inspire literary artists.
- Write a poem about pollinators.
- Write notes in a daily (or weekly) journal journal.
- Read/write a story about a plant in your garden.
Math:
Let’s use the garden to embrace numbers and real life mathematics.
- Count the number of vegetables (or flowers) on each plant.
- Measure the size of your garden and the size of each plot within it. Create a graph of the percentages of the different plants that make up your garden.
Visual Arts:
What can be better than something pretty to move us to create art? And what is better than a garden?
- Press flowers and create a yearly garden collage.
- Paint in the garden.
- Create a fairy garden in the midst of your vegetable/flower garden. Pick up some of you favorites at your local garden center or here in the Twin Cities, you can check out Heartfelt for great supplies.
Top 5 Kid Friendly Garden Centers
These garden centers will welcome you with your family and your little ones to try your hand at digging in the dirt. You will find all the help you need at any of these centers.
- Waldoch Farm | Lino Lakes
- The Mustard Seed | Chaska
- Bachman’s | Minneapolis
- Gertens | Inver Grove Heights
- Tonkadale Greenhouse | Minnetonka
10 Twin Cities Area Gardening/Farming Classes
- The Children’s Farm School (Preschool) |13241 30th St N, Stillwater
- Children’s Country Day School (Preschool) | 1588 Victoria Rd, Mendota Heights
- Tamarack Nature Center (preschool-adult) | 5287 Otter Lake Rd, White Bear Township
- Dodge Nature Center (Preschool-Adult)| 365 Marie Ave W, West St Paul
- Summer Weekly Children’s Garden (ages 5-13) | Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chanhassen
- Gale Woods Farm (School-age) | 7210 County Rd 110 W, Minnetrista
- Gibbs Farm (school-age to teen) | 2097 Larpenteur Ave W, St Paul
- Urban Roots (St. Paul teens) |463 Maria Ave., Ste. 207, St. Paul
- Youth Farm (teens) | 128 W 33rd St #2, Minneapolis
- Mn State Horticultural Society (adult) | Classes held online and in various locations around the Twin Cities