With spring awakening in many places, it’s time to start thinking about planting your garden for the season.
For many families, planting a garden can be a great way to get in touch with the world around them, offset some of their grocery costs, and become more self-sufficient. However, having a garden can also be hard work. But if you can work in the garden as a family, the load of that work can be spread out. Sadly, many children find working in the garden to be more of a chore than something to enjoy.
To help change your child’s attitude about gardening, here are three ways to get your kids more excited about helping in the garden.
Plant What They Like
If the only things you’re planting in your garden are foods that your kids don’t enjoy, it can be hard to get them to want to work on growing these plants. Knowing this, one way to get your kids more excited about working in your garden is to plant things that they like.
For kids who love french fries, try planting some potatoes that you can then turn into your own french fries. Or if you have kids that love berries, consider planting berry bushes for them. You can also let them choose flowers that they like to plant as well. If your kids are excited about what’s growing in the garden, they’ll be more likely to want to help nurture those plants.
Grow Indoors And Outdoors
For some kids, being outside in the garden might be a hard sell. To help make this transition a little easier to swallow, you may want to start with working on plants that grow inside first.
Many plants and flowers can flourish when grown indoors. Things like tomatoes, carrots, and houseplants can all be planted in pots inside and watered by your children. Then, as they get the hang of indoor gardening, they might be more excited about planting new and bigger things outside.
Let Them Know It’s Okay To Get Dirty
One reason why kids might have a hard time getting into gardening could be because they’re worried about getting in trouble for getting dirty.
If you’ve made it a habit of encouraging your kids to stay clean when they go outside, you might have to work against this teaching in order to get your kids excited about gardening. In fact, you might want to go so far as encouraging them to get dirty in the garden to help them let go and enjoy themselves in the garden.
If you’re wanting your kids to love working in the garden just as much as you do, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how this can be done.
