Nature Study

Are you ready to start planning your garden? We are! There is something about planning gardens that is relaxing for me. We all pick out our own seeds, the kids too of course, because it is also their garden. They’ll be working it, planning it, and enjoying the harvest come late summer, early autumn. I made this free gardening made easy binder for you and your kids. Turn it into a spring science project.

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Gardening Made Easy Binder

Are your kids interested in learning more about growing their own plants? It doesn’t matter if they are more interested in growing flowers or other non-edibles or if they want to grow fruits and vegetables. Growing anything is a great learning experience for children of any age.

I have this FREE Gardening Made Easy Binder for you to go through with your kids this Spring and plan what you are going to grow.

What is included in this Gardening Binder?

The great thing about a printable binder is that you can print off as many of the pages as you need. Need to three copies of page number five? Print them off instead of having to buy more than one copy of the thing you want. As a momma of three, I love PDFs for this reason.

What’s in this PDF:

• garden plot planning
• seed/plant planning
• plant information
• draw stages of plant growth
• insects in your garden
• a garden season chart list
• journal page

How to Use A Garden Journal in your Homeschool

We have been gardening for about six years now and love it. Each year our garden gets bigger. It might not always be a huge success but we try and learn as we go. Learning is what we are going for. Gardening is one big science project in our homeschool.

We include our kids in all the steps. Planning what to buy – they are big fruit and veggie eaters. They help with starting seeds in and outside. With the prep of the soil and garden plot. So much learning.

The beauty of the garden journal is that you don’t have to have a huge garden to use it. Grab a pot, a bag of soil, and either seeds or plants. I recommend seeds because then they have a chance to learn and experience growing something from seed, seeing that first little sprout pop up from the soil.

What are you going to grow this summer with your kids?

Similar posts you may be interested in:

Growing a Snack Garden with Your Kids

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Mini Greenhouse Gardening with Kids

Does your kid likes to garden, or are you a parent that wants to teach your kids how to garden? Gardening is a great activity for kids to do! For example, gardening helps kids get exercise and spent time in the sun! Let’s talk about gardening tips for gardening with your kids.

This post contains affiliate links, see my disclosure policy for more information.

Gardening Tips for Kids

Besides, gardening can help teach children responsibility, particularly if they are in charge of planting and taking care of their garden or plants! This is a great homeschool unit study in the making. Planting from seeds is going to cover all your subjects:

• math – how deep and far apart the seeds are planted, time for germanation, time till harvest, how many plants needs to get what you want to harvest, etc
• language arts/reading – reading of seed packages, etc
• science – you are growing plants with your children, there is your science

Here are a couple of garden tips for kids:

Read The Planting Instructions

Before you do any kinds of planting, you will want to make sure that you read the planting instructions! The planting instructions will be found on the back of the seed packet. Or, if you are planting a little plant from a pot, the planting instructions will probably be found on a little tab that is stuck in the soil.

You should also make sure that your plant will grow well in your type of garden. This is important if you want your plant to grow correctly, in the amount of time that it is supposed to grow in. Your kids are going to be counting down the days till something happens. Nothing worse than doing the work for nothing to grow.

For example, is your garden space in a lot of shade? Then you will want to plant something that does well in “shady” or “partly shady” areas. If your garden area is sunny most of the time, then you will want to plant something that does well in “full sun.” Broccoli likes shady areas whereas cucumbers like full sun.

Gardening Tip: Follow The Watering Instructions

Some plants need to have water every day, and other plants do not. Your planting instructions should also include some information about how much water your plant needs. This is often a favorite chore for kids, because they, essentially, get to play with the hose.

For example, if your plant needs to be placed in “moist soil,” you might need to water your plant every day. Before watering, you should gently place your fingers on the dirt by the plant to see if it is wet. If it is dry, then it is time to water your plan.

Use Popsicle Sticks For Plant Markers

One fun gardening tip for kids is using Popsicle sticks to mark where your plants are! This is especially helpful if you have planted seeds because you want to remember where your seeds are placed in the ground! After covering up your seed, you should stick a Popsicle stick or a regular stick in the ground to mark your place.

If you like, write the name of the plant on the Popsicle stick with a marker. Then, you will know exactly where your plant needs to be watered until it begins to pop out of the ground!

Find A Picture Of Your Plant Leaves

When taking care of your garden, you probably will need to pull up weeds every once in a while. Before you begin weeding, you should find a picture of the leaves of your garden plant. Use your picture of your plant to compare to the weeds.

This will help you to make sure that you and your kids only pull up weeds in your garden so that you won’t pull your garden plant out of the ground by mistake! Very important to learn early on, and make sure your kids aren’t rushing through weeding the garden.

Biggest Gardening Tip: Be Patient

Gardening is a lot of fun for kids, but sometimes it can take a while for plants to grow. Just be patient and let your plants take their time! After a while, you will be able to enjoy the plants that you grew all by yourself!

Look for plants that grow fast. Herbs are a really great choice for this.

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Teaching Kids to Garden in Our Homeschool

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