• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • New? Start Here
    • Learn More About Us

Forgetful Momma

Secular Homeschooling in Canada

  • Homeschool Resource Centre
    • 2021 Ultimate List of Secular Homeschool Curriculum
    • Book Recommendations for All Ages
    • Curriculum and Resources
    • Google for Homeschoolers
    • Homeschool Resources – What We’ve Used and Use
    • Homeschool Help
    • Natural Homeschooling
    • Homeschool Mom Care
  • Kids Activities
    • DIY Summer Camp at Home
    • Gardening with Kids
    • Kids in the Kitchen
    • Learning About Animals in Your Homeschool
    • Science Experiments for Kids
  • Our Box of Recipes
    • Breakfast Recipes to Start the Day Right
    • Snack Recipes
    • Main Course Recipes
    • Slow Cooker Recipes
    • Condiment Recipes
    • Dessert Recipes
      • Mini Donut Maker Recipes
      • Single Serve Desserts & More!
  • Shop
    • My Account
    • Cart
    • Checkout

gardening with kids

Homeschool Gardening Curriculum

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

Gardening can be so educational. There is a ton of knowledge to be learned no matter your age. I am still learning and as I learn my kids are learning alongside me. We use all knowledge sources to learn from, from people around us to books, documentaries, and courses. Knowledge is never wasted. A homeschool gardening curriculum that you and your children can use together is an amazing experience for you and your children.

Homeschool Gardening Curriculum - 4 people looking at plants and papers

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

Homeschool Gardening Curriculum

Garden Curriculum Books

The School Garden Curriculum – offers a unique and comprehensive framework, enabling students to grow their knowledge throughout the school year and build on it from kindergarten to eighth grade. From seasonal garden activities to inquiry projects and science-skill building, children will develop organic gardening solutions, a positive land ethic, systems thinking, and instincts for ecological stewardship.

The Garden Classroom – Packed with garden-based activities that promote science, math, reading, writing, imaginative play, and arts and crafts, The Garden Classroom offers a whole year of outdoor play and learning ideas—however big or small your garden. (We love this book so much!)

How to Grow a School Garden – Two school garden pioneers offer parents, teachers, and school administrators everything they need to know to build school gardens and to develop the programs that support them. Both schools and parents have a unique opportunity to cultivate an awareness of our finite resources, reinforce values of environmental stewardship, help students understand concepts of nutrition and health, and to connect children to the natural world.

Learning Gardens and Sustainability Education – Offering a fresh approach to bringing life to schools and schools to life, this book goes beyond touting the benefits of learning gardens to survey them as a whole-systems design solution with the potential to address myriad interrelated social, ecological, and educational issues.  The theoretical and conceptual framework presented creatively places soil at the center of the discourse on sustainability education and learning garden design and pedagogy.

Free Homeschool Gardening Curriculum

KidsGardening.org – Materials for grades 1-4 are available, but it does have a lot more for grades 1-3 than it does for grades 4. But as a homeschooler, you just might be able to make it work for whatever grades you need it for. The lessons are full lessons. Including an overview, the objective, materials, how to explore the subject and so much more.

Gardening Course for You – “Your garden should add to life and be a blessing, not a burden that steals from you! It should be something you and your whole family ENJOY!!! Giving you nourishment and pleasure while SAVING you tons of money!

We will start at the foundation.. with your soil and how to properly prepare a healthy soil then move into everything planting… who, what, when, where, why, and how… then we will move into dealing with all the common problems like irrigation, pest, disease, and fertilizer.. all the way up to basic seed saving…. all that while working smarter not harder with organic minded methods. You will be learning some unusual methods that go against the typical way of thinking and stepping out of the box!”

More Great Resources to Check-Out:

Gardening Unit Study for Kids – Julie Naturally

The Ultimate Gardening Bundle – Hess Un-Academy

STEM Made Easy Gardening Edition – Hess Un-Academy

Regrow Food From Kitchen Scraps | Gardening Projects for Kids – Hess Un-Academy

Free Garden Worksheets for Kids – Hess Un-Academy

Printable Garden Planner For Kids And Homeschool Families – Homeschool Mastery Academy

Master Gardeners Homeschool Co-op Class – Walking By the Way

Garden Emergent Reader – Tip-Top Printables

Garden Printable Activities – Julie Naturally

Gardening Science – Blog, She Wrote

Plant Journaling for Homeschoolers – Blog, She Wrote

5 Step to Create an Awesome Garden – Captivating Compass

Gardening with Kids is a Great At-Home Spring Break Adventure – Jump Into Genius

The Tale of Peter Rabbit Nature Book Club ~ A Garden Adventure – Hide the Chocolate

The Tale of Peter Rabbit Online Book Club ~ A Nature Book Club – Literary Adventures for Kids

Similar posts you may be interested in:

Gardening Made Easy Binder for Kids

Gardening Tips for Kids this Spring

Mini Greenhouse Gardening with Kids

Filed Under: Homeschool, Kids Activities, Natural Homeschooling, Nature Study Tagged With: gardening with kids

Gardening Made Easy Binder for Kids

by Ashley Mullen 1 Comment

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.

Gardeing binder for kids

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

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
Gardeing binder for kids

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

Fun Herbs for Kids to Grow in Their Garden

Mini Greenhouse Gardening with Kids

Filed Under: Kids Activities, Nature Study Tagged With: gardening with kids

Gardening Tips for Kids this Spring

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

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.

Gardening Tips for Kids - Child gardening with grandparent

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.

Backyard Summer Camp: Gardening Theme

Shop now

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.

Garden Stakes Arts and Crafts

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.

Gardening Tips for Kids - picture of seedling with text overlay

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.

Similar posts you may be interested in:

Teaching Kids to Garden in Our Homeschool

Benefits of Gardening with Kids

Garden Stakes Arts and Crafts

Filed Under: Kids Activities, Nature Study Tagged With: gardening with kids

20+ Fast Growing Seeds for Kids to Grow

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

We are ready for spring and for growing, and to start seeing green outside again. Basically we are ready to start gardening again. We looked forward to having a garden when we bought our house and look forward to eating straight out of our garden. We are growing everything from seeds again this year. Most of what we are growing have short germination periods which are great for growing with kids. Choosing fast growing seeds for kids keeps them interested in watching them instead of getting bored and forgetting about the seeds they planted.

Fast Growing Seeds for Kids to Grow

Fast Growing Seeds for Kids to Grow

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

We choose seeds based on what we want to eat. My kids will walk into our garden and eat tomato, cucumbers and peas straight from the vine. It is just a bonus that most are very fast growing. We also planted a few different flower seeds as we want to grow them for the bees and because we like how pretty they look planted around the yard.

We bought many of our seeds individually over the last few years, and instead of spending more money to buy plants already growing from a garden center at planting time we decided to grow our own again. My kids are older and a lot more interested in watching the growing process happen.

Starting Seeds Inside

We bought grow lights a few years ago when we bought seeds for the first time for our garden. Amazon has a lot of options to chose from depending on what you need. We bought seed pod trays to create our own little greenhouses to help our plants grow.

Fast Growing Seeds – Vegetables

Tomatoes

Pumpkins

Cucumbers

Beans

Carrots

Beets

Romaine (Lettuce)

Green Onions

Peas

Potatoes

Fast Growing Seeds – Flowers

Sunflowers

Nasturtium

Zinnia

Marigold

Calendula

Morning Glory

Fast Growing Seeds – Herbs

Herbs can be a little trickier for some to grow as they need a little water, everyday. Then again, they can be great for kids that like to water plants.

Basil

Thyme

Oregano

Parsley

Sage

Rosemary

Dill

Similar posts that you may be interested in:

Growing A Bee Garden & Why You Want One

Growing A Bee Garden & Why You Want One

Taking Homeschool Outside this Spring and Summer

Taking Homeschool Outside this Spring and Summer

20+ Fast Growing Seeds for Kids to Grow

Filed Under: Homeschool, Kids Activities, Natural Homeschooling Tagged With: Fast Growing Seeds, gardening with kids, kids garden, kids gardening

Benefits of Gardening with Kids

by Ashley Mullen Leave a Comment

Have you tried gardening with your kids? While my kids don’t love the hard work that comes with getting a garden planted, they sure enjoy the fruits, or vegetables, of the labor. Some of the biggest benefits of gardening with kids for us is that there aren’t many vegetables that they won’t eat and they are always willing to try something new now.

Benefits of Gardening with Kids

Benefits of Gardening with Kids

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

Watching a plant grow from the seed you planted is quite the experience. And if you can start some seeds in a clear container you can teach your kids all about root systems and sun light, all those science things.

Reading

Your children can be reading to find which vegetables are the best for your growing zone and what type variety fits best for your area. Then there is the reading about how to plant them: germination, planting and spacing, harvesting, etc. Let them do some research on the plants they want to grow.


Math

There are a lot of teachable math moments when gardening with kids: how deep to plant a seed, how far apart to plant seedlings, how tall plants get, and how to arrange them in a garden to provide for maximum growth.

Science

Gardening provides a fantastic introduction into the world of natural science. From planting a seed to watching seedlings grow and mature, flower formation, fruit formation, insect and plant life cycles, and the importance of sunlight and water; these are all the beginnings of botany, biology and chemistry!


Health

One of the many benefits of gardening with kids is that they begin to appreciate the hard work it takes to grow and harvest food. They learn patience, confidence, and that it can be great to get messy! If you don’t have space for a garden, then try container gardening with kids. You’ll get the same benefits but you need less space!

Do you do any gardening together as a family?

 

Benefits of Gardening with Kids

Similar posts that you may be interested in:

DIY Soil Testing Garden Science Experiment

Soil Testing Science for Gardening

Growing a Snack Garden with Your Kids

Growing a Snack Garden

Greenhouse Gardening with Kids

Greenhouse Gardening with Kids

Filed Under: Homeschool, Natural Homeschooling Tagged With: Garden, gardening with kids, growing a garden, homeschool garden, Math, Reading, science

  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

A Little About Me

I'm Ashley, a Canadian secular homeschool mom of 3, living in Nova Scotia.

I share our adventures in homeschooling and parenting.

You can usually find us at the library surrounded by books.
Read More…

Looking for Something?

Science Experiment E-Book

Footer

Forgetful Momma – Ashley Mullen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

  • Disclosure Policy
  • Terms of Use and Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • You Can Contact Me Here

Copyright © 2021 · ForgetfulMomma.com