One of our favorite activities at the school is gardening. We have kept plants in the curriculum as, among other things, a way to teach the children about growing food. As usual with Montessori, the best way is the hands-on way. Watch the edges of the playground and you will notice a series of box planters. Over the years these have yielded some wonderful classroom treats. As is frequently the case, we suggest reinforcing lessons by planting a garden at home. It turns out that there are a lot of benefits that come from doing just that.
Generally speaking, if you grow food, it is going to be the kind that is good for you. Getting children involved in and excited by the results of growing your own food is one of many ways to encourage good eating habits. You can cheat a little and pick things to grow you know they like. There are a ton of things that grow well in garden boxes in the Houston area ranging from corn and beans to tomatoes and peppers. Texas A&M has a spectacular website that can turn you into a green thumb in no time – https://agrilifeextension.tamu.edu/browse/featured-solutions/gardening-landscaping/.
With young children, gardening presents positive sensory stimulation. Digging in the dirt is a fun way to explore new textures, smells and eventually tastes. Playing with a water hose or watering can after planting can provide a daily dose of stimulation that keeps the sense of sensory exploration going.
Gardening requires patience and comes with a payoff that rewards exercising it. Some plants grow quickly while others take quite some time, but most start showing signs of change in fairly short order. It is amazing how quickly sprouts show up. Even onions, which take months to grow, poke above the surface in short order. The variety of visible milestones staves off the boredom of waiting for the reward.
Gardening is a confidence builder. Some of us would argue that the ability to grow and sustain a food supply is one of the most satisfying providers of self-confidence there is. The virtually failproof act of planting and watering seeds delivers a clear example of how our actions can product positive outcomes.
It turns out that planting helps reinforce the development of key locomotor skills. This is a big area of focus for us at Greystone House and should be a focus for anyone who works with preschool aged children. Working with trowels, carefully placing seeds in a row, gently piling dirt on a freshly buried seed – these are actions that require fine motor skills. They also happen to be fun if you are a kid.
Growing food connects kids with nature and helps them understand early on that they must care for the world that provides the very fuel on which they live. Our adult girls list gardening activities among their favorite childhood memories. Whether planting sunflowers and picking the seeds themselves, managing the vines of the watermelon plant as they spread further and further from their base, or simply roaming through my friend’s pea garden and snacking as they went, both girls have a positive association with nature.
Gardening also encourages STEM activities as well. From upfront research that builds understanding about managing beneficial insects as well as pests and invasive weeds, to setting up some side experiments such as measuring total water applied (whether from rainfall or from the sprinkler), growing food is a series of continuous problems to solve and opportunities to experiment with a variety of things (watering schedules, fertilizer types, seed variants, light/shade mixtures). Planting is a great way to bring out your inner nerd.
Our favorite benefit of gardening is ultimately the together time. I remember my oldest daughter as a 7-year-old tossing dirt at me while her 4 year old sister got our Bassett Hounds messy by lovingly rubbing her mulch covered hands all over their heads. Even as my back was aching the fun together time kept me going. With planting there isn’t a destination to get to, there isn’t a thought about “cleaning up the mess” that the activity brings, and there is no waiting for the next task. It is just togetherness from start to finish.
Houston has an exceptionally long growing season. Take a look at the Texas A&M Ag Extension site mentioned earlier in this article and get digging. A long list of benefits awaits your child – and you.
