3 benefits of gardening with your children

Gardening includes much more than fresh and tasty vegetables. Did you know that gardeners eat more vegetables than non gardeners? Of course this is healthy, but the benefits you can get out of gardening are a lot broader. And by involving your children you share these advantages with them.

Gardening improves your family relationships

More and more I hear parents complain about their children being online for hours and having less family time. Working together in your garden is togetherness time. And more importantly is offline quality time for a big part of it.

You build bonds with your children and create valuable shared memories from your experiences in the garden. While your children are learning a lifelong love of growing things and appreciating the fact that work brings something to be proud of, you are learning more about your children, your partner and yourself. 

You get a better understanding of how each one of you thinks, what everybody likes and dislikes, how capable you all really are and what keeps everyone occupied. Because the topics you discuss, will soon go much further than gardening as you create a regular safe together moment during which you can talk, ask questions, laugh and (re)discover each other. Sounds great doesn’t it?

In this electronic age, we all need time for meaningful family connection. Time in the garden allows for team building and promotes communication skills. A lesson that will benefit everybody for the rest of their lives.

Gardening encourages healthy living

Are you in the 75% of us who aren’t eating enough vegetables on a daily basis? And do you feel guilty about it? Research shows that gardeners tend to eat considerably more vegetables! 

And what about your children? Do they like vegetables? Do you want them to eat healthier? Knowing where our food comes from arms them with the knowledge to make healthier choices. Wouldn’t gardening be a great way to teach them about nutritions? Your garden is the ideal environment to talk with your kids about healthy foods and then plant some of your favourites. 

Plus it is shown that when we and our children have contact with soil during activities like digging and planting, moods improve, concentration goes up and anxiety decreases. So thank God we have a washing machine! ;-)

But most important, the self-esteem a child gets from eating a cucumber that he grew himself is priceless!

Gardening improves fine motor skills

As children help you plant, rake, sow and water their way to a bountiful yield, they are developing the same fine motor skills as are required to do activities such as turning pages, writing, buttoning up clothing, etc. 

Fine motor skills such as whole-hand grasping and the pincer grasp (necessary skills for writing) are employed in gardening.

Practice these skills with your child by encouraging them to handle small seeds and pick berries, use gardening tools, bend over and balance to avoid stomping on any newly planted seeds, write the plant labels, carefully water the plants and thin the seedlings.

And improved motor skills help to improve concentration and learning capabilities.

Plus the process of gardening teaches children to be patient. The waiting time for a vegetable to be ready to pick, or for a flower to open up, will make the moment even more exciting.

Isn’t this all what you want for you and your child?

To give your child these priceless life lessons while doing a fun family activity, you can now join my Staycation Summer Camp. A 4-weeks online, fun pact family course in which you’ll build, sow and grow your first veggies. 

And until 30 June you can even win a free ticket. Make sure your name goes into the top hat and make a chance to win this amazing prize worth $297,-!