A Guide to Gardening with Kids: Growing More Than Just Plants!
A Guide to Gardening with Kids: Growing More Than Just Plants!
If you’ve ever handed a toddler a watering can, you know the magic that happens when kids get their hands in the dirt. Gardening isn’t just about growing veggies or pretty flowers—it’s about growing curious minds, responsible little humans, and hands-on learners.
Why Garden with Kids?
Gardening offers powerful learning moments that offer hands-on inquiry, discovery, and STEAM exploration. Here’s what kids really get when they garden:
🧠 Science Smarts
From seed to sprout, kids learn about lifecycles, weather, insects, and ecosystems—STEAM learning in real life!
💪 Fine & Gross Motor Skills
Digging, scooping, and planting help build coordination and strength.
❤️ Responsibility & Patience
Caring for a plant teaches kids that growth takes time, effort, and a whole lot of love.
😌 Mindfulness & Sensory Play
Gardening is calming and full of rich sensory experiences—from soft petals to the squish of soil.
Easy Gardening Ideas for Kids
You don’t need a backyard or fancy tools to start! Try these:
🌼 Container Garden
Plant herbs or flowers in a small container with a little soil. Place it on a sunny windowsill and watch the magic begin.
🥕 Root Veggie Re-Grow
Use kitchen scraps like carrot tops or green onions in shallow water and watch them regrow.
🪴 Gardening Sensory Bin: Dig Into Discovery!
Not quite ready for a full garden? Create a Gardening Sensory Bin that brings the outdoors in—perfect for toddlers and preschoolers!
What You’ll Need:
- A shallow bin or container
- Soil (avoid potting soil with fertilizer unless you plan to use gloves)
- Small faux or real flowers
- Mini gardening tools or spoons
- Toy bugs, worms, and seeds
- Small pots or cups
- Water spray bottle and/or watering can
How to Play:
Let your child dig, plant, scoop, and explore. Encourage pretend play like planting flowers, watering them, or finding worms in the soil. Ask open-ended questions:
💬 “What do you think this bug eats?”
💬 “How can we help this flower grow?”
Why It’s Great:
This bin is loaded with sensory play, language development, fine motor practice, and imaginative exploration—all wrapped up in one fun activity.
Tips for a Successful Garden Experience
- Let kids take the lead—even if it gets messy. It’s their garden too!
- Talk about what you’re doing and ask questions: “What do you think this seed needs to grow?”
- Celebrate small wins: “Look! A sprout!”
Final Thought
Gardening with kids isn’t just an activity—it’s a moment of connection, a spark of wonder, and a hands-on way to raise curious, confident little learners. Whether you’re growing basil in a jar or digging up potatoes in the backyard, you’re planting seeds of learning and love.
Gardening With Kids: 7 Lessons They Learn
Gardening With Kids: 7 Lessons They Learn
At Alpha’s Discovery Kids, encouraging growth and development is what we do best. Our students have become very involved in tending to classroom plants. We have made it a seasonal tradition to create an outdoor garden with our preschoolers. They love digging and planting at the beginning of the season, watching the growth and then picking the vegetables during the middle of the season. All the knowledge they gain throughout the process will stay with them for years to come. The learnings will shape them as they grow into adults who will one day be responsible for their own little place in the world. When children help in the garden, they begin to understand what it takes to grow. They begin to understand that plants need water and food just like they do.
7 Lessons children learn from gardening
Engages all the senses–Gardening can be a complete sensory experience for kids. Growing plants isn’t about just digging in dirt, although that’s a great way to experience using the touch sense, but kids can use all their other senses while learning how to grow their own food. Sight, taste and smell comes into play when they get to experience the aromas and tastes of what they have harvested.
Encourages healthy eating–Learning to grow your own food encourages you to eat it. As you and your family eat more and more fruits and vegetables as your garden produces, they may be experiencing new foods for the first time and discovering new favorite foods too.
Life cycles-Big lessons can be learned in the garden about life and the lifecycle of plants, bugs and animals. From new baby rabbits (that you want to keep out) to mature bees carrying honey back to the hive and to the life of the plants themselves, they can literally watch life happen in the garden.
Bugs are useful-Gardening shows kids how useful bugs are in the world. They begin to understand that even earthworms have a place in the circle of life. Learning these things can help make bugs seem less scary.
Nurturing & Responsibility-These two are technically different skills but they really go hand-in-hand. Helping plants grow teaches kids how to nurture a little life and it teaches them responsibility since they will have to help water and feed the plants. Remembering to do this and helping adults keep an eye on the plants is a big responsibility for children. They love to watch as their hard work pays off and the garden vegetables grow.
Family bonding– Gardening is a family experience. Everyone can gets involved on some level. It’s fun for us to do it together and experience growing food or plants. Not only is it fun but it gives us a chance to teach kids so much and that’s fulfilling for us and them.
Gardening is good for the soul-Gardening gives us a chance to pause and get back to nature. Nature has a way of calming us. No screens are involved so that’s a big bonus. It’s a time out from the rest of life when they just get to concentrate on the dirt between their fingers.