This series is starting to get easier and easier as the months warm up and we actually have plants growing in the garden. In fact, over half of our garden is planted right now! It’s surreal. I know you’re thinking, “Isn’t it too early?”, and I’m not going to lie and say it isn’t scary, but I do believe in this method for having a spring garden. I’m in Columbus, Ohio and our springs go from frost to blazing to heat. Spring crops like peas and brassicas (cabbages, cauliflower and broccoli) do not like the heat - they stop growing and put all their energy into creating flowers and seed. Planting early, about 4 weeks before our last spring frost, allows for a really good harvest and a robust spring garden.
While Aurora is typically right by my side with most of the things we do around our house and garden, I am making a renewed effort to include her and give her helpful, real tasks. With the arrival of her younger brother last fall we have fallen away from this a bit and relied on her to occupy herself and have given her far too much screen time as we all adjust to having a new family member. I’ve been doing a lot of research and trial and error when it comes to parenting a toddler. I have read time and time again that starting from birth we should have children watch and slowly start to include them in everyday tasks and chores as they develop to help them become productive members of the family and reduce overall tantrums about things like getting dressed, eating dinner, and cleaning up toys. On a homestead, we are also focused on raising a productive gardener and luckily Aurora is an outdoor lover. Each day over the last week she has woken up and asked “Are we planting seeds today, mama?”. Oh, my sweet girl.
The activities I’m sharing this month are not necessarily “chores” but they follow the same principle. Allowing our children to play an active role in our homes and daily lives in hopes of raising confident, independent, and thoughtful humans.
Make Magic Lemonade
How to & Talking Points:
Gather wild violets from your yard. Fill a pint mason jar with them. Rinse and pat dry. Return the violets to the mason jar and cover with hot water to create a bluish-purple tea.
In a separate mason jar, add the juice of two lemons and some sweetener to taste.
Before mixing the liquids, ask your child what color each is and what color they expect when they get mixed.
Have your child mix the liquids and watch the colors change!
Start a Nature Journal
How to & Talking Points:
Round up or buy small journals (I like to keep something like this in stock at our house because I’m a notebook maniac).
Bring the notebook to the park, on a picnic, or outside as you work in the garden or just play. Encourage your child to collect bits and babbles from nature to press and store in the journal.
While outside or, even better, as soon as you come inside, encourage your child to sit with coloring supplies and draw or write about what they observed outside. Did a new flower bloom? Did they see any animals? What did they smell? Hear?
Make Up a Critter Dance
How To & Talking Points:
This is a great diversion if you’re about to hit tantrum town! But it’s also fun when everyone is in a good mood. We do this to start our kids’ garden classes to get all the wiggles out.
If you’re outside, especially if you’re on a walk in the park, you can wait until you see an animal and then emulate that animal in a dance that you and your child make up. Each time you see a new animal you can add a new move to your dance.
If you’re just hanging out you can provide the prompts - we like to do insects:
buzz like a bee
flap your wings like a butterfly
slither like a snake
inch like a caterpillar
hop like a grasshopper
Plant Seeds in the Garden
How To & Talking Points:
There’s so much that can be planted in April. We just planted the daycare garden with kids aged 3-5 with carrots, peas, lettuce, cilantro, broccoli, cauliflower, and calendula.
Have kids mimic the steps of planting a seed - poke a hole, drop one seed, cover it up, and then add a little water.
Planting seeds is an activity that naturally practices counting. Count the seeds as you plant them.
Seeds come in all different sizes and shapes. Encourage your child to compare the seeds as they work through planting different ones. What shapes are they? Are they bigger or smaller than the last seed they planted?
Paint with Dandelions
How To & Talking Points:
Gather dandelions from your yard. Talk about how most people view dandelions as weeds but that they’re actually a fully edible plant from the roots to the flowers.
Rub the flowers onto paper to create a yellow “paint”.
What other plants can you paint with? Experiment (carefully) with different leaves, flowers and berries from around your yard.
If you want even more kids’ gardening content, please check out the instagram account I’ve created for the in-person classes we host on our homestead.
This is so cool! Such amazing ideas! I want to do this with kids one day when I have some! Xxx
Lovely post! Your kiddos are lucky to get to garden with their Mama!