Gardening is one of the most fulfilling, exciting, and educational activities parents can do with their children. Gardening offers so many benefits that’s understated in today’s society. Gardening is one of the simplest, and most convenient ways children and adults can connect to nature, and the energy attached to nature. When it comes to activities that that offers a wide range of behavioral outcomes, gardening would be number one on my list. Let’s look at some of the benefits of gardening.
Gardening helps with self-regulation in young children and adolescents
Gardening can be used as an intervention to help children and adolescents with their self-regulation skills. Gardening is a tool to aide children in regulating their thoughts, and emotions to be more at ease. Gardening was my top intervention I used when I worked in mental health as a family specialist. Gardening is a powerful tool for children who have ADHD, trauma, and other developmental issues. Engaging in gardening with your children is important. Having a garden with a large range of aromas such as rosemary, lemongrass, lavender, mints, and other herbs aids in children’s ability to self-regulate. Planting, and up keeping a gardening can offer a sense of pride and responsibility in young children and adolescents.
Gardening encourages positive social interactions with young children
When you think of the impact gardening have on young children, it’s amazing. Children display more positive social interactions when gardening with other children, and adults. Gardening offers a positive stimulation when children are actively engaging in gardening. Gardening offers a lot of opportunities to learn about bugs, insects, plants, fruits, vegetables, and growth. With so many things to do, it is appropriate to engage in gardening in large groups. Some children will naturally be interested in playing with dirt, digging, finding worms, planting, picking flowers, watering, and picking out weeds.
Gardening is a great educational tool for children
There are so many educational opportunities for young children when engaging in gardening. There are so many things to learn about such as the process of plant growth, composting, identifying insects and which insects are good, or bad for plants. There are insects that goes through a transformation stage. Children love learning about those concepts, and children love interacting with insects. Gardening offers education on the role nature plays in our life, and how plants helps us breath in clean air and beautiful scents and aromas.
Gardening increases family bonding time
There is a saying I like, “A family that grows together will grow together.” Families that garden as a family have increased bonding time. Gardening is an everyday activity for my family. We spend at least 20 minutes a day either in our greenhouse, watering plants, tasting herbs, and checking on plants, and seedlings. Gardening brings our family together, and creates happier moments.
Watch the video below to see how gardening impacts children: