From a very early on I have involved my children in gardening activities. One of my proudest moments as a flower mama was when Matthew plucked a crunched up dry leaf off of an African Violet and wrinkled his nose at it. He was about one and a half at the time.
It hasn’t always been easy doing garden work with my little ones, however I have noticed that one of the easiest way to get Matthew to snap out of a bad mood is to put him to work; carrying heavy buckets of dirt and watering cans, and digging around rocks. Not only does it give him some exercise and tire him out, but it is a great way of distracting him from whatever put him in a bad mood in the first place. I recently began a winter project planting tons of Echiveria/ Hens and Chicks, and involved him in the process.
For his first activity, I buried all of the plants under tons of potting soil. I had him bring his Firetrucks along and dig and “rescue” the Hens and Chicks. Once he did that, I showed him how to plant them and water and mist each one with misting bottles. Have you ever seen a four year old or toddler with a mister or water gun? It doesn’t get much better!
In the days that followed we had his mini bulldozers in the dirt, filling flower pots and vintage teacups for me. Messy and dirty? For sure! But he absolutely LOVED it! And we had beautiful potted plants to enjoy at the studio and at home! Of course if you are going to try this type of activity with your own children you must supervise them, this isn’t an activity where you want to leave your kiddos to their own devices.
Since the Hens and Chicks were such a hit, we have now moved on to fresh herb gardens and are having tons of success with them as well. Stay tuned for more reports on our progress and stories on how we are slowly getting Violet (our one year old) involved too!
Here is a photo of one of our finished creations 🙂
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