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Gardening with Kids: 5 Easy Tips to Get you Started

Rachel — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 19:55:10 +0000

Gardening can be a great activity to teach kids about the world around them. It’s been a few years since we’ve had a full-fledged garden, and despite the fact that I am way too pregnant to do much of the work myself, I was determined that this year we were going to do some planting.

My boys are almost 9, 6, and 4 and they are old enough that they can do most of the work with a bit of supervision. We started gearing up for our garden by learning about composting with our soda bottle compost project. It was a huge hit and now, a few weeks later, we’re ready to move into planting our seeds.

Keep Things Simple

The goal of our gardening project this year is to just cover the basics (and hopefully get a few edible things out of the process). We’re not worried about getting bogged down with details at this point.

We’re focusing on only a few vegetable varieties so we can maximize our chance for success. Easy to grow vegetables like cucumbers, zucchinis, and tomatoes are a great place to start.

Take Short Cuts

In the effort of time (and energy since there’s a significant lack of that going on around here lately), we bought a Jiffy Mini Greenhouse to plant our seeds into. This saved us from having to fill pots with soil and dealing with the mess that comes along with that, and we were able to get all our seeds planted in under 20 minutes so no one lost interest.

We wanted to start our seeds indoors, partially because the weather can’t decide what it’s doing around here at the moment and partially so my kids could keep a close on eye on any changes as they happen. The Jiffy Greenhouse gave us an easy solution and kept everything contained.

If you want to reuse items you already have, you can plant seeds in eggshells (like we did in this preschool science project about how seeds grow) or empty produce containers as well.

Use Kid-Friendly Gardening Tools

Everything seems to go smoother when you give kids tools to work with that are just their size, whether you are working in the kitchen or the garden. Most hardware stores sell kid-sized gardening tools or you can make your own using things around the house like they suggest in the book, Green Thumbs.

I’ve found that giving kids their own tools is also a great way to teach responsibility because they have to be sure and clean them off and bring them inside so they don’t get lost or rust. For younger kids, this is a huge lesson to learn and there’s no faster way to learn it than having a favorite object get damaged when they don’t take responsibility for it.

Give Kids Ownership

I firmly believe that giving kids ownership over their projects helps them to feel more invested and ultimately helps them learn more in the process. If you have older kids, give them responsibility over a specific task or plot of land in your garden. The success or failure of the garden then directly relies on them and kids love seeing progress when they know they’ve made it happen.

My 6 year old has been assigned the job of watering the plants and he takes it very seriously. I try and avoid reminding my kids to do things as much as possible because I want them to step up and take charge on their own.

My 8 year old will have his own small grow box to plant whatever seeds he likes and he’ll be responsible for the full upkeep. Since it’s a small area, that’s very doable for him at his age and he’ll be able to understand the full process from start to finish. I’m hoping it will get him to eat more vegetables as he sees them grow as well.

Explore your Local Library

With any project we work on, I love to expand on what we learn by taking a trip to our library. My kids love getting baskets full of books on the subject we are studying and they discover all kinds of facts that I wouldn’t have known to teach them on my own. With gardening fresh on our minds, we’re going to be stocking up on books about plants, flowers, photosynthesis, and more to dig through as we wait for our veggies to grow.

Green Thumbs is a book I’ve heard great things about, but unfortunately isn’t stocked by my library so it’s on our wish list of things to buy.

What are your best tips for gardening with kids?

Science for Kids – Soda Bottle Compost

Rachel — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:17:59 +0000

My kids are nuts about science so we’re always looking for projects we can do at home that really allow them to get hands-on and see the things we are learning about. With spring weather teasing us around here, we’re thinking about planting a garden, so learning about how to create compost was a great place to start.

This simple kids science activity uses an empty 2 liter soda bottle and some things you have around your house and yard to teach kids about how compost is made. The clear soda bottle is perfect for keeping on eye on the changes that are happening within your compost and it’s a great way to recycle something that would have otherwise ended up in the trash.

Supplies Needed

Empty 2 Liter Soda Bottle
Soil
leaves, grass, newspaper, spoiled produce, and anything else you can find in your home or yard that can be composted

Instructions

Cut the top off a 2 liter soda bottle and rinse it out well. Remove the label so that you can see everything inside the bottle well.

Start with a layer of soil on the bottom and alternate between soil and compostable material. You can use just about any plant matter. We had some peas that were getting mushy in our fridge so we threw those in with some dead leaves, grass, and pine cones. Shredded newspaper would have been great in here too.

I set my 6 year old loose in the yard and had him look for anything that came from a plant. Older kids can alternate green matter and brown matter in their compost and experiment with different levels of moisture on the rate of decomposition.

Feel free to get emotionally attached to your compost bottle.

When your soda bottle has been filled, add water so it can start composting. You don’t want it to be sitting in water but you do want it to be damp all the way through.

Let your compost sit for several weeks in a spot where it will get plenty of sun and won’t be tipped over.

What is a Hypothesis

Even young kids can be introduced to some basic science. After we were done creating our compost soda bottle, my kids and I talked about the scientific method and what a hypothesis is. Brain Pop is a great resource for explaining concepts to kids and they have a really fun video on the scientific method. It is a subscription service but they have a selection of free videos that rotates so you may get lucky, although it’s well worth the subscription.

Older kids can keep a scientific journal and write down their hypothesis and record observations as their compost pile changes. Younger kids can make a hypothesis about what will happen and keep an illustrated journal by drawing pictures of the changes they see happening.

Great Science Kits for Kids

No related posts.

Printable Seed Packets

Mina — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:19:40 +0000

{guest post submitted by Mina of Mina’s Journal}

My folks were great gardeners. When I lived further South my Mother gave me a fruit tree each year for a number of years. She said that later on, we would eat the fruit and think of her. Not that we needed to eat fruit to be reminded of her. She was a big, wonderful part of out lives.

Garden Memories

Fast forward some years, I was visiting a friend who had some gorgeous, burgundy coloured carnations. They were an old fashioned strain and highly fragrant. They were just like the ones Mum used to grow.

My friend gave me a few cuttings and now, two years on they are rampant and flowering wildly in the space I alloted for them.

Download Plain Seed Packet 1

Seeds as Gifts

What can you give to family friends who garden? How about seeds? It’s a nice, cheap gift for children to give. Taking the kids into the garden to gather seeds gives opportunity to talk, learn and prepare a heartfelt gift.

Download Plain Seed Packet 2

How to Make the Seed Packets

Trim along the outer lines.

Fold along the center of the packet and the lower tab lines.

Glue along the bottom and side tabs as indicated and join the packet together.

When dry add the seed details to the front, and maybe the name of the recipient.

There is also room on the back to add a message.

Gather seeds, put them onto a piece of foil and fold edges over to seal the packet and preserve the seeds. Pop the foil package into the seed envelope and seal closed.

Seed Packet Ideas

Print the plain downloads onto coloured craft paper to save ink.
Colour the flowers with coloured markers.

Download Coloured Seed Packet 1

Download Coloured Seed Packet 2

Make lasting memories with this gift! Happy Crafting!
Design by Mina Keenan
Author bio: Mina Keenan – so in love with paper, cloth and yarn. Crafted all her life. Main focus right now on papercraft – designing printables in particular.

Craft: Pepper Printed Shamrocks

Rachel — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 03:00:51 +0000

St. Patrick’s Day is just around the corner and to celebrate we created this super simple craft that is perfect for preschoolers to school-aged kids. I love easy craft projects that use things I already have around the house.

For this project, we had some green peppers in the fridge that were slightly past their prime and that looked suspiciously like a shamrock when sliced in half. All we had to do was pull out some green paint and we had a fun project idea!

Supplies Needed

Bell Peppers
Green Paint
Construction Paper
A Paintbrush
A Paper Plate

Instructions

Slice your bell peppers in half. Some will look more like 3-leaf clovers while others will look like a 4-leaf clover. Both are a fun to use in this project.

When we paint, I like to use paper plates so I can spread the paint out and my kids can have easy access to it without risking spills. Pour a bit of paint onto a paper plate and lightly spread it out with your paintbrush.

Dip the cut bell pepper into the paint. If you have trouble getting full coverage, use your paintbrush to apply the paint.

Older kids can carve the pepper a bit to make it look more like a shamrock. Preschoolers can just use it the way it is.

Gently stamp the painted pepper (say that 5 times fast) onto a piece of thick construction paper. Left the pepper straight up when you remove it to prevent any smearing.

Your shamrock may need a bit of touching up if you didn’t have enough paint coverage. You can easily fix that with a paintbrush and add any other details like a step while you’re at it.

Science Project – Importance of Brushing Teeth

Rachel — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:38:04 +0000

Most parents have had to deal with at least a few complaints of, “Ah, do I have to brush my teeth?” This hands-on science project is a great way to give kids a very visual answer to that question and teach kids about the basics of dental health.

Your teeth are protected by enamel but the foods that you eat can damage that enamel if you don’t brush well. The concept behind this project is simple — egg shells are very similar to tooth enamel so we set boiled eggs in different solutions over night to see how they would react. My kids were a bit disgusted by the results and we’ve had very dedicated teeth brushers every since.

Supplies

2 hard boiled eggs
2 glass jars
A packet of Kool-Aid
Vinegar

Instructions

Hard boil 3 eggs and let them cool completely. We boiled an extra egg just so my kids could compare the changes they saw on the other eggs.

Fill one of your glass jars with water, one with vinegar (we just used distilled white vinegar), and one with Kool-Aid. If you don’t have any Kool-Aid, you can substitute any sugary drink. We didn’t have any on hand because personally I don’t think any sort of food coloring is edible, but we found a generic packet for something like $0.15.

Have kids observe what each egg looks like before adding it to any of the solutions. This is a great time to talk about what a hypothesis is if you have older kids. We’re currently obsessed with Brain Pop videos and they have a great one on the scientific method. (On a side-not, I’m not associated with Brain Pop in any way. It’s just something we use on a regular basis in our homeschool curriculum and I highly recommend it.)

Add a hard boiled egg to each jar and leave them overnight.

Let the eggs sit for at least 24 hours and then pull them out of the jars so you can observe any changes. The egg in the water will look identical to the way it started out. Explain to your kids that this is what happens when we brush our teeth well.

Pull out the egg from the vinegar solution. Explain to your kids that some foods have higher acid content like citrus and tomato sauce. Even though these foods are good for us, they need to be cleaned off our teeth. The egg in the vinegar was the most interesting to us because the shell became soft.

Remove the egg from the Kool-Aid. Explain to your kids that this is what happens when sugary foods sit on your teeth for too long. The egg will have a rough surface because the sugar will have eaten away at the shell.

You can expand this project by having younger kids draw pictures of the each egg, before and after they sat in the solutions over night. Older kids can write a hypothesis of what they think will happen and write their conclusion the next day.

Follow-up this project with some great books on dental health. Here are a few of our favorites:

Top Dr. Seuss Themed Activities

Rachel — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:55:29 +0000

Today is Dr. Seuss’s Birthday and, to celebrate, it’s Read Across America Day. We’re enjoying the day by having a “book day” as my kids are calling it. Dr. Seuss books are strewn all over the floor and my budding writers are coming up with all kinds of interesting stories of their own.

One of the first books I read with each of my kids when they were born was Oh, the Places You’ll Go! I have great memories of sitting in my rocking chair during my maternity leave with my first son and reading him the musical words of Dr. Seuss.

Dr. Seuss books are a great way to help young readers fall in love with reading from the very beginning. We frequently use the early readers as our kids are learning how to read and they love all the fun illustrations and great nonsense words.

We’ve created a Dr. Seuss Pinboard with some of our favorite Dr. Seuss themed activities and designs. After looking through a few of these projects, I kind of want to plaster my walls with Dr. Seuss quotes.

Here are a few of our favorite Dr. Seuss themed activities:

Dr. Seuss Hats

Source: fancyfrugallife.blogspot.com via Marti on Pinterest

Printable Dr. Seuss Bookmarks

Source: somewhatsimple.com via Karen on Pinterest

One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish

Source: mydeliciousambiguity.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Dr. Seuss Graph

Source: lh6.googleusercontent.com via Lupita on Pinterest

Thing 1 and Thing 2 Handprint Craft

Source: frogsbeesundertheseas.blogspot.com via Trisha on Pinterest

Dr. Seuss Writing Activity

Source: reallyroper.blogspot.com via Rita on Pinterest

Dr. Seuss Dart Game

Source: party.tipjunkie.com via Jo Ann on Pinterest

What are your favorite Dr. Seuss themed projects?

Why I Homeschool

Rachel — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 08:01:09 +0000

Schooling decisions have been complicated in our family. We’ve tried both public school and homeschooling and right now, homeschooling is what works for us.

I’m frequently asked why we decided to homeschool. I realize that for many people, homeschooling is just not something that has crossed their mind and some people wonder why we have made this choice for our family.

Like any decision, our reasons for homeschooling are varied and it’s hard to pin point one final thing that really made the decision for us. The truth was, it wasn’t an easy decision. There are pros and cons to nearly everything in life and I never expected the schooling choices I made for my kids to be so difficult. I’d always assumed my kids would head off to public school when they turned 5, but when that path didn’t work for my kids, we had to look into different options.

Safety

As tempting as it is to wrap our kids in bubble wrap to keep them safe, the sad fact is that they are likely to be faced with unsafe situations during their lives. I’ve made an effort not to be a crazy, overprotective mom, but when a child abductor decided to start hanging around my oldest son’s kindergarten school (complete with stories about lost puppies and moms in the hospital) my guard was up. During second grade we were faced with a school shooter — some lunatic decided it was a good idea to come onto the playground during recess and start shooting. We’ve dealt with schoolyard bullies who sent my son home with a black eye and teasing that lasted throughout the school year — and we were in good school districts.

I watched as my once bright-eyed son became nervous and stressed and as my second son prepared to start kindergarten I knew I wanted better for them. We’d already homeschooled for one year and the difference in the confidence level and happiness of my son was drastic. The safety issue alone nearly made the homeschooling decision for us. Now, each time I hear about a school shooting (in schools where “that would never happen”) and another dangerous situation, it reinforces my decision all over again.

Style of Learning

Some kids do very well in public school — they have a learning style that matches the way the school teaches and they work well in large groups with a structured environment. Some kids don’t. Mine didn’t follow the curve. I have a kindergartener who has aspergers and is working at nearly a 2nd grade level and a 3rd grader who reads on a 7th grade level but who has trouble writing. Both of them are very hands-on learners (although one is more of an independent learner than the other) and neither one of them fits in a traditional classroom. We’ve tried twice with my oldest son and he’s been bored both times.

Homeschooling children with very different learning styles is challenging, but I know that they are getting the individualized attention that they need and they are thriving.

Special Needs

My 6 year old has very mild aspergers and the sensory issues that go with that. The public school system wanted him to spend half of his time in a special ed. classroom. For a child who is working well above grade level, it seemed silly to me to put him in a slower paced class. When you throw in the fact that he has severe asthma and ends up with pneumonia nearly every time he catches a cold, it just made sense to create a learning environment that worked for him as an individual.

Flexibility

When my oldest son was in first grade our family was going through a lot of changes. Our youngest son had just died, we’d sold our house, and we wanted to make some changes so we decided to travel a bit and figure out where we wanted to live. This would not have worked with public school. We spent several months in one place and then relocated to another area. Homeschooling allowed us to turn our travels into an educational experience rather than causing a disrupted education.

I got used to the flexibility of homeschooling and when we returned to public school the following year, I found myself getting irritated having to follow a predetermined schedule and curriculum when I knew that there were things that worked better for our family and for my children individually. I found myself pulling my oldest son out of school so we could go explore local tide pools and museums and when I realized that all he’d missed were a few worksheets and sometimes a movie that he’d already seen, I began to doubt whether public school was really the best long-term solution for us.

True Socialization

Lack of socialization is the biggest argument people have against homeschooling. Educationally, it’s obvious that one-on-one attention far exceeds what you get in a large classroom environment. But many parents believe that their kids need to be in a large group of kids to be properly socialized. Having gone back and forth between public school and homeschooling, we had the interesting opportunity to really see both sides of things.

In public school, my oldest son is a follower. He bases his interests around what his friends like and doesn’t stop to think about what it is he likes. He became anxious and stressed in public school and my once enthusiastic learner suddenly thought school was boring.

As a homeschooler, he is outgoing and friendly and will spend hours reading books or learning about subjects that he finds interesting. Right now he’s decided he is in love with Geometry and despite the fact that his public school friends tell him that they hate math, his opinions stay set. My younger children have never been to public school so they haven’t gone through the same transition as their brother has and my hope is that they’ll be happier for that.

I’m not against public school in any way and I firmly believe that every parent needs to make schooling decisions based on their family’s individual needs. We evaluate things each year to be sure that the choices we’re making are the right ones for our kids. I’m committed to educating my kids, not necessarily to educating them in a predetermined way. If homeschooling continues to work, we’ll keep going with it. If we get to a point where there’s a better choice for what our kids need, then we’ll look into that.

How did you decide how to educate your kids?

How to Make a Laminated Alphabet

Rachel — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 08:01:26 +0000

One of the most effective tools I have for teaching my kids letter recognition has been a simple laminated alphabet. This cost me under $5 to put together and we’ve used it for numerous activities, from making play dough letters to tracing over each letter with a white board marker.

This is so easy to make and it’s perfect whether you’re a homeschooling mom or a mom of a preschooler who needs a bit of letter recognition practice. We use this all the time to keep my 4 year old occupied during the day so I can work with the older kids.

Supplies

The materials you need to make this are simple.

Computer Paper
A Clear Font – You wan’t one that preschoolers can easily recognize so avoid anything too fancy
1 Loose Leaf Ring – This can be any size you want
Hole Punch
The Ability to Laminate – You can use a laminator for this if you have one. I just took my printed pages to a school supply store and paid a few dollars for them to laminate the pages for me. In a pinch, you can slide each page into a sheet protector and put the entire thing in a 3 ring binder.

That’s it!

Instructions

Find a font that will work for your preschooler. I wanted something that emphasized the correct starting and ending points for each letter so my kids could practice correct letter formation. I have some font recommendations here, but if you have a favorite, any font will do.

Increase the font size so that each letter is as large as it can be and fits one letter to a page. Once you have formatted your letters the way you want them, print the entire alphabet.

At this point, you’ll laminate your alphabet pages. If you don’t have a laminator, most school or office supply stores will do this for you for a very small fee. This will come back to you in several large sheets. You’ll need to cut them apart and then trip around the edges.

Put your alphabet pages in order (this is a great activity to do with your preschooler!) then be sure they’re lined up evenly. You may need to trim some extra edges if you missed any at this point.

Use a hole punch to put a hole in the top, left hand corner of each page. I improvised and used a 3-ring punch. You’ll probably need to do this in several smaller stacks.

Put all the pages onto your loose leaf ring and your laminated alphabet is done!

Some of our favorite activities to do with this are:

Trace the letters with your finger
Trace the letters with a dry erase marker
lay Wikki Stix over the top of each letter
Make dough letters with play dough snakes
Take the pages off the ring and put them in alphabetical order
Pick a letter and find objects around the house that start with that letter
Use a dry erase marker to draw pictures of objects that start with each letter on the each letter page

How would you use your laminated alphabet?

Homeschooling: Free LIVE Virtual Field Trip to Ellis Island

Rachel — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:23:38 +0000

One of the things I’ve missed as part of our homeschool plans this year is that we haven’t traveled or been on nearly as many field trips as I would have liked to. Exploring new places is one of my favorite things about homeschooling but between my pregnancy and my husband’s broken foot, our plans were sidelined.

We’ve been taking advantage of some great virtual field trips online to learn about historical places or science subjects and that’s been a great substitute. Certainly not the same as being there, but a great alternative when you are stuck at home.

Scholastic is hosting a free LIVE virtual field trip to Ellis Island on Thursday, March 29, 2012 at 1:00 pm EST / 10:00 am PST. You can register for the event now and then simply return to the site before the event to participate.

I think we’ll plan on doing some reading about Ellis Island before this event and we’ll definitely be participating. Virtual field trips are a great opportunity to explore new places when limited finances or health issues keep you at home.

Make Your Own Constellations

Rachel — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 08:01:34 +0000

We’ve been learning about constellations as part of our homeschool curriculum lately. My kids are always much more excited about hands-on activities so we came up with this project to recreate some of our favorite constellations.

This simple constellation activity for kids can be used to recreate some of your favorite constellations, or for younger kids, to create some made up ones of your own. All you need is some basic supplies that you probably already have around your house.

Materials

Piece of Cardboard
Sharpened Pencil
Black Construction Paper
Flashlight

Instructions

I love to incorporate books into any projects that I do with my kids. It’s a great way to really learn a concept or extend some of your favorite books by combining it with a hands-on activity. Some of my favorite science books for kids are the Let’s-Read-And-Find-Out-Science series. I would buy every single one of them if I could.

For this activity, we started by reading The Big Dipper, which is a Stage 1 book in the series. This was a great lead in to the activity and introduced my kids to the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, and the North Star, which are often the easiest things to find in the night sky.

My kids wanted to make their own Big Dippers so we started by studying the shape of the constellation in the book.

To make this project, lay a black piece of construction paper down on a piece of cardboard. The cardboard will give you a bit of a cushion and allow you to make puncture holes with your pencil.

Use a sharpened pencil to make holes in your paper in whatever shape your want your constellation to be. You can have your kids copy a real constellation and learn the name of it or make up one of their own.

When your kids have gotten their constellation just the way they want it, have them take their paper and a flashlight into a darkened room. Shine the flashlight behind the paper (this may take two sets of hands) and watch as your constellation lights up.