Grow Sunflowers with Kids

This is the second year that Miss E grew her own sunflowers. Take a look at last year's flower garden.

I designate a small garden patch by creating a stone border and filing it with soil.  Here in Central TX, our rocky soil is hard for little hands to dig, and that's why I add a top layer of rich, loose soil.  In areas with good soil, you can plant directly into dirt.

Miss E is given the responsibility of planting the seeds and tending to her garden.  She diligently watered her garden for over two months.


And her care, persistence, and patience paid off.  


She grew something TALLER than herself, and she experienced the satisfaction that comes from watching something beautiful emerge from her daily effort.  


Have you tried growing sunflowers with your kids?  It's pretty hard to grow much here in HOT Texas, so if my four year old can do it, I bet your kids can too.  Happy Gardening!
This post is linked up to It's Playtime!, Weekly Kids' Co-Op, Link & Learn, and the Sunday Showcase.

Prepare an Earth Friendly Meal

Earth Day is on April 22nd, and Mommy Labs and Greening Sam and Avery are hosting an Earth Day Celebrations Blog Hop.  The hosts along with many other bloggers will be sharing ways we can celebrate Earth Day with our kids.

I created an Earth friendly meal to show a way that Earth Day could be celebrated with our kids.  Food is one of the first things that comes to my mind when I think of celebrations, but so often the food we consume is not produced with the Earth's well being in mind.  Our family tries to incorporate environmentally healthy choices for food, but time and money can get in the way of making a greener choice. 

Little Helper - Harvesting Basil

This summer's season of gardening hasn't produced much of anything. I tell myself it's due to the drought, extreme heat, and pesky critters stealing fruit, but I could be in denial that I might be missing a green thumb. The only exception is our herbs. Today I was busy pruning our basil plants, and Miss E wanted to help me harvest basil.




After I pruned our basil plants, I showed the Little Miss how to pluck the green leaves from the stems.




She needed to choose leaves that did not have any signs of black, brown, or bugs.








The green leaves went into the bowl, and the inedible leaves were placed in a brown bag.




We ended up with a healthy harvest of basil, and Miss E is excited about making pesto. Pesto was one of the first green foods she happily ate. I think growing basil encouraged her to to eat it because she knew it came from our garden.



The withered leaves and stems will go into the compost pile.




Today's basil gardening encourages fine motor skills by using her fingers to pluck leaves. Choosing the good leaves from the bad leaves supports math concepts by sorting and science by using observation skills to notice different appearances in the basil leaves.

You don't need to have a thriving garden full of tomatoes, corn, and squash to involve your children in growing produce. A small herbal garden captivates children's interest in gardening too.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:In the Backyard

Little Helper - Making Tea

Today I have a cold, and the only time this avid coffee drinker craves tea is when I'm under the weather. It's important to teach children to care for others. I explained to my daughter that tea makes me feel better when I am sick, and I told her I needed help making tea. At three, she shouldn't be expected to wait on me hand and foot, but making tea would be fun and encourage compassion.

We have a thriving peppermint plant in the garden, and mint would be soothing to my sore throat. Even when sick, I like to spend time outdoors because I feel like the vitamin D from the sun and fresh air helps speed healing.

Miss E picked the peppermint leaves.




I love growing herbs because children appreciate their aroma.




She washed the leaves.




She poured water into the pot.




I brewed the leaves.




When the tea had become cooler, she poured each of us a cup of tea.




By encouraging children to help out in small ways, they can learn compassion and teamwork.






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:At Home

Growing Confidence

Miss E has been tending her flower garden for a couple of months. I gave her an assortment of seeds and a little plot to grow them. She has been responsible for tending her plants with tidbits of advice from me, but she was the one who made the choice whether or not to take care of her garden. Some days she wasn't in the mood to garden, but she continued caring for her plants. Just now, she can see the fruits of her labor because the flowers are blooming. I can tell by the sparkle in her eye, she is amazed at her flower garden. I think it is awesome she could grow something taller than herself, and I hope she is just as proud of herself.

Gardening is a wonderful way to build a child's self confidence in her abilities. In order for children to become more confident, they need to face challenges. Gardening is ripe with natural challenges - the weather, pests, and soil conditions. They learn that some goals take awhile to accomplish because growing a plant from a seed can take weeks, sometimes over a month. Even in the face of hard work, they realize sometimes they will fail. Plants will die, but they need to figure out how to keep the other plants alive.
When they persevere through gardening, they witness they were responsible for the creation of beauty, and that will make them feel good about themselves.

Growing a garden is hard work, but children need to work on tasks with delayed gratification. If you want to build children's confidence, they need to face challenges, persevere, and fail. Through this adversity, they will grow into more confident people.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:In the Garden

Gardening - A Process

Gardening with Miss E has taught me to appreciate process over product.

While I may be counting the total number of garlic heads we successfully grow, Miss E patiently digs out her one garlic. She shrieks if anyone offers advice about a better technique. Once she has pulled it out, she carefully examines it. She strokes the roots and stem, and she gently places it with the other garlic heads watching that it doesn't topple on the ground. When I am excited that we may have grown enough garlic for half a year, as long as my mother in law doesn't dig into my stash, the little Miss has moved onto other things.







Mulching A LOT becomes a gardening necessity when living in hot Central Texas. I know that you should have several inches of mulch covering your planter beds to retain moisture. Miss E helps me mulch, but she prefers her own method of mulching. She scatters a tiny bit of mulch around each plant. She doesn't have a thick layer, but she concentrates on each plant in her own garden.


The bulk of our gardening effort goes to watering. During times of drought, I forego watering the grass and drip sprinkle the trees. To me, trees are more valuable than grass. No plant is too tiny to be ignored by Miss E because she focuses her watering efforts on mostly small plants.



I wish we could grow enough vegetables to sustain our family, but it is imporrtant that the little Miss is gaining an understanding and appreciation about where our food comes from even if our little garden's harvest is meager. She recognizes that it takes work and perseverance to cultivate a garden because when it starts to feel like too much work she goes off to play.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:In the Backyard