Do you know that planting flowers can be therapeutic? You must have heard that being outside in the fresh air has some amazing health benefits. But have you heard that gardening has amazing developmental benefits for kids?

Being outdoors is great for children; the fresh air works wonder for them and outdoor activities keep them active and healthy. In the Montessori City of Industry, CA teachers try to engage children in gardening as it provides them with some essential skills which are necessary for their healthy development.

Benefits of Gardening with kids

Develops healthy eating habits

If you are parents of toddlers, you must be knowing that eating healthy food is vital for their healthy physical and mental development. But most of the parents struggle to make their kids eat fruits and vegetables. You can create a backyard or terrace garden where they can do gardening and grow their own vegetables like carrots, beans, lettuce, or pumpkin. This will help them to develop a healthy eating habit and they will have a sense of achievement in eating what they have grown.

Gardening – a good exercise for everybody

Gardening is a great physical activity. Try to engage your kids in gardening as it will give them a good exercise. Garden tasks like digging, raking, and turning compost provide an engaging and moderate exercise to the upper and lower body muscles. Apart from the exercise, gardening teaches them the pattern of healthy living.

Sensory development

Montessori City of Industry, CA teachers have observed that kids learn the best when they explore the world around them with their senses. While gardening they can touch and feel the soil, seeds, flowers, see the different colors, sizes, and shapes of plants, flowers, and fruits. They can smell flowers and hear different noises like buzzing, chirping, or flapping sounds of the bees and birds. So, spending time in the garden helps them in their sensory development.

Develops motor skills

Scooping up the dirt, pushing the seeds in the soil, pouring water all these contribute to developing children’s motor skills. These developed motor skills help them improve their academic performance.

Teaches responsibility and patience

Most of the parents want their kids to develop patience and become a responsible human being once they grow up. Growing plants or vegetables from scratch definitely requires patience, attention, and care. It is a long process and very quickly they will understand that plants need to be watered and taken care of regularly; otherwise they will not flourish.

Foster scientific thinking

In the Montessori City of Industry, CA teachers introduce many scientific concepts like germination, needs of living things, growth, reproduction through gardening. As they sow their first seeds they become curious about what will happen next. They learn to make predictions, develop their observation skills, and begin to understand the science of nature.

So, gardening is just not an activity, it plays an important role in the healthy development of children.