Gardening with young kids (& Outdoor Play Party)

It's Outdoor Play Party again and we've been gardening.  If you've been outside with kids then link up below.

Last year Champ really enjoyed growing tomatoes, then at Preschool he began to enjoy digging up potatoes and declared that he loved gardening so to encourage his new found 3yr old passion I decided that perhaps this year I too should learn to garden.  

It's been fun, we've made lots of mistakes, but I've also learnt lots too namely how to garden with kids.  Here are my top tips for gardening with young kids.

1 - Don't expect too much

Champ is genuinely very enthusiastic about gardening, he's helped with the planting, loves to get out his watering can and regularly checks the plants progress (referring to them as his babies!), but he's yet to help with digging, weeding and all the hard graft.  Sounds daft, he is three, but gardening with kids basically means you do the gardening and the kids engage with parts of the process.  So make sure you enjoy it too!

This is what happened when I tried to get Little Dude to dig a hole with me, he ran off with my trowel and stated using it on the gravel - I dug the hole, I think you get my point!

2 - Let them engage their way

There are definitely bits of gardening that the boys enjoy, planting seeds and picking the fruit and vegetables they've grown being the top two.  But, they also engage in the gardening in their own ways, often alongside me, but not necessarily engaging in what I'm doing.

How are the boys engaging?  We have two gardening areas, containers in our garden then a small plot at our local allotments as part of a local community project.  At the allotment Little Dude has spent literally HOURS hunting for worms, and then showing them to anyone who'll watch!

Bud really isn't interested in gardening, occasionally he'll plant a seed or two, but the one thing he does like is the tools we have at the allotment.  The community project has a great set of kids tools, this is him raking some grass, nothing to do with the gardening I wanted to do (he's not even on our plot!), but it kept him busy and interested so I encouraged him to carry on.

Other things the boys have enjoyed is hunting for bugs, seeing who can dig up the deepest weeds, trying to prank their Dad by setting 'traps', playing with the stones I've pulled out the soil etc...

3 - Grow something that produces quick results

To keep the kids enthusiasm up it's a great idea to plant some stuff that grows quickly so the children want to keep growing and seeing more results.  This is Champ very proudly holding a radish that he grew!  Our mixed salad leaves also grew really quickly and the classic cress grows in just a few days.

4 - Set clear boundaries

I think this is true of all play or activities, but boundary setting helps everyone to stay safe and happy.  I've set boundaries over the use of tools, especially the ones the boys use (aka they are not weapons!) and over what they can do with the plants (when they can pull up plants, what they can and can't touch etc).  This keeps the boys safe and reduces the likelihood that the boys pull up the plants before they've had the chance to grow.

5 - If all else fails, distract

If you just need to get on and garden then have something up your sleeve to distract the kids.  If you're gardening at your house this is probably easier, we have lots of play set up in the garden already, but at the allotment it's just us.  So, I bring along a few toys - a ball to kick around, toys for driving in the dirt, books for Bud and this is Champ and Bud playing with slime - nothing to do with gardening, but they thoroughly enjoyed themselves!

And so to the Outdoor Play Party.  If you've played outside this week then we'd love for you to link up, doing so gives us permission to share a photo with link to your original post on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.

My favourite post from last time was the Rainbow Wind Chimes from Happy Hooligans.  A pretty craft project and one you can enjoy every time you go outdoors.

Enjoy linking up and don't forget to check out my Outdoor Play Pinterest Boards