Gardening with my Preschooler

I have always wanted to grow a vegetable garden, and we are finally doing it!  Macy is so excited and ready to help with every part of the process.  I know this is going to be an awesome learning experience for the whole family.

Macy just loves to be outside, no matter what the activity is, so it didn't take much to get her enthusiastic about the project.  I did, however, want to prep her a little before we began, so we read some books about gardening and also watched a storybook movie that came on TV.  The movie, Planting a Rainbow, is actually a book, as well, by Lois Ehlert.

  

Even though the book is about flowers instead of vegetables, it was still a great resource to get her pumped about all the pretty colors that we will be able to grow in our garden.  

Not only will we plant a rainbow, but we will be able to eat a rainbow of veggies, too!

I also found this page that lists some great children's books about gardening:  http://www.jmgkids.us/index.cfm?did=11777

Actually, Macy's favorite book came from the library and wasn't on the above list.  It is called Ten Seeds by Ruth Brown.  It is a very simple book about a little boy planting 10 seeds.  Different things in the environment come and destroy the seeds one-by-one, such as a slug, a cat, and a ball.  It counts down from 10 to 1 but in the end one flower prevails and gives the little boy 10 new seeds.  Very simple, but a great book.

We also planted some seeds indoors.

Crayola has indoor greenhouses for children.  Macy had fun with her Granny watering the little dirt packs and then inserting the tiny seeds. 

 Danonino Yogurt is giving away a tiny seed pack with each 6 pack of yogurt purchased.  Our seeds were chives, and we planted them directly into a clean danonino yogurt cup.

  

After all of that, we tilled the dirt for our garden with lots of help from Macy to get the grass out of the dirt!  We have also visited several plant stores to check everything out.  We will definitely have to invest in some of the absolutely adorable child-sized gardening tools in the near future.  They have put Macy's excitement over the top!  

Who wouldn't want a watering can that looked like this!?!

We can't wait for the planting and harvesting to begin!  I'll keep you posted...


I'm also enjoying a little blog hopping today!