“Liam, you dug up the broccoli that you JUST planted!” “Sydney, please keep the dirt in the garden honey! No, honey, don’t eat the dirt, it’s yucky!”
Sound anything like your house when you are attempting a fun family project? I’m not going to lie, having a 3-1/2 year-old and 1-1/2 year old home all summer started to give me a little anxiety. My son’s early learning program ends in May and he’s still too young to do any real summer camps so I started brainstorming projects.
We just bought a new house that has a large backyard so a garden seemed to be the perfect fit. It would be a learning process for all of us. I envision my son and daughter outside each evening helping me water or check on our plants and measure their progress. Then in 60-90 days they will see the fruits (or vegetables rather) of their labor!
So far they do think it’s fun to use the sprinkler on the garden and they have finally stopped trying to jump in it and run over the plants. Progress people. I’m not sure they will totally get it until they actually see the physical produce like what they see in their books. I realized that I always prep their food and that they have no idea what it actually looked like before it’s taken out of a field or tree. I’m excited to teach them where their food comes from and we all might learn a little something along the way. For me, it just might be patience.
If you are interested in starting a garden there are a million ideas on Pinterest! And it’s definitely not too late to do it. I chose to build a raised bed garden so that I can grow organic broccoli, carrots and watermelon. A raised bed garden keeps out weeds and I don’t have to worry if the previous owners chemically treated their lawn.
Sound fun? I would love to hear from you about more ideas on summer projects for the kids!