Gardening IS School!

Maybe it’s because I am a homeschool mom, but I have to make EVERYTHING in to a ‘lesson plan’!!! ) Seriously, EVERYTHING we do IS school! Even gardening is school.

Be sure to let your kids do a lot of the work in planning and working the garden.

Have them research certain plants and about plant life (science).

Have them create a Garden Journal (English).

Use a 3 ring binder and page protectors. This will be great to refer to year after year.

They can add pictures at different stages of the plant (science).

They can record how often it rained and how much (math).

Have them measure the plants and chart their growth (math).

Have them draw the plants (art).

Press the flowers and leaves.

Get a standard plant life science textbook and read relevant parts together .

Watch for old textbooks at the thrift store or yard sales, these have the best illustrations; cut them up and add to their journals and label the parts of the plant (science).

Make a memory or bingo game from the illustrations.

Check out your library for plant life videos. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE Moody Science videos, you can’t beat them!

Don’t look at gardening as something you don’t have time for, make time. This is a real life skill! And if you must, make it into a unit study so you can count it as school. )

HERE is a neat unit study.

Lots of great pages HERE  for kids to learn about plant life.

Lessons in Pollination

Photosynthesis is the process of converting light energy to chemical energy and storing it in the bonds of sugar.

Another Photosynthesis site, probably more than you want to know!

GREAT site: Butterfly Garden

Getting Started – Spring in the Garden

Go HERE to read what you need to do to be part of the From Seeds to Harvest Gardening Challenge and get in on the giveaways! It’s reall as easy as 1, 2, 3!!!

 Go HERE for the other post in this series for tips and video clips to help you out.