Plant, Water, Grow!
Learning the concept of gardening for toddlers can help build a variety of valuable motor skills that you, as a parent, might not even have considered. Gardening can help teach your children to feel different textures of soil, seeds, flower and petals. More importantly, for improving their future academic skills in writing, cutting and typing.
One of our favourite activities that demonstrates this is grass growing! In this blog, we will be discussing how to set up a little gardening project that will keep your children entertained (with little adult support) for months to come!
Even as an adult, it amazes me that a handful of seeds can turn into an entire back garden on wonderfully green grass. Start by explaining the type of seed you plan to grow, how they feel, and look. Allow your toddler to explain what they think will happen when you add them to soil and water them over time.
It is time to create our nature monster! What is needed…
Most of these items can either be found at your local garden centre, online or by recycling!
- Potting soil… we recommend using soil or dirt from your back garden, as every child enjoys the art of digging! Go for the top, looser bits of soil if using this alternative.
- Grass seed
- Plastic containers (6–12 cm deep)… recycled food packaging works perfectly.
- Watering can… the one with a rose sprinkler is best.
- Spray bottle
How it’s done…
- Fill your recycled containers with potting soil or back garden dirt.
- For the first watering, use your watering can and make sure the soil is completely wet, but not drowning.
- Sprinkle a handful of grass seed over the entire surface of the soil.
- Gently spray the seeds using your spray bottle.
- Place your recycled containers on a window sill with plenty of sunlight. If your window sill isn’t wide enough, place your containers on a table near the window to catch the sun. To promote growth throughout the process, don’t forget to rotate your containers for even sun exposure.
- Make sure you are spraying your grass seeds daily and that the soil is thoroughly dampened.
- At this stage of the process, you should start to see the first bit of growth coming in as reddish-brown grass shoots, which will turn green within 1-2 days.
Congratulations, the “grass growing” is complete. However… as plants are organisms that can continue to grow, we recommend starting a growth calendar. Your child can track daily watering, when the seeds were planted and started to see grass shoots, and how often they gave the grass a “hair cut”.
Download our printable growth calendar here.
Circling back to fine motor skills, when the grass has grown nice and tall, your child can, with parent supervision, practice cutting the grass to tend their garden using safety scissors. Let them know the importance of cutting the grass, as it will help the grass grow big & strong, just like when we eat our vegetables!
Although we are currently in Summer and gardening season might be best suited for a Springtime activity, there truly is no better time to educate your child on gardening. Key factors being various plants, how they give us oxygen, and being outside and away from screens in general. Connecting with nature is a vital skill for all ages and should be practised daily by recycling, not littering, and walking when possible.
