One of the best things about living in Florida is the ability to plant year round. I am an avid (hydroponic) vegetable planter, and there are only about 1 to 2 months where planting is not advised. Because I’m active in setting up, cleaning, planting, and caring for our hydroponic garden, the kids are interested in it too. The Younger is not as involved as The Older, and it’s only because her age keeps her from the fine motor skills that she needs for a lot of the gardening. Usually she just brings us handfuls of the mixture and tosses it into the bins.
Here is The Older making the indent to place the seeds. This was a great activity for him because we used math to make it interesting (ex. We have 6 seeds total, so how many go on each side to make it even?).
I’m interested in doing some planting in the front of our house too. I’ve always wanted a fountain of some sort, and now that the kids are getting older, I find myself spending more time in the front yard because they want to ride their scooters or use the pogo stick in the driveway and wishing I had a more “dressed up” front yard.
I’m thinking of getting some outdoor planters for our front porch and letting the kids pick out their own flowers to plant. This will be a great lesson in both science and math for The Older (I’ll give him a set amount of money to spend and see how much he can get with it), and for The Younger, I’ll have her pick her flowers by color and texture. For her, I think I’ll get fiberglass planters so she can move them around easier than the heavy ones.