Sam Goldsworthy: Growing Plants and Veggies

Growing plants and veggies with the children

As you all know we love being outdoors so this week we chose to share with you our growing and planting adventures.

We feel that children should be aware of where their food comes from and this way they can learn and experience this first hand as well as taking ownership in caring for their plants each day. We feel there are many benefits in doing this including educational as well as opening more time outdoors.

The children are always keen to help in the garden . We plant many veggies and also keep chickens. They like to feed the chickens snacks and collect the eggs which they enjoy for their lunch. We also use these for our baking sessions too.

We visit the garden centre often to buy our supplies such as compost, seed potatoes and seeds which encourages independence choosing and paying for the items. One little girl has a toy bunny which she takes every where - during our last visit to the garden centre she picked up a packet of carrot seeds and told us she needs to grow these for her brown rabbit and this is exactly what we did.

We plant potatoes each year the children help to plant them in the soil taking turns with their friends, counting the potatoes as well as sharing them out amongst their peers so they can all take a turn to plant - there are so many rich learning opportunities in doing this. They will water the plants using either the watering can or a water squirter which strengthens their finer motor skills. They notice how much they have grown and get very excited about this. At harvest time they are literally amazed with their potatoes - we roll up our sleeves and get mucky diving our hands into the rich soil to find our newly grown potatoes. We usually find some extra visitors too such as wiggly worms which encourages another conversation on bugs and mini beasts. We estimate how many potatoes that we think we have then count our potatoes, size order them, share them out amongst our friends ensuring we all have the same amount - the learning opportunities are endless!

We also grow runner beans and peas indoors in pots - again they have a passion to check their plants each day and will talk about what changes that they have noticed over time. We build in everyday maths into our discussion such as which one is the tallest? Which one is the shortest? We use a ruler to measure how much they have grown and mark it down on our clipboards.  We replant these outside ensuring the children that they are handling the plants carefully. They continue to care for them and then we harvest the peas.

The children enjoy using their harvested food to help prepare snacks or lunch as well as taking them home to enjoy with their family. They are very proud of their home-grown produce.

So why not go ahead and plant some seeds during this lockdown time at home we certainly have - go check our page on instagram or Facebook - samgoldsworthychidminding and don’t forget tag us on your homegrown gardening photos.