Kid Fitness - How Does a Garden Grow?

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

05 Jun 2008 01:45 PM

I love gardening. I talk about it here as a great way to get exercise whether you're pulling weeds, mowing the lawn or planting new flowers. It's a fitness choice that you can perform several times a week (though I wouldn't recommend mowing several times a week unless you have multiple lawns to mow - your yard just wouldn't like you). For kids, gardening can be a multitude of things - including a great way for them to get exercise.

Outdoors and Out of the Box

Getting your kids involved in gardening lets them get outside, learn about gardening, flowers, what makes things grow as well as the 'work' involved like weeding, shaping, watering and more. Kids love to be outdoors and while you're full garden may be a lot bigger than a child can handle so section off an area that is specifically for them.

Don't expect them to know what to do either, because this is where you and their grandparents come in. You can help them understand the difference between a weed and a flower. For example, my daughter has watched me tend my roses for three years now and she wants to tend her own. So we are going out to pick up a rose bush for her to plant in her side of the garden. She will be tending those roses herself with supervision.

Go over safety issues - for example - roses have thorns and so she has a pair of gardening gloves to protect her little hands. The use of clippers to trim the rose bush should never be used unsupervised. Besides the rose bush, she has her own little garden of seedlings that she has been managing for the last few weeks. They are about ready to be planted and she's chosen the spots for their access to light, moisture and protection from heavy wind.

Exercise

Gardening is exercising the body and the mind. Gardening is also a very restive activity because you can see the results of your work fairly quickly and success breeds success. Gardening also helps you and your child to bond. While you may not need a 'bonding' opportunity necessarily, why not create a fun time where you and your child can talk about life, gardening and other fun things. Don't worry when they want to break out the chalk and draw a chalk garden on the driveway, but remind them that their portion of the garden is for them to tend.

And as a small piece of advice, don't be afraid to keep an eye on their garden plot, as well. I believe children should be allowed to fail, but especially during the learning curve - it's important they have some success so if that means mom or dad needs to yank a couple of extra weeds, go for it.

Do you have a garden for your little one to grow?

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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