Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Welcome to Creekside Kids’ June Blog! Today, we’re talking about summer gardening with the kids: what we can teach them, what we can learn from them, and the things we should avoid doing.

Gardening is a great way to bond with your preschoolers for many reasons. Gardening can teach kids some valuable lessons about life cycles, growth and development, patience, reliance, nutrition, and science, too.  By working together and talking as you work, you will be creating strong bonds with your child and you will be improving their vocabulary and background knowledge.  Consider reading books about gardening, plants, and insects.

Although kids naturally love digging in the dirt and exploring the world of plants and bugs, we can’t expect kids to know how to tend a garden. For instance, it’s important to understand that a child may have difficulty distinguishing a weed from a plant. If you’re weeding, they may watch you working and then proceed to unroot plants. We must be patient with our kids and teach them the difference… and accept that they might get it wrong even when they kill a plant you’ve been growing.

Similarly, some kids might have an issue with working in the dirt due to a fear of bugs and insects. It’s not unusual for a 3 to 4-year-old child to develop an irrational fear of something.  One of our former students developed an irrational fear of ants at age 4 which made playground time interesting, to say the least.  Another developed a fear of flowers (mostly dandelions) which prevented her from enjoying time out on our west field and her own yard. A pair of fancy rain boots helped “protect” her feet and partially fixed the problem.  Both girls are teens now and are over their old irrational fears!  If a child has an irrational fear of something, it’s best to just help them avoid it until the child matures.  Later, consider a terrarium with bugs to expose them to the insects and let them get used to touching bugs at their own pace.

In Colorado Springs, we have a short growing season. Here some of the delicious, natural goodness you can plant and grow with your children:

• June: Tomatoes, peppers, and leafy greens
  
• July: Beans, cauliflower, corn, cucumber, and yellow squash
  
• August: Beets, carrots, and more leafy greens

If you’d like to discuss a place at Creekside Kids for your kids, we’d like to invite you to click this embedded link to schedule an appointment. Let’s get to know each other! We’re located at 1201 W Cheyenne Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80906, and we can be reached at (719) 635-9111. Our regular hours of operation are 6:30 am until 5:45 pm, Monday through Friday; however, we have a shortened schedule during COVID of 7:00 am to 5:30 pm.