GIVE YOUR CHILD A CHILDREN'S GARDEN
It's hard to imagine a summer holiday at the dacha without cheerful childish voices.
Every family has children and grandchildren who spend the summer outside the city with their parents and grandparents. It would seem that they are gardening assistants who can weed, plant, and water... But that was not the case. Please note that small children constantly want to help you with any work on the site: sowing seeds, planting potatoes, weeding grass, and watering flowers. But we, more often than not, send them out to play so that they don’t get in the way. And in vain...
Very quickly a small child turns into a teenager. This is where we begin to “load” him with various gardening and flower activities. And he, unaccustomed to them, perceives such help to his parents as a heavy duty, and after 17 years (according to statistics) he stops appearing at the family “hacienda” altogether.
But all this can be easily changed if you interest a little person and instill in him a love for working on the land. The Children's Garden will help you with this, which we want to tell you about today.
Decor and arrangement
It is recommended to make beds with fences. This way the soil will not crumble and weeds will not crawl onto the ground. Standard boards can be used as fencing. In this case, it is worth sanding them so that the child does not drive a splinter, and then painting them to give a decorative effect.
Wicker fencing looks beautiful, but it will take more time to create. Do not use slate or similar materials - they are fragile and not environmentally friendly.
Decorative elements - weather vanes, scarecrows, animal figurines - look appropriate in a children's garden. Make signs for each crop with names. If your child can't read yet, draw pictures. For climbing plants, for example, beans, you can make pyramids from willow twigs.
Paths between beds can be laid with geotextiles. A layer of sand is laid on top. Film is not suitable in this case. Geotextiles will not allow weeds to germinate, but they allow water to pass through perfectly.
HOW TO CREATE A CHILDREN'S GARDEN
It may consist of one or several (if you have more than one child) beds. To make it interesting for the child, and for him to understand that this is his personal “possession,” the children’s garden is planted away from the adult. It should be located so that it is convenient for the child to approach it from any side.
The beds should not be in an open sunny place, otherwise the small gardener may overheat in the sun. It is best to choose a small area in diffuse partial shade, for example, under an old apple tree.
In order for a child to feel the difference between his own and adult beds, it is better to give them some unusual shapes - a semicircle, a triangle, an oval. It is clear that the beds should be small so that the child can care for the plants from all sides.
The child’s contribution to the children’s garden depends on his age. Psychologists recommend starting this work with children after four years of age. It is clear that the contribution of children to the children's garden will be minimal. You, the adults, must prepare the land, form the beds, and mark the furrows. At the same time, you must discuss all your actions with your child.
Let him decide what shape the bed will be. What will grow on it, what and how you will plant and sow together. Be sure to buy your kids a set of children's agricultural tools: a shovel, a rake, a hoe, a small watering can.
Let him and you use his rakes to loosen the soil in the garden bed. But he must sow the seeds himself, and water the crops too. It doesn’t matter that you then finish all the work for him. He won't even notice it.
For older children, shift some part of the preparatory work onto their shoulders, but also resolve all other issues together with them.
Mini-garden project
STAGE 1 – PREPARATORY
1 Drawing up a work plan for the project. Plan work on the project in stages (teachers from 06/01/18 to 06/08/18)
2 Organizing beds, planting seeds in the garden. Create conditions for the implementation of the project (teachers, parents from 06/01/18 to 06/15/18)
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3 Work with methodological literature. Create methodological support for the project (educators from 06/01/18 to 06/08/18)
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4 Development of consultations for parents “Beneficial properties of vegetables. How to teach your child to eat fruits and vegetables."
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“ Proper nutrition of children ”
,
“Labour education of a child in the family”
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“Ecological education of a child in the family” (educators from 06/01/18 to 08/31/18)
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5 Selection of visual teaching aids and demonstration material. Create conditions for the implementation of the project (teachers, parents from 06/01/18 to 06/14/18)
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STAGE 2 – MAIN
1 Conversation with children about what a vegetable garden is and why it is needed. Expand children's knowledge about cultivated plants in the garden (teachers from 06/15/18 to 06/19/18)
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2 Review of encyclopedias of illustrations about cultivated plants. Arouse interest in plants, a desire to take care of them, deepen and expand knowledge about plant species (educators throughout the project )
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3 Reading fiction: Sven Nordkvist: “Trouble in the Garden ”
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“Stranger in the Garden ”
, Agnia Borto:
“Let’s Draw a Vegetable Garden ”
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“Grandmother Had Forty Grandchildren”
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Y. Tuwim “Vegetables”
, T. Shorygina:
“Summer Rain”
,
“Basket of Vegetables”
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“Sprout”
, J. Brzechva
“Tomato”
, T. Bokova
“Harvest Festival”
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Expand children's knowledge about the importance of a vegetable garden for people, introduce children to what crops are grown in vegetable gardens (educators throughout the project )
.
4 Experimentation: examining seeds through a magnifying glass, identifying favorable conditions for seed germination. Expand children's knowledge about seeds, where they come from and how plants emerge from them (educators from 06/22/18 to 06/29/18)
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5 Didactic games: “Vegetables and fruits”
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“Describe the vegetable”
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“Guess what it is”
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“Tops-roots”
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“The fourth odd one”
, Lotto game
“In the garden, on the field, in the vegetable garden ”
,
“One is many”
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Expanding vocabulary, classifying plants by place of growth: the difference between vegetables and fruits (educators throughout the project )
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6 Role-playing games: “ Shop : plot - products”
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“Bon appetit : the plot is a dining room”
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“Cafe”
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“Fair”
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Development of gaming activities. Speech development (educators throughout the project )
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7 Practical activities: watering plants, weeding beds, loosening the soil. Develop responsibility for caring for plants. Arouse interest in growing garden crops (educators from 06/13/18 to 08/31/18)
.
WHAT TO PLANT IN A CHILDREN'S GARDEN
The smaller the child, the simpler the children's garden should be. For one child, one bed will be enough. You need to sow a little of everything on it: carrots, radishes, turnips, lettuce, peas, cucumbers (for open ground).
Little children love everything bright, so you can sow marigolds and nasturtiums along the edge of the children's garden bed. These unpretentious annual flowers will be the main decoration of a small vegetable garden. And the child will proudly note that his garden bed is the most beautiful, especially if you remind him of this.
If your family has two or three kids, be sure to give each a separate garden bed, combining them into a common children’s garden. But help the kids make each one different from the other. Have a competition to see whose garden bed is better. Then they will try very hard to take care of their small gardens.
For an older child, you can make a children's garden, consisting of a vegetable and berry bed and a flower bed. There you can add a few zucchini, a couple of pumpkins, plant 4 - 5 strawberry bushes.
And plant some unpretentious annuals in the flowerbed (which can be replaced with others next year).
The main thing is to constantly watch the growth and development of plants with your children. Tell them about those growing in the children's garden. Slowly teach him to take care of him regularly. Can you imagine what joy there will be when the first harvest ripens?
Let the child pull out the first radish or pick the first cucumber. Wash them and make your baby a salad that he will eat with great pleasure!
And most importantly, constantly praise your child for coming up with such a beautiful garden and for taking care of it so well. Believe that in the future you will receive the best assistant who will be happy to work in the garden and vegetable garden.
Correct site layout
You can allocate only one bed for children. But if you see that your child really enjoys working in the garden, you can arrange several beds.
If you have little time or space, regular factory bags of soil can serve as a bed. Just place them on the ground, make holes and plant the plants. It is necessary to take into account some points:
- black bags heat up quickly, which leads to drying of the roots - do not place them in the sun;
- It will be difficult to water the plants; to prevent water from stagnating, drainage holes are made in the bottom of the bags;
- purchase only high-quality mixtures suitable for the selected crops.
If you decide to give preference to them, it is better to lay out the beds together with your child. You should not arrange your garden in a regular style; small squares or narrow rectangles are best.
The best option is vegetable gardens in containers. They are mobile and in bad weather they can be easily and quickly moved, for example, to the terrace. But the soil in such boxes dries out quickly, which means you will have to water the garden more often.
The garden should be positioned so that it is comfortable for the child to care for it. There must be a safe source of water nearby. The pond is not suitable - the baby may fall into it.
The vegetable garden should be located in a well-lit area. There should be at least 0.5 square meters of garden space per child. The length of the bed is up to 3 meters. The width is no more than 60 cm, otherwise it will be difficult for the baby to reach the middle. The distance between the beds is at least 50 cm, otherwise children will damage the plantings when passing between the rows. It is recommended to place a table and a bench next to the garden so that the child has the opportunity to rest. You can install a plastic house nearby, which will allow you to diversify your child’s activities.
Why does a child need a garden?
A vegetable garden is needed so that the child gets to know nature better and sees how it changes with the seasons. Moreover, this is a great option to get results from your work. It promotes the formation of work skills and responsibility. Working outdoors strengthens children's bodies!
A vegetable garden for a child in the country is a necessity. Firstly, your child will be busy, which means he will not distract you with or without reason. Secondly, working outdoors improves health. Moreover, a garden will instill responsibility in a child. Plants, equipment and type of bed are selected based on the age of the child.
