Indiana Action for Healthy Kids

Newsletter Articles

Gardening With Your Children 

Spring is here and the weather is finally getting warmer!  Flowers are blooming, trees are budding and grass is turning green.  It’s time again to start planting a garden.  Gardening can provide low cost fruits and vegetables your family can enjoy, and can supply many life lessons for your children.  The more involved your children are in the process, the more lessons they can take away from the project.

As you begin to think about what to put in your garden, talk to your children about the types of fruits and vegetables they like, and how those foods help them grow healthfully.  If it is your first garden, use the Internet to help give you tips on what to grow and the best time to plant.  You and your children can learn about different foods and what it takes to make them grow.  Try www.thegardenhelper.com or www.jmgkids.us to find some gardening tips. Your children will enjoy the time spent with you, and feel important as decision-makers in the project.

Planting the garden can provide the family with some fun exercise as your hoe up the ground, dig in the dirt, plant the seeds, and keep it watered.  This gets children off of the couch and away from the video games to help them learn new activities.

The garden can create excitement in your house as you check the fruits and vegetables and watch them grow.  Children can develop a greater appreciation of how these fruits and vegetables grow and end up in our grocery stores.  The more they are involved in the process of growing them, the more likely they are to try these foods.  As you are watching them grow, find recipes that include foods from your garden.  The websites www.dole5aday.com or www.fruitsandveggiesmatter.gov may give you some ideas to start a recipe collection with your children.  Get them involved in picking the food and helping to prepare the new recipes you have found. 

At the end of the summer, your children will have learned about different fruits and vegetables, how they grow, and how they benefit their health.  Involving them in the kitchen helps develop food safety and preparation skills early on.  This whole process will teach them how to continue these healthy habits as they grow into adults.  They will go on to share them with their own children.