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Gardening for children: Cultivate curious minds
The GroMoreGood Learning Activities are an expert-written curriculum to promote gardening for children as an essential resource for early childhood education.
A garden is not just a plot of dirt. It’s an essential resource for early childhood education and the world’s oldest classroom. Whether you’re a parent, a grandparent or a mentor, our GroMoreGood Learning Activities offer engaging outdoor learning activities to help kids step back from the modern world and reconnect with the rhythm of the earth. This isn’t just a list of chores; it’s a curriculum for life created through a partnership between The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, the Hagedorn Family Foundation and the educators at the Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center. Here is why this approach matters for the little ones in your life:
Early childhood education: Meeting the child where they are
True learning honors a child's stage of life. These gardening for children activities were written by experts to align with natural development, yet they remain fluid enough to grow with them:
- Tiny Gardeners (Infants & Toddlers): A time for sensory learning for infants and toddlers—the cool touch of soil and the vibrant scent of a crushed mint leaf. (Download the Tiny Gardeners activities for infants and toddlers.)
- Growing Gardeners (Pre-K & Kindergarten): A season for observation, learning the quiet patience required to watch a seed break the surface. (Download the Growing Gardeners activities for ages pre-k to kindergarten.)
- Garden Guides (Grades 1–3): A transition into stewardship for grades 1 to 3, understanding how every insect and drop of water plays a role in the whole. (Download the Garden Guides activities for first to third graders.)
Outdoor learning activities for every subject
We often pigeonhole the garden as a "science" space, but these lessons remind us that nature is the great integrator. In the garden:
- Math: Found in the symmetry of a leaf or the counting of a harvest.
- History: Lives in the lineage of a seed.
- Art and Literature: Flourish in the colors of the seasons and the stories we tell while we work.
- Soft skills: Cultivate patience, empathy and the fine-motor grace.
Living by the seasons
The modern world tries to ignore the clock, but the garden demands we respect it. These lessons follow the natural seasons, teaching children that there is a time for planning, a time for labor, and a time for rest. Each gardening lesson suggests "extension objects" to bring outside, ensuring the garden remains an engaging destination that holds their attention long enough for the roots of curiosity to take hold.
Gardening for children: The world is the classroom
The most profound lesson is that these outdoor learning activities are just the beginning. They provide a bridge back to the home, encouraging families to seek out green spaces wherever they travel. The goal isn't just to grow a vegetable. It’s to help a child realize that wherever there is life and growth, there is an opportunity to learn. It teaches them to see the entire world as their classroom, and themselves as its lifelong students.
