Not only is gardening something you can do and enjoy together, but it will also help your child with health and intellect while they simultaneously get to have a lot of fun. After all, who doesn’t like to play in the dirt?
Five Benefits of Gardening with Your Child
There are several benefits to gardening with your child. As if it’s not enough that there are benefits for your child, you can look at all of those benefits, and they will apply to you too. You may just find that gardening with your child creates an opportunity that helps grow you and your child’s relationship with God as well.
1. Opportunity to Teach the Creation Story
Genesis’s first three chapters take place in a garden, the Garden of Eden. God created the garden and created all creatures and mankind. While you cultivate a garden with your child, you can tell your children the creation story. This is a wonderful time to talk with your children about how God is the Creator of all things and has created us for a purpose - to glorify Him!
It is also in the Garden of Eden where the fall of man takes place, and the first human sin occurs. This is also a great chance to talk to your children about how we have fallen short of the glory of God and how Christ came to restore our relationship back to God.
What better way to ingrain these stories and truths into your child’s life than to partner them with hands-on activities that they will remember.
2. Stewardship of Creation
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”
Genesis 2:15
Chapter 2 of Genesis is all about the gift of creation that God gave mankind, and their opportunity to partner with him in tending to it. It was a piece of their identity he bestowed upon them to be little creators. The authority over creation was given to humans at the very beginning of time. He created it and then gave it to us as a gift, and it is our responsibility to steward that gift well.
One may ask why we should really be concerned with taking care of creation. First and foremost, it is a way to show thankfulness for a gift given to us. Second of all, we take care of creation because it plays a part in telling others about God and who he is. Roman 1:20 talks about how all creation points back to God and how it clearly reveals his character, such as his power and divinity.
Doing a garden with your child won’t only teach them stewardship, but it’s one of the ways to learn about God. Have your child look at the nature around you and explore the ways that it reveals God to them personally.
3. Promotes Healthy Eating
Don’t we all love to eat a good piece of cake? And there’s nothing wrong with enjoying the flavors and treats that we get to have in this life.
Though we love desserts, we probably don’t want our children eating that for breakfast. We probably also want them to have things that are full of nutrition to keep them healthy and strong throughout the day. 1 Corinthians 6:12 talks about how in all things, even eating and drinking, we should do it unto the Lord with excellence.
We know it can be hard sometimes to get children to eat their vegetables when they’d rather just eat corndogs and mac and cheese; that’s why starting a garden can help encourage them to eat their vegetables. You’re able to explore what vegetables and fruits they do and don’t like, and they’ll probably be more likely to eat something that they worked hard to grow.
4. Patience and Responsibility
We all know plants do not grow overnight. Well, maybe some do, but we know it takes a long time for plants to reach maturity, especially if growing them from seeds. Not only does it take a lot of time to see the fruit of your labor, but it also takes a lot of specific care like watering and protecting them from wildlife and bugs that may want to eat them.
Taking the time to wait for your vegetation to mature and taking care of it every day will teach your kids both patience and responsibility. Patience is a fruit of the spirit, and responsibility is just a part of self-control, which is also a fruit of the spirit. Cultivating a garden with your child can help build strong character that can help them mature into responsible adults and great image-bearers.
5. Mood and Psychological Well Being
Working in a garden with your hands and expending physical energy is linked to a lot of wonderful things, such as the development of analytical and STEM skills as well as focus and memory. With infants and toddlers, working in a garden is a fun sensory activity and helps advance fine motor skills.
Any sort of physical activity, especially paired with anything that takes concentration, is going to help boost your child’s mood, and probably yours too. It forces you to take your mind off of other things, especially negative things.
Physical activity such as digging, weeding, and picking will help release one of the happy chemicals known as endorphins (pain killer chemical).
Being in the sunlight, which you will inevitably be in as you work in the garden, releases the happy chemical of serotonin (mood stabilizer).
Completing a task such as taking care of your garden responsibilities for the day, or even eating food, like the bi-products of your garden, will help increase dopamine levels (reward chemical), another happiness chemical.
One of the last happiness chemicals is oxytocin, also known as the love hormone, which is released from physical touch or playing with an animal. Taking time to hug your child and give them compliments while they are gardening will help increase their oxytocin levels. All of these will help improve both you and your child's emotional states.
Haywood Christian Academy
Located in Waynesville, NC, we are dedicated to providing the best education for your children and helping them turn into leaders. We are founded on biblical truths and principles, and we believe that everything we do in life, including education, should be centered around Christ.
We are a non-denominational K-12 private Christian School always looking for more families who are looking for the best education for their children and want to grow in their relationship with God.
If you or someone you know is interested in our school, feel free to visit our website or give us a call at 828-627-0229, and we’d be happy to talk with you and answer any questions.