Are you looking for fun gardening activities for kids this year, but don’t know where to start?
Do you want quick and easy activities that will entertain your kids all summer? And is educational for the whole family?
After spending hours of amazing time with my two children in the garden, I have created 10 Fun Gardening Activities for Kids.
These gardening activities will not only supply countless hours of fun, but is a great way to help teach your kids, while spending precious time with them.
[toc]
1. Make Your Own Painted Gardening Pots
- Age Range: All Ages
- Approximate Time to Complete: 15 – 30 minutes
- Location: Indoors or Outdoors
- Season: All Season
- Materials Needed
- Terra Cotta Pot
- Acrylic Paint
- Paint Brush
- Matte Sealer
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Kids of all ages will love painting pots for their plants! This is an easy, fun, and quick activity for all kids. And if they love painting one pot you can always get more to keep them busy all day!
Instructions:
- Step 1: Paint your terra cotta pots white to brighten its color.
- Step 2: After your white paint dries, paint the terra cotta pots whatever color you would like
- Step 3: Let your colors dry overnight
- Step 4: Add a Matte Finish if you want to keep your container outside
- Step 5: Walk around your house and yard to decide where to put your pot (and plants).
2. Play Garden Bingo
- Age Range: 3 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 30 – 60 minutes
- Location: Outdoors
- Season: Spring & Summer
- Materials Needed
- Gardening Bingo Game
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Everybody loves bingo. And who loves bingo more than kids.
This is a fun and enjoyable game that parents and kids can play together. Not only will it occupy hours or time, but it is a great educational game to help your kids learn about gardening and the outdoors.
Instructions:
- Gardening Bingo is easy! It’s like the bingo you know and love, but with gardening topics!
- Learn answers to gardening questions, while having fun playing this game.
- The game comes with 6 bingo cards, chips, and 42 picture cards.
3. Plant Fruits, Vegetables, and Herbs in Pots
- Age Range: 3 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 30 – 60 minutes
- Location: Indoors and Outdoors
- Season: Spring & Summer
- Materials Needed
- Gardening Containers
- Plants or Plant Seeds
- Potting Mix Soil
- Spray Bottle
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
This is the perfect way to help your kids learn how to garden, while also educating them on all the wonderful plants that they can enjoy.
Best of all is that this is an activity that both parents and kids will love. And you can do this no matter where you live!
Instructions:Read 20 Easy Vegetables to Grow in Pots for Beginners for in-depth instructions
Step 1: Fill your pots with potting mix soil. Then spray the soil 10 times.
Step 2: Create a 1/8 inch hole with a pencil tip. Place your seed in the pot. Cover it with soil. And then spray the soil for 10 more times.
Step 3: Place your pot in front of a window that gets sunlight for 8 hours or under a grow light.
Step 4: Spray your seed for 2-3 times a day until the seed sprouts through the soil. Continue doing so until your seed gets to be 3 inches tall.
Step 5: Finally, continue watering your plants 1 – 2 times a day until they are ready to harvest. Harvest your plants as you see fit (see instructions in the article above).
4. Plant a Vegetable Garden
- Age Range: 3 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 60 – 180 minutes
- Location: Outdoors
- Season: Spring, Early Summer
- Materials Needed
- Plants or Plant Seeds
- Garden Soil
- Watering Can
- Raised Garden Beds
- Hoe or Tiller
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Studies have shown that kids are happier when they are outside. And this is the perfect way to get your kids outside while learning about gardening and the benefits of hard work.
Not only this, but this will help teach your kids responsibility and care. And they’ll even get to enjoy all the fruits, vegetables, and herbs when they are harvested!
Instructions:
Read the Ultimate Guide to Starting a Vegetable Garden for in-depth instructions
Step 1: Decide what size garden you want and where you want it. Smaller gardens are great in raised garden beds. Larger gardens are perfect for your yard.
Step 2: Decide what type of vegetables, herbs, or fruits you want to grow in your garden.
Step 3: Weed Whack the grass down to the soil in the area you want to start your garden (if you are not building a raised garden bed). Then either use a hoe or tiller to break up the soil.
Step 4: Plant your Vegetables in the garden.
Step 5: Fence in your garden to help protect it from deer, rabbits, and other pests. Watch your plants grow and enjoy the fruit of your kids’ labor!
#5. Build a Sunflower Fort!
- Age Range: 3 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 30 minutes
- Location: Outdoors
- Season: Spring, Early Summer
- Materials Needed
- Sunflower Seeds
- Shovel
- Watering Can
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Not only will your kids love planting sunflower seeds, but they will also enjoy watching them grow. Best of all though is that they can use the sunflowers to grow a fort that they can play in all summer.
Instructions:
Step 1: After the last frost of the year, dig a 5 by 5 foot square in your garden or yard. You want the soil loose and not wet.
Step 2: Plant your sunflower seeds around the edges of the square. This will form your fort. Keep the seeds 12 to 18 inches apart.
Step 3: Immediately cover your seeds with soil. Then water your sunflower seeds for 30 seconds.
Step 4: Continue watering your seeds 2 to 3 times a day for 30 seonds each.
Step 5: Finally, watch your sunflower seeds grow and form a fort that your kids can play in all summer. An added bonus is that they can eat the sunflower seeds or use them to feed birds!
#6. Garden Scavenger Hunt
- Age Range: 5 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 30 – 90 minutes
- Location: Outdoors
- Season: Spring, Early Summer, Fall
- Materials Needed
- Phone or Tablet
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Whether we want to admit it or like it, kids are on smart devices more and more. If your child is already on a smart device then why not make their experience educational. Kids will love being on their smart devices while being challenged to find different plants around their yard.
Instructions:
Step 1: Have your kids spend as much time as they want in the yard finding 5 – 20 plants.
Step 2: While they find the plants in the garden or yard have them take a picture of it.
Step 3: When they are all done, you have a fun job. You get to guess all the plants that they have taken in your yard and garden.
Step 4: If you want to change things up you can also make picture note cards that your children have to find and take pictures of in the yard and garden.
#7. Make a Butterfly Feeder
- Age Range: 3 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 30 minutes
- Location: Outdoors
- Season: Spring, Early Summer
- Materials Needed
- Acrylic Plate
- Butterfly Nectar
- Vase
- Sponge
- Superglue
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Kids love butterflies. And they’ll love creating their own butterfly feeder to help them attract and watch butterflies all summer long. As an added bonus you can help them learn about all the types of butterflies they will attract and how to best attract them.
Instructions:
Step 1: Superglue the back of your plate to the top of an open-ended vase.
Step 2: Decorate your plate if you want to or simply place it in an area of your yard where you wish to get butterflies. Butterflies prefer shaded areas!
Step 3: Break up several pieces of sponges and place them in the butterfly feeder.
Step 4: Add the butterfly nectar mix to your butterfly feeder (aka pour it on the plate)
Step 5: You’ll kids will love watching butterflies swarm to the feeder all summer long.
If you or your kids are a visual learner then I recommend watching the below video:
#8. Create a Rainbow Garden Marker
- Age Range: 3 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 30 minutes
- Location: Outdoors or Indoors
- Season: Spring, Early Summer
- Materials Needed
- Paint Stir Sticks
- Brush
- Acrylic paint and sealer
- Fabric Paint
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Not only will your kids love painting and designing their own sticks, but this is a great way to work on letters and words. Not only this, but it will help them engage in gardening and learn about all the plants in your garden.
Instructions:
Step 1: Paint as many of the paint stir sticks as you want. Then let them dry.
Step 2: Use the Fabric Paint to label your paint stir sticks. Let them dry for a couple of hours.
Step 3: Place your paint stir sticks next to the plants that you labeled them for.
Step 4: After the gardening season feel free to store them in a dry, covered place. Or you can create them again the next gardening season.
#9. Create Your Own Watering Can
- Age Range: 3 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 30 minutes
- Location: Outdoors
- Season: Spring, Early Summer
- Materials Needed
- Old Milk or Water Gallon Jug
- Pen
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Your kids will love just how easy this gardening activity is. Not only that, but they will love having their very own watering can that they can take anywhere with them and use it any time they want.
Instructions:
Step 1: Take either an empty milk or water jug. One gallon jugs work best, but you can also use a half-gallon if your kids aren’t able to hold the 1 gallon.
Step 2: Use a pen to poke 5-8 holes in the cap of your water jug. Remember to keep these holes relatively small so all the water does not escape the jug.
Step 3: You have now created your very own watering can. Fill it up with water to whatever level your kids can hold.
Step 4: Water your garden and plants and watch your kids have fun!
#10. Create Lego Planters
- Age Range: 3 and up
- Approximate Time to Complete: 30 minutes
- Location: Indoors or Outdoors
- Season: Spring, Early Summer, Fall
- Materials Needed
- Legos
- Potting Soil
- Succulent plant
Why Your Kids Will Love It:
Your kids will love playing with their legos and building a new home for their new plant. What your kids will love most is that they can design their new plant pots to look like whatever they want (as long as the succulent fits in it).
Instructions:
Step 1: Take out all of the legos you would like to use. Build your legos into the pot design you would like.
Step 2: Place a piece of cardboard under your lego planter.
Step 3: Place potting soil into your lego planter.
Step 4: Place your succulent plant into the soil and gently cover it.
Step 5: Place your lego planter in a spot where your kids can see and take care of it..
Tips for Teaching Your Kids Gardening Activities
Gardening doesn’t have to be time-consuming, difficult, or even expensive. It should be a fun and simple activity for you and your kids.
Below, are several tips to help make gardening easier and more enjoyable for you and your kids.
- Find Activities your kids enjoy doing
- In order to have a great gardening activity with your children you should find something that they are interested in doing. Give them several options of activities and let them pick one or two.
2. Keep it Simple
- You don’t need a complicated or large gardening activity for your kids to have the experience of a lifetime. In order to prevent frustration and make your activity as fun as possible keep your activity simple and no longer than 30 minutes to start off with it.
3. Do Activities that your Kids Can Eat
- If you want a gardening activity that your kids will love and want to do every year then you should do something that involves eating. Find fruits, vegetables, and herbs that your kids will love to eat.
4. Do Activities that ALL Ages will Enjoy
- If you have more than one kid it will be very important to find an activity that all ages will enjoy. This will help minimize frustration for kids and also allow them to play together.
5. Use the RIGHT Gardening Supplies
- Find gardening activities that have supplies that you already have, can easily be found, or that are inexpensive. This will allow you to spend less time and money finding the supplies and more doing the activity with your kids.
Conclusion
Gardening is a rewarding experience that provides education, food, and a great hobby. But it is nothing compared to the memories you can create when doing it with your children or grandchildren.
As discussed above, all of the fun gardening activities listed in this article are easy, quick, and can be enjoyed by kids of all ages. Best of all these activities can be done with or without supervision by adults.
These are some of my favorite activites, but there are hundreds of activities that you can find online or you can create your own gardening activity. If you want more ideas for gardening activities then I recommend watching the below video:
Also, if you are looking for fun and creative ways to help your kids learn in easy ways then I highly recommend reading all of the great lessons at abcdeelearning. This site will keep you and your kids busy all year!
