Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in houston, TX

top 6 lessons in your garden: how does your garden grow? With food and education all in a row!

April 14, 2009

Even more frugal than buying in season is growing your own garden. Houston has a nice, long growing season and can provide good conditions for a great crop of basic vegetables and fruits.

Houstonvegetablegarden.com is a good resource site. It has great information and frequent updates. The Houston Chronicle has a Gardening section that is comprehensive, offering a plethora of easy-to-follow gardening information.

You can start small or big, combine with trips to a farmer's market (and farmers are usually great for sharing tips!), and figure out what works for you.

Growing a garden for food is practical, but is also a wonderful activity with your preschooler.

Sharon Wilson, an inspirational friend who is living the rural life and dedicating herself to helping the environment, shared that she used her garden to teach her son well-rounded lessons in all disciplines, "I think one of the best green things you can do with a preschool kid is to grow a garden. You can teach children everything they need to know with a garden."

She and I both put down our favorite ideas of how to use a garden to teach many lessons:

Science: Study and research bugs, pollination, photosynthesis, sprout seeds, and each element of interest in the garden. See if the garden and its plants differs from day time to nighttime. Are there different insects? Are plants open or closed? Talk about the different elements (land, air, water, sun).

Math: Gardening offers many opportunities for math lessons. Word problems with real action can teach a preschooler basic numbers, counting, and pre-addition and subtraction. For example: let's count out five seeds to plant in this spot, or hold in one hand three seeds and five seeds in the other, then help your child figure out how many plants total will grow from those seeds. You can also study shapes (let's plant these seeds in a circle, let's plant these in a square. And you can learn units of measurement by measuring the plants as they grow and charting the growth. You can teaching sorting and grouping of similar seeds and plants, for example: these are all flowers and these are all vegetables.

History: Old World foods were foods in Europe before the Americas were discovered: carrots (carrots were used for stomach upsets), onions (onions were used to get across the desert because they are juicy), and so forth. New World foods were here in the Americas: corn, tomatoes, okra, and so forth. Kids also love stories, such as Johnny Appleseed.

Reading: Read books about gardens (find some ideas here), seasons, seeds, bugs, and all those interesting things you and your child see and wonder about.

Civics: by growing a garden, children learn where their food comes from and you can teach them about transportation--my son had a tricycle that pulled a wagon so he would pick up the vegetables from the farmer and "haul" them to the "grocery store," our kitchen.

Art: We made garden markets and stepping stones and rain gauges. Gardens are also great places to learn about colors and blending colors, too.

Let your creativity and interest guide you. The lessons are just a starting point---there are so many more places you and your child can explore and learn from in a garden. Have fun growing with your child---and remember to look up as well as down at your garden. Above you are birds, trees, and other interesting parts of our world.  Read more...

Pick Your Own Fun

by Rachel Mosteller

July 16, 2008

I'm one of those people who always think of doing fun things after the fun has passed. Don't ask me how this always happens, but I like to think of it as A Gift. Inspired by all the talk I've seen of pick your own fruit fun online, I thought I'd give you a head's up on where you can find some pick your own fun in Houston...after most of the fruit seasons have ended. Most of these places, for  Read more...

Need Serenity? Take a Japanese Garden Stroll.

by Rachel Mosteller

June 12, 2008

I know it may seem shocking, especially when stuck in traffic in a concrete jungle, but there's a variety of parks and green space in Houston. While there are all kinds of places to walk and play, there is one place in town that is very different from the rest: The Japanese Gardens at Hermann Park. These gardens are the picture of serenity, something most parents of preschoolers (myself  Read more...

Fun in the Woods

by Rachel Mosteller

May 19, 2008

There are places in Houston that, when we visit, I'm always surprised we don't go there more often. Count the Mercer Arboretum and Botanic Gardens as one of them. Never heard of the Arboretum? A lot of people haven't and they're definitely missing a hidden gem. If you want to show your child nature's beauty (and plenty of flowers), bring them over to Aldine Westfield Road  Read more...