Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Gardening is an excellent way for adults to grow organic fruits and vegetables, plus save grocery money throughout the year.
Why gardening should be included in school curriculum: teach kids about budgeting, financial responsibility, and the rewards of growing their food.
Teaching Kids Life Skills In School
What about teaching the kids about gardening and where their food comes from?
I believe budgeting should be taught at school because some parents don’t understand the financial concept of spending less than they earn.
As a financial nerd, you may agree that teaching kids about money from a young age is essential.
If the education system could include basic life skills and financial knowledge, it may have reduced the number of people with consumer debt.
Maybe your school does this already, but not many do.
Basic math isn’t enough.
Why stop there, though?
Why not make school fun and educational at the same time by teaching other essential life skills, such as gardening?
I’m not talking about teaching kids to be master gardeners, just the simple process of growing food from seed.
Gardening As A Child In The UK
Although it’s a different system in the UK, I can remember planting and growing seeds in school between the ages of 6 and 8.
We used to produce simple things like garden cress and mustard cress in little trays that we would label with our names.
My teachers didn’t necessarily teach us how to grow vegetables in an outdoor garden rather, we did it all indoors.
You can still garden in small indoor spaces because you don’t have a garden outside.
Our gardening pots were left in the classroom on the window ledge, and every day, you were responsible for watering it and turning it around.
We would bring the plants home to our parents when fully grown. “Look what I grew, mummy,” I would happily say.
Yes, I still remember that.
It wasn’t for a particular subject that we grew the plants. It was just a kid’s activity that our teacher planned that year.
Not everyone’s plants survived, but my teacher said our responsibility was to care for them.
I learned from the gardening activity that I could grow something independently, but it took a long time.
A long time for a kid might be weeks, although adult gardeners know your fruits and vegetables won’t be ready a week after you plant them.
Today, my sister says they participate as a family in a community garden, and the children are involved from the beginning to the end.
It’s a much more elaborate garden than growing plants indoors when I was a kid, but it’s certainly given them a platform to grow with.
There’s not as much space in the UK as in Canada, so we should take advantage of what we have and utilize it to the total capacity.
Canadian Gardening Experience
When I asked Mrs.CBB about her childhood gardening experiences, she couldn’t remember any gardening happening at school.
On the other hand, her father was and still is what I would consider a master gardener, including flowers.
He has a massive garden, greenhouse, and plenty of fruit trees on his property.
I won’t get into the herb garden and flowers on the property because he is set up for everything.
He believes in growing food from seeds because we should know where it comes from and understand how to develop it.
Most of all, he likes gardening as a hobby and to get exercise since he’s retired.
He taught Mrs. CBB so much about gardening. This was his response when I asked him whether he thought kids should be taught gardening at school.
Kids today are more worried about their video games, mobile phones and social media.
These same children will lack the simple knowledge of fending for themselves if they had to.
We all have to eat and if we don’t know about gardening and foraging how else will they appreciate what our lands offer us?
Spring Gardening For Kids
Now that spring is around the corner, gardeners will start their gardens using containers from all over the house.
If you have kids, this is a great time to get them involved, especially if your child’s school doesn’t teach gardening.
You’d be surprised that your child might enjoy learning about growing plants.
If there are Canadian schools that have adopted gardening into the education system, it’s pretty hush-hush because I struggled to find any information about it online.
Some kids won’t like gardening as it’s too much work for them, but don’t be parents who let them be lazy.
Bring your child with you to buy your gardening seeds and have them pick out what they would like to try and grow based on climate and season.
If you try it once or twice and they don’t care about it, you give them the knowledge they need to get started if it intrigues them.
Explain to them what it means when you read the seed packet and how a particular fruit or vegetable needs to be planted and cared for.
It’s one thing to show your child what to do, but it’s another when you allow them the hands-on experience and educate them with what you know.
Gardening And Canadian Curriculum
Should Canadian schools implement gardening into the curriculum?
Sure… we have to eat, so why not teach them how to grow their food?
Hypothetical, but you watched the movie “Cast Away.”… just saying.
You never know what might happen and how these skills might help save your life.
It might be challenging to start gardening at school unless your school has a greenhouse where you can grow almost anything year-round.
Some vegetables and fruits may not be ready to harvest until the kids are out for summer, but don’t let that stop you as a teacher.
There are plenty of herbs and quick-growing plants that you can work with.
If space concerns an outdoor garden, the kids could create their gardening pots, as I did in school, and leave them on the window to care for.
Invite Gardening Experts to the School
The teacher could also invite professional gardeners to speak to the students, giving them an even better knowledge point.
Plenty of organizations would donate their time to educate kids about gardening.
Another option is to start gardening in the spring and have volunteers from the class rotate each week to clean the outdoor garden or indoor plants.
This teaches the children responsibility; they might even treat this as their summer job without pay, but the experience is valuable.
Someone needs to weed the plants, so why not teach the kids about weeds, dirt, and seasonal changes within our climate?
Another perk to kids’ gardening would be the sense of accomplishment during harvest time, and they eat the food they grew.
Gardening also brings the kids together and builds community within the school system.
It may also encourage team-building from a young age, which will go a long way later in life.
So, what benefits would a child get from learning about gardening at school?
Plenty, let me explain.
Nutrition and Healthy Living
Developing healthy eating habits from a young age is crucial to what happens when the child gets older.
Experimenting with different fruits and vegetables might be easier if the child learns to grow them independently.
It’s a sense of pride and a desire to try what they’ve grown.
Healthy living begins at home by eating nutritious foods and nutrition education.
This is another excellent reason to start gardening in schools because teachers can teach the children how to make better food choices.
Some schools have cooking classes and teach the students about the Canada Food Guide, which is excellent, but let’s dig deeper into nature and our food sources.
Patience and Team building
Not many kids have patience.
They don’t even know what the word means sometimes.
Life is chaotic at best for a child because they are naturally curious and want to learn and go, go, go all the time.
I remember my sister-in-law always telling her son he needs patience; now that we have our son, I understand why.
Simple, no-fuss, easy gardening with kids will motivate their team-building spirit if they work in groups and initiate patience to look after the plants and watch them grow.
Financial Understanding
Although kids don’t pay for everyday expenses, gardening will help them understand how much work goes into growing food and how it can save them money.
Please don’t assume they will know; teach them.
Suppose we didn’t grow our herb garden every summer; it would cost a fortune in the grocery store.
You may find that if you take your kids grocery shopping, they may just be more alert to the prices of the foods they grow. “Wow, look, Mom, it costs x amount to buy these apples.”
If you have a rain barrel and time, you can grow just about anything for a fraction of what you pay at the grocery store, and it tastes 100% better.
Exercise/Physical Activity
This ties in with the obesity levels and the fact that many of us overeat.
If we can implement daily activities along with healthy eating, it may help us maintain a healthy weight.
The best part about gardening, like cleaning your house or any other indoor/outdoor activities, is that it is a great way to get your physical activity in for the day.
If you’ve never gardened before, let me tell you that it takes quite a bit out of you physically.
Gardening entails planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting, which takes lots of work.
Let your kids be part of your routine.
Get the kids out from in front of the television, put down the video games, turn off social media, and start getting active outside with your kids.
You may not think they will benefit, but years from now, like my wife remembers gardening with her father, they will reminisce about their parents.
Environmental and Nature Education
Environmental education surrounding gardening and growing plants seems solely based on planting trees because they “clean the air” we breathe.
Dumping waste products is bad news, so recycling is high on the education agenda.
Though most of the breathable oxygen is generated by plankton blooms, nothing is discussed about the unassuming organisms in school.
Recycling is only good if the products are reused.
Our city will not accept certain items in the recycling program because they cannot generate any income from it.
Even though they keep drilling recycling into the children’s heads, the truth about what happens to it is not necessarily the same.
Proper education about reducing packaging and consuming less would probably be better.
You are more aware of your contributions to this world and the consequences of your actions.
Experimenting Skills
You may think there is no room for gardening in the classroom because it can be taught at home and wastes time.
I disagree because, just like budgeting, not all parents grasp finance, so how can they teach their children?
The same applies to gardening so kids can grow their food by teaching these life skills.
It’s an endless education loop on a topic that we need to survive as humans.
Even if the education system in Canada isn’t willing to fund a gardening program for the kids, at least allowing gardening projects throughout the year is better than nothing.
Discussion: When you were a child, do you remember learning about gardening at school or at home?
Please leave your comments below.
Thanks for reading,
Mr. CBB
I fully agree with this. I feel like certain life skills should be taught in schools. Gardening would be a great skill to show the children, budgeting would be another. I know my parents never taught me the value of budgeting or saving. I had to learn it all the hard way in my early twenties. With the raising cost of education kids should be taught about budgeting, saving, and debt. Children now more then even need to be taught life skills to help them with their futures.
I remember my daughter coming home with a plant started in a cup and a wet paper towel so they can see the seed “pop” out of the shell and move up the cup towards the light. The high school that she attend has a horticultural class, so there are opportunities to garden.
In my house, I can’t have plants in my house because of the 3 cats that live there but I grew up with a garden at my parents house. My job was to step on the onions so that more flavour would go into the bulb and then pull them out when I was told. Many of us kids were responsible for pulling the weeds and flip them upside down so the roots of the weeds would die and of course the main attraction of gardening….harvesting the crop that was planted.
Hi Dee,
That’s similar to what I did as a child with the cup and the plant at school. Many students go on to be horticulturists and if this is introduced in the schools it’s a way for the kids to know if they enjoy doing it or not.
I’ve never heard of that about the onions.. is that spring onions or a different kind of onion?
Yes harvesting is the best part. Even when a child grows up and gets their own place all of this education will come in handy.
I honestly don’t know. What’s a spring onion??
I remember my mom telling me that I had to go and step on the onions until the green stems were flat. I think there might have been a flower on the stem, but don’t quote me on that. I believe she told me that by me stepping on them, the bulb would get bigger as the stems came back up upright.
What a great topic!! I am personally working right now with underprivileged schools to get these types of programs into their curriculum. We have a great program call Growing Great here in California. It was started by some Moms in our community that felt the same way you do. There is curriculum on their website, growinggreat.org. They train volunteers to go into classroom to teach nutrition and gardening. Kids learn where food comes from other than the grocery store!
Hi Shannon,
Thanks for your feedback as I know you work with children day in and day out. I think it’s great that you are working on getting this into the curriculum. There is NOTHING wrong with this and it should be taught.
I agree, more life skills should be taught in school, gardening and cooking
I agree more life skills should be taught in school, gardening and cooking would be great for kids. I am sure most of them would love it and be very proud of their products
I started teaching my daughter these skills at home because they are very important to me and I want her to be able to take care of herself well when she is grown
That is what our blog is about, she loves helping and planning our blogs as well!
Hi Lori,
If you weren’t knowledgeable in the area of gardening maybe because it wasn’t taught to you would you want the education system in the least to touch on the subject to help your child? I’m pretty sure yes after reading your comment and it should be that way. Education is MORE than just English and History… it’s about LIFE. I’d love to learn more about your blog. Can you email me and maybe we can feature it on CBB. Thanks.
I learned about gardening as a kid helping my mom with her garden and then helping to process those veggies into pickles, relish and such. When I was young the gentleman beside us used to start seeds in a couple of greenhouses he had to sell and at this time of year if my parents couldn’t find me they would ask him if he had seen me…chances were I was in the green house mucking in the dirt helping to plant the seeds. I also had a couple of aunts on Mom’s side that lived on farms so I learned that way as well. I’ve gone on the odd field trip with the kids when mine were in school to farms and such so they do get that sometimes.
My kids have helped me with my gardens and the younger boy especially enjoys helping in the garden and growing a few things for his own education. His main concern is the chemicals used in growing food and he isn’t a fan of GMO’s. We have had talks about what we could do if we had the room for a big garden. He was thrilled when we realized the birds had planted some black raspberries in the raised bed along the back line!! His brother doesn’t do much with the garden unless he has me handy to tell him what is a weed and what isn’t. He does cut the grass in the summer without being told as does the younger boy. They do any heavy work I need done. My daughter left a couple of aloe vera plants here and a peace lily back when she moved last summer……they are still here. I suspect they may stay here as her living room window now faces north. Oh well….
If you look over the curriculum documents for Ontario schools you won’t find gardening taught as such but the teachers will work it in as part of a subject on occasion. There might be suggestions in the science documents if you were to look page by page. There are high schools around that have a horticutural program as Dee mentioned. London has one that I know of as they students grow plants for sale and have pots done up and hanging pots done you can buy as well.
Some schools will have gardens on the grounds. The school my youngest went to had a flower garden for the kids enjoyment and they had compost bins that each class contributed to. Sometimes it is called a Memorial garden for a past student or teacher, or a butterfly garden and such….
We did have a good laugh as the grandson can be picky about what he eats but he was at my SIL’s place ‘helping’ Uncle Ralph in the garden picking peas…all of a sudden he was eating the peas he had turned his nose up with his Great Uncle!!!! If Uncle Ralph eats it he will….Stinker!!!!
Hi Christine,
I think that teachers should touch on the subject in the classroom. Like I said to Karen not all kids will go off to be Doctors ,lawyers or even go to College for that matter. If we could rely on parents to teach our kids about finance and gardening we wouldn’t have to worry about the education system but clearly that’s not happening as many kids grow up not even understanding what basic veg and fruits are and how to cook. It’s a pity. Parenting is important but not all parents wanted to be parents nor should they be and should get the opportunity to thrive in a system that we the tax payers pay into.
It definitely should be taught in schools currently in the US students get it hit or miss depending on whether their particular teacher likes to garden or not….that’s just not fair….it should be something that evolves as they age. I have been saying for years….basic life skills (cooking/gardening/cleaning/finance) should be taught and it should be a requirement to graduate high school. I was so intimated to garden when I started at 19…but I stuck with it…after planting many a bulb upside down I got the knack for it…luckily I got it from my Grandma! Great blog post!
Hi Karen
From what I read it was more in the USA that gardening was being taught which I thought was great. I don’t think it’s a waste of time at all. It’s a life skill one that should be included with regular class subjects even if it’s just a class project every year. Not everyone is going to graduate and go off to be doctors and engineers but at least let them go with the basic skills to survive in the world. Did you teach your kids about gardening from a young age?
Yes we did teach our children how to garden mostly they just gardened with us. Modeling is so important that being said my kids learned how to cook and clean from us too. However schools taking it a step further would be great because most children don’t learn these skills anymore.
I think that there are many relevant topics that should be touched on in school. Gardening, basic cooking skills, basic sewing skills like how to sew on a button etc. How about learning how to change a flat tire or put on new wiper blades or even how to change the oil in a vehicle? As a kid who grew up on a ranch in rural Saskatchewan I was lucky enough to be taught these at home, but not all were as fortunate. It seems ridiculous that more practical things are not in the curriculum in schools.