Children are the future: and that goes double when it comes to taking care of nature. That's why it's important to make your children aware of nature's beauty now. And getting in touch with nature is also a lot of fun. With these indoor and garden activities, you can teach your children more about nature and they can discover new green hobbies.
1. Planting flower bulbs
Lots of children have a lot of fun planting flower bulbs. Get your children involved from start to finish in the life cycle of the flower bulb. First of all, kids love to dig in the dirt, sinking their hands into the soil without worrying about getting dirty. After they have dug a hole, they can carefully put the bulb in the ground. Make sure that the top of the bulb sticks up. Scoop some of the soil back into the holes and gently cover the bulbs. Now just add water and have a little bit of patience. Wait and see: your children won't be able to resist sneaking a peak every day to see if they can spot a stem appearing. After a few months, you will slowly see stems starting to sprout of the ground. Give them a bit of water every day if they aren't being watered by the rain. After a few weeks, you'll get the result you've been waiting for: a beautiful garden full of flowers. And your children planted them all by themselves. How great is that? But make sure that they wait a while before picking the flowers.
2. Growing vegetables
You are what you eat! Not only is it good to know where your food comes from, it also makes you more aware of what you're eating. So it's a good idea to teach your kids where food comes from while they're still young. A vegetable garden is perfect for this. Work together and watch how the seeds change into a meal. Start with a small herb garden or yummy snack vegetables. Then you can expand by adding a few fruit bushes in the garden, balcony or patio. Or start with a big vegetable garden right away for a huge harvest! Bakker's children's nursery packages make it all very easy. Plant the seeds in a pot and give them a splash of water every few days. Put the pots in a relatively warm and sunny spot outside. If it is still too cold, keep them inside by the window. The plants will slowly grow and fruit and vegetables will start to appear. Don't snack on them until they're fully ripe.
3. Picking flowers from a cutting garden
Who can honestly say they've never done it? Picking flowers from the neighbour's beautiful garden only to realise you've picked it bare! It's far better to have your children pick flowers from your own cutting garden. These flower are made to be cut or picked. Pick beautiful bouquets together to put on the kitchen table or in your bedrooms! And isn't it great that these flowers will keep blooming in a vase for weeks? That's the joy of flowers!
4. Collecting plants
Some people collect marbles, others collect stamps and some even collect football cards. But it's much more educational to collect plants. Take your kids on a trip into the woods and have them gather as many different sticks as possible for their collection. This is also perfect for when your bushes and trees need pruning. They can carefully use the pruning shears to cut some branches. Supervise you children carefully so that no healthy branches or fingers get cut! Once the branches, leaves and flowers are gathered, press them in a nice book and look up the plants' names together.
5. Taking cuttings
Taking cuttings is a fantastic hobby for young and old. It really makes you feel like you are raising a baby plant to be a full-grown plant. Anyone can take a cutting, but there are a few plants that are especially easy to take cuttings from. With a little bit of help, even young children can take care of their own baby plants. Many indoor plants can be planted in water or soil after cutting. Succulents, on the other hand, really should only be planted in soil. Every plant has its own cutting method.
The Chinese money plant, for example, grows separate little plants next to the mother plant. The only thing that you have to do is separate them from the mother plant and re-plant them in soil or a pot of water. Cuttings can be made from succulents by cutting off a piece of the leaf and transplanting it. Most indoor plants have air roots. These are the small beginnings of roots that grow on the stem. Cut the stem off right below the air root and you can re-plant this stem. If you want to plant the cuttings in water, always make sure to remove leaves that hang in the water. Would you like to know more about taking cuttings from a specific plant? Check out our indoor plants blog or the product page of the plant in our webshop.
