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The months of July and August bring the school holidays and with that how to keep the children entertained. Getting the children disconnected from their devices and involved in some gardening may be a mammoth task, but as well as them learning something new could have far reaching benefi ts involved with mental health. Keeping children focused and interested is one of the biggest challenges. Gardening, as we know, does not have immediate results but here are a few ideas for younger children to get them engaged in gardening. For the younger children (and adults too!) growing cress can be a great introduction to growing your own food. It’s cheap and the results are fairly quick. To start, grab yourself some cress seeds (available at Bosworths Garden Centre). A fun way to grow these is using half an egg shell. Wash the inside of the shells to remove any eggy residue. Before doing anything else, get the children to decorate the egg shell. Adding a face works perfectly because when the cress grows it will look like hair. Take half of the shell, and put some cotton wool balls or kitchen roll at the bottom of the egg shell and wet it to make it damp, not swimming in water but damp to the touch. Then sprinkle on the cress seeds. You should start to see results in around two to four days; not too long for children to lose interest. Remember to keep the cotton wool or kitchen roll moist If you have more than one child, you can get a bit of a competition going here too. If you have enough space to give over a small patch or even a couple of large planters to children, they can give vegetable growing a try. This encourages children to think about where their food actually comes from (other than supermarkets!). If you let the children take full ownership of what they are planting it is great for teaching responsibility: if they don’t look after them they will perish! Equally it is great for building confi dence, because once they have grown something from seed that they can then put on their plate and eat it gives a great feeling of achievement. Another benefi t is that it teaches patience. We live in a world where everything is instant and on demand so to take some time to nurture something in to existence teaches good stills for use later on in life. Another fun plant to grow, which we probably all did as children, is to grow sunfl owers. They are relatively fast to grow and again you can get quite competitive with these if you have more than one child. When the sunfl ower is past its best and started to wilt, cut off head and let it dry out thoroughly. You can then thread a bit of wire through the seed head and hang this and you have an impromptu bird feeder; another example of seed, to fl ower to food. And, of course, it can be fun watching the birds feeding too. Just a couple of ideas to keep the children entertained. Have a great summer and see you again in September. Finedon Road Burton Latimer NN15 5QA 01536 722635 OPEN HOURS: Mon-Sat: 9am - 6pm Sun: Open for browsing - 10am Tills open - 10.30am - 4.30pm Only minutes from J10 off the A14 and midway between Kettering and Wellingborough Elton Walled Garden Elton PE8 6SH 01832 343104 OPEN HOURS: Mon-Sat: 9am - 6pm Sun: 10am - 5pm Disabled Access All Major Credit Cards Accepted www.bosworthsgc.co.uk Visit our online shop: www.bosworthsonline.co.uk www.facebook.com/BosworthsGC |
