What are your thoughts about gardening as a school subject? Do you do gardening yourself or are you accustomed to buying your fruits and veggies rather than growing your own?
If you are a parent or caretaker, what is your opinion on teaching children how to grow their own food in schools? This topic has been particularly popular in the last couple of years with the rise of modern farming technologies and GMOs.
Many people therefore decide to try out gardening and grow their own healthy food. And, there are many proponents of implementing gardening in the national curriculum and teach our children from early on about the benefits of growing our own food.
What’s more, if gardening becomes part of school programs will also help raise the children’s awareness about what is healthy and what is not and appreciate the environment more.
Continue reading the article to learn more details about how gardening benefits children.
The Health Benefits of Teaching Gardening in Schools
- Encourages healthy diet habits
Taking into account the rise of obesity among young people because of the unhealthy diets full of junk food and soda drinks, it is essential to teach them about healthy diet habits. If children are taught gardening in schools, they will get additional workout outdoors and learn important development skills.
As gardens are full of different kinds of fruits and veggies, it helps the child revise their attitude about specific foods. For example, a child may eat more veggies if he/she has grown them himself/herself. And, they will transfer this attitude at home and thus, improve their diet, but also the diet and meal choices of their families.
- Offers unique learning experiences
Gardening is an amazing way for children to engage and be part of unique learning situations and work on their problem-solving skills. This may happen when the plants get affected by fungus or when the weather impedes the growth of some crops.
They will also see different kinds of insects and learn more about the connections in nature. Gardening teaches our children how nature works and encourages their already present curiosity and excitement.
- Helps them be more environmentally aware
Unfortunately, today’s children spend more time indoors than they do outdoors. Tied to their phones and computers, children fail to appreciate their surroundings and nature. This is where gardening can help reconnect our youngsters with nature and increase their awareness about the outdoors.
Gardening also gives children the opportunity to learn more about energy and water cycles and food chains and about the needs of species. This will increase their desire to explore nature and offer knowledge about our impact on nature.
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