Since we love to garden, it was only natural that it would become part of our homeschooling experience. We have found it important to plant items that our kids love, that way they gravitate to the garden naturally and join us when we are out there. Some of my kids favorites have been; Strawberries, Kale, Melon, Blueberries, Magic Beans (Fava beans) and of course Pumpkins.
Although we have been known to visit a corn maze in October we never buy pumpkins, but instead make a big deal with wheelbarrow and all to go out to our garden and pick our own pumpkins.
Although we have pulled activities from some books (listed below), the most meaningful lessons happen naturally.
- Finding, identifying, and exploring bugs as we turn over a gardening bed or the compost
- Learning which bugs are good and which are bad...and the thrill of feeding the bad bugs (such as snails) to the chickens
- Sitting in the garden in the evening while the bats eat up flying bugs overhead has led to exploring more about bats
- Observing butterflies and then researching plants that attract them, as well as learning more about butterflies Treasure hunting (Digging up Potatoes)
- Learning what nutrients plants need when helping to make the COF (Complete Organic Fertilizer - Formula provided below)
- Making comparisons; what foods grow fast and which take longer
- Measuring pumpkins each week as they grow
- How to use and care for gardening tools - Hoes, rakes, shovels. Including using a file to sharpen shovels
- Learning where food comes from
- Cooking
Resources
We often get asked what foods we plant, grow or harvest in the Winter:
Kale
Brussel Sprouts
Spinach
Broccoli
Fava Beans
Arugula
Cauliflower
Lettuce
Jerusalem Artichokes, also known as Sunchokes. These are a prolific food source - plant in Spring, Summer they are beautiful Sunflowers, then dig up tubers as you want them ALL Winter and Fall. They keep in the ground best so no need to store and once you have them you will never need to buy more seed stock, plant a couple, or more likely they’ll be some you missed and you’ll keep getting them every year.
COF (Complete Oganic Fertilizer) Mix uniformly in parts by volume
3 parts seed-meal (do NOT use coprameal, otherwise any seed-meal is fine, we typically use Soy bean seed-meal)
1 part tankage (sometimes called “blood-and-bone” or “Meat-meal”)
1/4 part ordinary agricultural lime, best finely ground
1/4 part gypsum (if you don’t use gypsum, double the agricultural lime)
1/2 part dolomite lime
1 part kelp-meal (or you may use another phosphorus source such as basalt dust finely ground, rock phosphate, bone meal, or high-phosphate guano)
We buy our ingredients at Western Farm in bulk (larger bags, some in 50 lb bags) it is expensive when you buy, but it gives us enough to supply ourselves with COF for 1 year or longer and in the long run is cheaper. We add COF and compost when we turn over beds and also sprinkle some over the ground around plants and as we water, this filters COF down. It is important to replenish soil with nutrients as plant pull the nutrients out.
Books
Gardening when it Counts: Growing Food in Hard TImes by Steve Solomon
The Self-Sufficient life and how to Live it by John Seymour
Books to use with kids:
Roots, Shoots, Buckets, and Boots; Gardening together with Children by Sharon Lovejoy
Garden Wizardry for Kids by L. Patricia Kite
Gardening with Children by Brooklyn Botanical Garden
Math in the Garden by Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS GEMS)
Kids Garden by Avery Hall and Paul Mantel
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