Benefits of Gardening

Spring has finally arrived!  With Earth Day being celebrated globally this month, now is the perfect time to start planning a garden with your family! The benefits of gardening are endless.

Here are just a few of the benefits that children reap having the opportunity to work in the garden:

• Building self-confidence 
• Promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, & Mathematics) through hypothesizing, observing, reasoning, planning, organizing, and measuring
• Improving  focus & memory (cited by a Swedish Study published in Developmental Rehabilitation in July 2009)
• Stress relieving and cortisol reducing (cited by a 2011 study in the Journal of Health Psychology)
• Positively impacting mood & physical well-being
• Improving locomotor skills through transport of dirt, use of wheelbarrow, etc.
• Improving fine motor skills using pincer grip to weed, embed seeds, etc.
• Increasing literacy through conversation, labeling of plants, creation of signs, etc.
• Understanding of cause and effect
• Encouraging teamwork, reliability, and responsibility 
• Lowering respiratory illness and autoimmunity through exposure to microbes & fungi in dirt 
• Teaching a respect for nature and all living things
• Sequencing of growth 

Do not let space hinder you!  You can have these same experiences delivered in a window box or planter on a patio.  The appreciation of plant life can continue through each season both indoors and outdoors.