For those with younger children, the warmer months can be a fantastic opportunity to teach your child about nature, wildlife and gardening, inspiring them to one day cultivate a slice of green heaven of their own. Here in the UK, summers can vary in terms of temperature and the amount of sunshine we receive; therefore, it’s essential to take the opportunity to get outside whenever possible.
Here, we take a look at some of the best garden crafts that will encourage your child to get involved with gardening, while enjoying the warmer months of the year, and helping to create a space that the whole family will be happy and content in.
Rock Garden Markers
If you’re growing a variety of plants, flowers or vegetables, knowing which is which can be great general knowledge for your children to pick up. Grab some soft, flat pebbles, clean them off and then task your child with designing different markers for each plant. This could be pictures of the plants, the name or something even more creative!
This will not only teach your child to distinguish between the different plants in the garden, but also allow their imaginations to run wild with how they design each marker.
Recycled Garden Planters
We’re constantly teaching children the ‘Three Rs’ (reduce, reuse and recycle), so why not incorporate this teaching into garden crafts? Using old milk and drink bottles, juice cartons and cereal boxes, you can easily create beautiful flower-shaped designs that can be stuck to bamboo skewers and ‘planted’ alongside your other natural plants.
This is a great garden craft as it involves lots of cutting and sticking and lets them create any number of designs. Top tip: remember to keep hold of the lids of milk and water bottles to use as the centre of flowers; they look great!
Continuing the recycling theme, regardless of the weather, it’s super easy to create your very own plant pots from recycled material. When the sun is shining, sit down outside and get crafting with used yoghurt pots or cardboard drink cartons. Remember to thoroughly wash them out first, though!
If the weather isn’t very nice, bring your tools inside and get crafting to create amazing homemade planters. For a blank canvas, paint the outside white or wrap the carton in paper to give yourself a clean slate on which to create. If you choose the paper option, remember to keep them out of the way of rain, and your child will need to water the plant themselves.
Beaded Garden Hangers
If you’re looking for something that doesn’t involve planting new plants, why not decorate your outdoor space with beautiful coloured hangers? These super-simple decorations look amazing, especially when they start reflecting and refracting the light of the sun.
Head down to your local craft shop, or check out eBay for a job lot of beads of different colours and sizes. Then, get some thin twine or fishing line and thread a selection of the beads along the twine to create beautiful patterns or just random designs. Tie a knot at the end and add a stopper to ensure the beads don’t come off, you’ll have a great little garden decoration that will add a splash of colour to your outdoor space!
DIY Chalk Paint
If you don’t have many plants or flowers in your outside space, why not paint some temporary ones? It’s super easy to make your very own chalk paint using just three ingredients! You’ll need cornflour, food colourings of various colours and water.
When mixing, we’d suggest sieving the cornflour into a large mixing bowl and mixing with an equal amount of water. Then, divide small amounts into separate bowls or use a muffin baking tray as a paint holder, adding a couple of dashes of food colouring to each to give them a vibrant colour and, of course, adding more colouring to achieve the desired brightness.
DIY Chia Animal
Chia seeds are fast-growing and perfect for children to see the fruits of their labour, literally. Using fruit peel, you can easily create DIY mini planters for your chia seeds by scooping out the fruity inside and leaving the skin intact. Add in a little soil and some water and before you know it you have your very own chia plant.
Decorate the planters using markers, pipe cleaners, googly eyes and anything else you can get your hands on to create the ultimate fruity companion. You’ll be able to see a difference in just a few hours; perfect for impatient children who want to see their plants grow tall as quickly as possible!
If you’re looking for more great ways to spend time with your kids, take a look at our five baking recipes for children blog; ideal for when the weather takes a turn for the worst!
St Peter’s Prep is a private school in Devon, and we wholly encourage our young pupils to spend time outside learning about the environment around them. With our grounds based in a beautiful location by the River Exe, we have the resources and facilities to encourage outdoor learning of a variety of subjects, find out more here!
