Page 13 - Outdoor Living October 2025

LIFESTYLE

Tips to Nurture a Garden
Classroom
• Start small: A pot of basil on the
windowsill or a single bird feeder
can spark wonder. From there,
children often ask for more.
• Follow curiosity: Cater to your
child’s interests. Bug enthusiasts
will love a bug hotel; water-
lovers thrive with a mini pond or
water table.
• Blend learning with daily
life: Weave lessons into
routine. Count tomatoes while
harvesting, estimate rainfall with
a gauge, or use herbs in family
meals.
• Leave room for mess: Outdoor
learning is about muddy shoes
and sticky hands. Let the garden
hold the chaos so the house
doesn’t have to.
• Rotate activities: Gardens shift
with the seasons. A veggie
patch in summer, a sunflower
maze in autumn, a bird-feeding
project in winter. This keeps the
space alive and exciting.
• Design rituals: Make outdoor
learning a family tradition —
Friday pizza with garden herbs,
Saturday morning weeding
together, or stargazing once
a month. Children remember
rituals long after they forget
rules.

A Place of Wonder
Children will always learn from
books, lessons, and teachers. But
in gardens — large or small — they
learn how to wonder. They discover
how the world changes with the
seasons, how patience leads to
reward, and how resilience is built
in soil and sunlight.

The garden as a classroom
teaches the oldest lesson of
all: that life itself is the greatest
curriculum.

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