Here are 7 easy and fun ways to entertain the kids in home school and get them off the digital stuff for a bit of fresh outdoor life!

• Use creative skills such as craftwork, design and building.

• Give the children their own part of the garden to design, develop, grow and cultivate for themselves.

• Spilt the garden into different activity areas.

• Design a beautiful border and then plant it.

• Birdwatching.

• Spot wildlife, bugs and insects.

• Pay the kids pocket money for doing the work and allow them to charge you for the vegetables they harvest.

• Create a garden of the senses or sensory garden.

Kids Gardening provides the children with new skills to help in their development.

When children work in the garden and move items around such as soil and equipment it helps them engage their muscles and helps with:

• Physical development

• Body management skills

• Locomotor skills

• Object control skills

• Self-confidence from a sense of achievement

Gardening has many benefits for children. Self-development and self-discovery lead to a sense of achievement and self-confidence in:

• Sensory Development – gardening engages the senses and develops the ability of the child to recognise scent, visual colours, sounds of bees and insects, for example.

• Eating healthily - children can not only learn to eat fresh vegetables, but deconstruct a favourite meal into recipe and grow the necessary ingredients.

• Patience – gardening is a slow, low-intensity exercise and the act of digging and planting teaches patience for the final sense of achievement in the finished gardening task.

• Responsibility – tools, digging, soil transportation and water are all important tasks to help give life to plants – the most important task of all.

• Social skills – interacting with others to achieve a desired result, teamwork in bringing life to plants and the eventual payoff when vegetables mature for eating.

• Can be aligned with Educational Topics – see more detail on ideas for lesson plans, homeschooling and projects for older children ranging from science, finance and technology to design and creative ideas for kids gardening.

To make the garden fun for kids requires an element of discovery, education and fun to achieve a group goal of planting seeds or a shrub.

It is not just fun, it is building life skills, but enjoying the achievement of a life-giving task, whilst getting a bit mucky and dirty in the garden.

• Set the task and put the child in charge.

• Help fill in the blanks when the child gets stuck.

• Allow the child to create the roles. Decide who is doing what?

• Kids are kids – let them play and get a little dirty. That dirt can release serotonin – our happy chemical.

• If there are insects around, let the kids explore them and explain their purpose. (or Google it and then explain it!)

• Explore food production and maybe plant the ingredients for a favourite food or recipe.

• Assess their task. Give them positive feedback and support to help build self-confidence.

• And above all HAVE FUN!!

8 tips for helping toddlers in the garden:

1. Prepare first.

2. Assume nothing. Toddlers will rip anything apart and pick unripe vegetables

3. Keep it simple

4. Keep the activity obvious – like planting in rows

5. Make sure the tasks are simple enough for toddler to complete

6. Plant to eat – grow vegetables that the toddler likes, but also those that you would like them to try.

7. Remember the fun of making it is directly proportional to chance of eating it and liking it!

8. Enjoy yourself – gardening is one of the oldest forms of low-intensity exercise and sources of relaxation, de-stressing and joy of achievement building self-confidence and self-esteem.

Kids gardening helps children develop muscle and motor skills, senses, reasoning, self-achievement and self-confidence whilst beginning to understand and appreciate nature and science culminating in harvesting and cooking the fruits of their labour.

Gardening and growing activities start at:

• Seed selection

• Digging the rows

• Planting the seeds

• Watering

• Tending and adding supports

• Weeding

• Pest identification and removal

• Feeding

• Harvesting

• Cooking

Gardening can teach children valuable Life Skills in:

• Kids’ responsibility for the life of a plant. Life is the most important responsibility there is – it is the most precious commodity on planet Earth.

• Children’s creativity in gardening helps develop and expand the imagination to develop production and planning skills.

• Kids’ nutrition in gardening is of paramount importance to teach them about healthy choices and the fresh components of kids’ recipes and children’s meals that can be grown in the garden.

• Children’s health and fitness can be encouraged and developed in the activities of kids’ gardening building important muscle and motor skills and strength for everyday activities.

• Kids’ discovery of seeds, plants and soil – the interaction of nature and the science that brings a vegetable from seed, soil and water.

• Children’s self-confidence can be developed by guided learning in completion of the planting task, care for the plant in watering and feeding through to harvesting and cooking the mature vegetables.

Kids’ gardening provides learning opportunities in:

• Reasoning and problem-solving.

• Environmental choices and awareness.

• Nutrition by understanding growing food leads to healthy choices in meal components and balanced diets.

• Discovery, senses and reasoning.

• Self-achievement and self-confidence in the finished task.

• Understanding and appreciating nature and science.

The first written evidence of gardening was in Sumer in Lower Mesopotamia.

Gilgamesh states that Uruk was 'one third gardens.'

Mycobacterium vaccae is the bacteria in soil.

Serotonin is our happy chemical.

When our skin contacts the bacteria in the soil it can raise serotonin levels in the brain and make us happy.

Serotonin strengthens the immune system and is a natural anti-depressant.

When our skin contacts the mycobacterium vaccae bacteria in the soil it can raise serotonin levels in the brain and make us happy.

Serotonin is our happy chemical; it strengthens the immune system and is a natural anti-depressant.

The physical work of digging, pushing and pulling in gardening is a form of exercise and build strength for everyday activities.

Low intensity physical activity is good for physical fitness and gentle route to exercise and good health.

The physical work of digging, pushing and pulling in gardening is exercise for the muscles and tendons of the body, it gets the heart rate up and builds up physical muscle strength for everyday activities.

Yes, gardening saves money!

It not only saves money – it can make you money!

Kids can grow fruit and vegetables to eat and save money in the household budget.

Save on the cost of seeds.

The seeds from the vegetables and fruit can be harvested, dried, stored and planted by the children.

Kids could set up a little fruit and vegetable business and sell their produce to make money!

A great way to introduce children to business and the financial rewards from good honest gardening work.

• Yes, it can! Ask Alan Titchmarsh or Monty Don!!

• R.K. Alker Kids Author, Grower and Food Evangelist (me) took his hobby of growing chillies to the top of the chilli industry as he became the country’s highest profile chilli grower and star of TV, radio and press. Read more about my amazing story here https://www.rkalker.com/press

• The ability to grow and build knowledge about methods of gardening, growing and the knowledge and science of horticulture and agriculture can lead to many jobs in many areas.

• Gardening job examples range from tending gardens to tending golf courses and stately homes.

• The food on your table is all grown by people in horticulture and agriculture and it is a huge industry.

• Some Swedish research found that the more people gardened the less stress they reported.

• The Mental Health Journal reported that gardening improved people’s moods, reduced stress, anxiety and depression.

• The simple act of looking at a green area has been reported as helping people de-stress and relax with a positive effect on mental health.

• The positive results and sense of achievement can help increase self-confidence and raise self-esteem.

• The Mental Health Journal reported that gardening stress, anxiety and depression and improved people’s moods.

• Swedish research reported that the more people gardened the less they reported stress.

• Simply looking at a green area has been reported to help onlookers de-stress and relax with a positive effect on their mental health.

• The self-satisfying results of gardening provide a sense of achievement which can help improve self-confidence and self-esteem.

• There are specific biological predators that are insectivorous and eat unfriendly pests, insects and bugs.

• Carnivorous plants can be used to protect greenhouse plants from unwanted pests, insects and bugs.

• Insectivorous species or good bugs and insects can be introduced to a greenhouse.

• Many vegetable and fruit crop pests are insects or bugs.

• I was involved in large greenhouse operations. To protect the crop from pests, insects and bugs that ate and ruined the plants we could put in good bugs that defended the crops by eating the other pest insects.

• This is known as biological control and the species of insects that ate the pests are known as insectivorous species.

• Yes, carnivorous plants can be used as a pest deterrent.

• Venus fly trap is probably the most well-known type of carnivorous plant.

Plants, herbs, smell and scents that repel pests include:

• Basil

• Bay leaves

• Chives

• Chrysanthemum

• Dill

• Fennel

• Lavender

• Lemon balm

• Lemon Thyme

• Lemongrass

• Mint

• Oregano

• Parsley

• Rosemary

• Sage

• Thyme

• The term 'gardening leave' is often used during a notice period.

• An employer may ask an employee not to go into work, or to work from home or another location.

• The employee should receive the same contractual benefits and pay.