Gardening with toddlers at Mulino

The gardens at our Mulino center are growing really well and we have had a couple great experiences taking the toddler classes out to help me plant and water. The toddlers are just as interested and engaged as the preschool age children; they were a little more timid at first, but now that they have been to the gardens a few times they get just as excited planting, watering and sampling the garden produce as the older children do. Additionally, we have had enough radishes and spinach ready for harvest at one time that I've been able to bring it all to the cafeteria to use in the center's lunches. Here are a few pictures from our last garden activity:





The teachers at Mulino have also started a gardening activity on their own, which I thought was an excellent idea and wanted to share. They used a mobile table to make a sensory learning garden, where they planted beans, cilantro, carrots, and peas. Since the table is on wheels, they can keep it inside some of the time, so the children can watch the plants grow and so they may protect the plants from the cold when necessary, and they can move it outside when it needs sunlight and warmth. Many teachers at other centers have approached me wanting to know which vegetables they could grow inside and I have reluctantly replied that most won't grow well indoors, especially without a grow light set up. This mobile garden idea is a great way around that- the children are still able to get to see the plants change from day to day, while the plants are able to get what they need to be healthy and strong. This is a wonderful idea for a scientific learning gardens as the kids can closely observe and monitor the plants and then speculate as to how much sunlight they need.
I hope to see this idea catch on at the other centers; I think the children and the teachers would love having a mobile garden of their own.