Gardens

If you love gardening with grandchildren, our updated and improved Gardens Playdatebox newsletter is ready, just in time for spring planting. Gardening is a form of therapy, both for adults and for children, and we’ve gathered all of the supplies you will need for 6 fun playdates with a grandchild you love. Use our ideas and share yours with us in exchange.

Gardening is fun for children, but it’s also a great form of “self-care” for a grandparent, especially if you are lucky enough to be able to share the experience together. If not, we’ve got you covered with some fun remote gardening activities.

We’ve got an exciting new collaboration going on with Readeo.com

Readeo is an application that allows you to “bookchat” with a buddy. In fact, up to four different buddies at a time can jump on a Readeo bookchat together. For a nominal monthly fee (less than the cost of a single paperback book), you’ll have access to hundreds of children’s books. You’ll get a coupon code with your Playdatebox purchase that will entitle you to a full 30-day trial (that’s 2 weeks longer than normal) just to test it out. We’re so tickled with the possibilities of Readeo that we are now highlighting a Readeo book in every Playdatebox we create.

Readeo.com allows you to select a book online. Your book buddy will be connected with you via videochat, and you can both see and hear one another AND see the full book on your screen. This allows you to read together as if you were in the same room!

Gardening with grandchildren doesn’t necessarily mean you have to get your hands dirty. You can think about different things you could do together with a grandchild that mirrors what Lola or Grandpa did when they were getting ready to plant their gardens:

• Look at library books about gardens or check online resources together that show different plants and flowers you could plant (even if you don’t have a real garden and just want to pretend).
• Make a book together that includes your favorite flowers, vegetables, leaves from trees, or other growing things. You can even go on a treasure hunt to look for live samples to press and paste into a book. This is an opportunity to help a child learn to look more closely at the beautiful world around them.
• Lola makes a string of shells and beads. What do you have around the house that you can string? Macaroni? Colored paper? Dandelions? Be creative!
• Lola even makes a little Mary Mary–a small doll she puts into her garden. If you design your own garden fairy, what simple “found” supplies do you have access to that could become a way to create a person or animal that could live in your real or pretend garden? We’ve got a fun flower fairy activity you can try.
• Can you look around your neighborhood and find tiny green shoots coming up from the soil? What about weeds?
• Is there a way you can create a grandchildren’s garden on your own property?
• Make gardening cupcakes

Whether your grandchildren live close or you have to connect with them via a phone call, painting a flowerpot together is an inexpensive and fun activity for a preschooler. Level up the challenge for older kids by teaching them an even more interesting way to decorate a pot.

Once your pot is dry, you’ll be able to plant a few seeds and learn about soil, water, and light and how they impact growing seeds. We recommend that you share photos on a regular basis as your plants grow. Gardening with grandchildren can happen even if you live miles apart!

Go on a nature walk to gather a few interesting leaf and plant specimens. We’ll teach you how to use sun-sensitive paper in a magical science experiment to document some of the interesting leaf shapes you collect.