Gardening with children in Canadian schools is a great way to introduce gardening for kids

This program of gardening for children started with natural-health advocate Nicholas Jones. The “Little Green Thumbs” program introduced gardening for kids last winter, in Calgary, Alberta. The hope of the project organizers is to promote gardening with children to help improve their nutrition.

This program of gardening with children will give kids more choice about their nutrition options. “If kids really had a choice between a carrot juice and a salad, and a hamburger and a Coke, that would be powerful,” said Jones. Learning gardening for kids is “about shifting the whole nutritional environment of children, without telling them what they should be doing.”

The Little Green Thumbs program of gardening with children will take place in 25 Canadian schools this fall.

Little Green Thumbs will teach kids about gardening with children from 20 Calgary schools and 5 British Columbia schools taking part. Karen Toovey from the Living on Purpose Foundation, in Langley, BC, is helping organize the local programs. These programs of gardening for kids will be in 5 local elementary schools.

Part of the gardening with children will involved the kids growing a vegetable garden planting them right in the classroom. They will plant seeds and nurture them as they grow into vegetable gardens. Gardening for kids will give them a sense of pride in their gardens when they are fully grown.

If the Little Green Thumbs program of gardening with children is successful, it could grow right across the country. This is a great way of introducing gardening for kids, while at the same time offering better choices for nutrition in the schools.

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