Spring has sprung, which means it will only be a matter of time before farmers and gardeners begin planting their crops. Consider planting a garden with your distance learner this spring. You can provide your student with unique educational experiences while enjoying the outdoors and homegrown food.
Before planting the garden, take a trip to your local grocery store and purchase a variety of fruits and vegetables with numerous types of seeds. Strive to find foods with seeds that your student has not seen before. At home, have your student predict what the seeds in each fruit or vegetable will look like. Provide your student with a garden journal where they can record these predictions and track the garden's progress throughout the summer. Encourage them to describe the size, color, shape, texture, and number of seeds they expect to find in each food item. Then, help your student cut open the fruits and vegetables and compare the seeds to their predictions. Record any differences in the journal.
Conduct research with your student to determine which foods will grow best in your area and plan to include them in your garden. In the journal, have your student predict the amount of time it will take each fruit or vegetable to reach maturity. When the weather is right, plan your plot and start planting.
Throughout the course of the summer, talk to your student about the wonder of God's creation as you watch your garden grow. Have your student track the progress of your garden by recording plant dates, sprout dates, weekly plant growth, daily weather trends, and more in the garden journal. Encourage your student to compare numerical data on a graph for easy comparison.
When the food is ready for harvest, incorporate the home grown fruits and veggies into a recipe. Challenge your student to practice math skills by changing the size of the recipe. Ask them to determine how many utensils to set on the table by multiplying the number of people in your family by the number of utensils each person will use. Cooking together also provides an excellent opportunity to teach your student about nutrition. When the food is complete, you can enjoy a home cooked meal as a family.