How To Raise a Reader and a Gardener

Growing Readers: Learning to Love Reading and Writing Column 22

This editorial article was written by Lizzie Mussoline, M. Ed.
How To Raise a Reader and a Gardner
The Children’s Book Review

5 Tips for Growing Readers, Gardeners, and Planet Savers

Spring planting and gardening are fun-filled activities, whether you are a seasoned gardener or a newbie. Whatever your stage in the gardening game, we highly recommend gardening with your children. The benefits are excellent! We’ve got some ideas to help you boost those literacy skills while gardening, too! What could be better? Not much in our humble opinion!

Family Bonding & More Reading, Of Course!

Gardening together is a fantastic way to bond as a family. Planning out the garden and allowing your family to research, recommend, and suggest particular plants for the garden help to build a sense of ownership in the garden.

Check out the books listed below as well as your local library for some informational and functional texts to help with your gardening plans—this is a great way to encourage nonfiction reading. Talk with your children about how nonfiction is different from fiction—it can teach us facts and HOW to do something (like plant a garden). The various text features (photographs and captions, bold headings, glossaries and indexes) make this genre highly engaging and easy to skip through based on the topic.

Journal, Journal, Journal 

Boost writing skills, encourage “mindful moments,” explore sketching, and so much more with journal time. Help foster a love of writing and independence by building a habit of journaling. There is NO right or wrong way to journal and all topics are valid. If practicing mindfulness is important to your family, gardening is a terrific way to do so.

Gardening engages all of the senses and is a great way to encourage being present. Talk about the senses and extend the conversation by journaling about your senses. Perhaps your family would like to take photos of the garden, paste them into the journal and go from there. Or draw pictures of the garden and write about how it brings joy, happiness, and peace. Perhaps being outside near the garden inspires you to write a poem, a short story, or some scientific facts? See what inspires you and where your pencil can take you! For more journaling tips, check out our previous column here.

Help Build Healthy Habits 

When our kids helped build and nurture our garden, we noticed an immediate increase in the healthy vegetables they were consuming. Something about doing the work makes the food all the more appealing. Growing your own food leads to meaningful conversations about healthy foods and the benefits, especially for kids whose bodies and brains are growing so fast!

Extend these conversations by starting a healthy habits tracker in a journal, whiteboard, or bulletin board. Track how you are feeling mentally and physically, too. It’s all related! Or visit your local library for books about healthy eating habits and recipes. Let each kiddo plan and make a healthy meal—there are so many ways to reap the benefits of your growing garden!

Plant a Garden—Celebrate Earth Day! 

Tending to and nurturing a garden will help build your child’s appreciation for nature and the beauty and importance of taking care of our Earth. Through gardening, they can care for their plot of Earth each day, and not only on Earth Day.

Just like a garden needs to be tended, so do our neighborhoods and communities. Gardening can be an excellent opportunity, or “call to action,” to learn how to take care of the Earth EVERY day. Besides beginning to understand that the best foods for our bodies come straight from the Earth, this can extend to ways to reduce pollution, recycle and reuse more. This is also another excellent chance to visit your local library for books that help build appreciation and teach us how to best care for our Earth.

Check Out These Lovely Gardening Books 

Here are even More Books to Choose From:

• 5 Gorgeous Gardening Books For Kids
• Up in the Garden and Down in the Dirt, by Kate Messner | Book Review
• Learning to Love Nature: Dig In! with Cindy Jenson-Elliott
• Green Kids Books, Books for Earth Day, Books About the Environment

Thank you for reading the Growing Readers: Learning to Love Reading and Writing column. Bookmark this Growing Readers Column link or subscribe to our e-newsletter so you do not miss out on the monthly reading tips. How To Raise a Reader and a Gardner was written by Lizzie Mussoline, M. Ed.—follow her on Instagram: @wildflower_learning_denver.