This book shows teachers and parents how to use the world outside our windows as the laboratory to widen our children's understanding of nature, culture, place, and life's other big ideas. Children love to be outside. Not all of us have gardens, but Dr. Lorie Hammond has created a book filled with projects, experiments and delicious recipes designed to guide teachers and parents in teaching children about nature in the back yard, garden or in a local park. The book is organized around the richness of each season, as celebrated in various cultures. It contains over 100 activities, recipes, and nature-based projects for teachers and parents to do with children.

The human story starts and ends in the garden. Gardens feed our understanding of the natural world, our sense of wonder, our bodies and our souls. Dr. Lorie Hammond believes that all children have a purpose and that the goal of education is to help them find their own unique path. This book is about understanding big ideas through the concrete experience of nature, culture and place.

Gardening with children is hands-on, outdoor education at its finest. With abundant opportunities for experiential learning, the garden is, in many ways, an ideal classroom, and an increasing number of educational initiatives are recognizing the multifaceted long- and short-term benefits that come with a gardening program for children. With its useful overviews of the history of gardening education and the evolving consciousness of children, and its detailed age-appropriate curriculum and activity listings from nursery and kindergarten through high school, this book will be an indispensable resource for anyone already teaching in a gardening program, for those planning on starting such a program, or for anyone working with children in a garden or other outdoor setting as a homeschooler, community organizer, or friend of the Earth. Ronni Sands has been teaching gardening to children and adolescents for more than twenty-five years, and through her rich experience she has created the curriculum presented here, one that is also based on the picture of child development used in Waldorf schools. The curriculum builds on itself through the grades, adding new skills, concepts, and abilities year after year. As she writes in the Introduction: "We are facing an environmental crisis. Crisis is good because it brings us to consciousness.... What we give time to becomes important. Having a regular time of the day when children work with and experience nature represents a path out of this crisis. To have a lasting impact, ecological principles must be woven into all aspects of education as experiences as well as concepts. Big or small, urban or rural, a space for a garden can lead children back to the natural world. If we want our children to have access to the many resources in nature, we must educate them to love and preserve these resources. This is the first step in building a heart-felt relationship to nature and growing 'sustainable children.'"

Teach children that the greatest rewards come from patience, hard work, and learning from mistakes! In the #1 New York Times bestseller We Are the Gardeners, Joanna Gaines and the kids chronicle the adventures of starting their own family garden. From their failed endeavors, obstacles to overcome (bunnies that eat everything), and all of the knowledge they gain along the way, the Gaines family shares how they learned to grow a happy, successful garden. We Are the Gardeners is a whimsical picture book perfect for: Ages 4-8 Parents, libraries, classroom story times, and discussions focusing on springtime and gardening Households that enjoy watching HGTV's Fixer Upper Young children and families interested in gardening and plants After reading, children will learn: Trying something new isn't always easy, but the hardest work often yields the greatest reward The basic steps and process of starting a garden The importance of patience and how it is possible to learn from your mistakes You and your children will learn all about the Gaines family's story of becoming gardeners in Joanna's first children's book--starting with the first little fern Chip bought for Jo. Over the years, the family's love for gardening has blossomed into what is now a beautiful, bustling garden.

This educational and enjoyable book helps children understand how to plant bulbs, seeds, and seedlings, and nurture their growth. Lois Ehlert's bold collage illustrations include six pages of staggered width, presenting all the flowers of each color of the rainbow.

Sunshine is for soaking up, and seeds are meant for sowing. Raindrops give small sprouts a drink, and gardens are for growing. In this tender poem, the love between a father and daughter blossoms alongside the seeds they plant together. As the garden grows, the daughter grows from a toddler to a teen and finally to a woman with a child of her own. The cottagecore illustrations beautifully connect the seasons of nature with the seasons of life, where new beginnings abound. Spring is meant for brand new starts, and hearts are meant for knowing. Homes are made to call you back where gardens are for growing.

Green grass is wide and fresh and clean for a family to play in, and brown dirt is perfect for digging a garden. But when gray buildings start to rise up and a whole city builds, can there be any room for green space? The neighborhood children think so, and they inspire the community to join together and build a garden for everyone to share in the middle of the city.