Kinder Gardening

These fun programs and characters encourage kids to get their hands in the dirt and grow food

- Chris Stafford

As every parent knows, young children don’t need much of a push to go and play in the dirt. Once they’re shown how it’s done, it’s not surprising that kids dig gardening. Besides, it’s good for them.

Study after study has confirmed the benefits of getting out in the sun, soaking up some healthy vitamin D and lowering levels of stress and anxiety. Also, in these germophobic times, it’s easy to forget that playing in the dirt actually boosts young immune systems.

Best of all, it’s fun. Nature-based programs build children’s confidence and promote personal development — and they learn without even realising they’re being taught.

First launched in Scandinavia in the 1960s, such programs have long been popular in European schools. An early adopter here was celebrity chef Stephanie Alexander, who says it was her “preoccupation with the way children do, or do not, learn about food” and where it comes from that led her to develop her Kitchen Garden Foundation.

The gardening and cooking program for kids began at Melbourne’s Collingwood College in 2001 and, over the past two decades, has grown to include more than 1400 schools throughout Australia.

The essence of the project is that children will happily study food when they follow its story “from seed to plate”, first learning how to grow it organically before cooking and eating it.

Students start with planting seeds, weeding, composting and harvesting. They learn about plant and insect life cycles, how to work safely with tools and how to care for chickens.