Keep kids engaged with easy outdoor activities you can do at home

Garden Educator-in-Residence Lisa Taylor shares her activities for making garden activities for kids fun and educational at the same time. Lisa teaches an "original garden-based literacy curriculum" at schools in Seattle and Shoreline, and is an author of the Maritime Northwest Garden Guide, 2nd ed. and Your Farm in the City: An Urban Dweller’s Guide to Growing Food and Raising Animals.

Seed Planting
-Planting seeds is a classic. Now is the time to grow seeds under lights or sow them directly in the garden.
-For best results, pre-moisten the soil so it readily absorbs water, plant seeds in the soil at a depth 2 to 3 times the thickness of the seed, and give them a gentle pat so that seed touches soil on all it's surfaces.
-If you want to give your seeds a leg up, start growing them inside without lights. Place them in a sunny window and move outside as soon as seeds sprout
-No garden, no problem. Sprout seeds that are in your cupboard. Mung beans, raw sunflower seeds, grains, and other beans. Use about 1 teaspoon of dried seeds in a glass jar. Keep them moist and rinse them daily – many will sprout in 4 or 5 days.
-Plant a container of microgreens. Repurpose a plastic container then fill with a little soil and plant some lettuce seeds, you can grow tiny salad greens in 2 to 3 weeks.

Critter Hunting
-Kids like bugs and frankly bugs are more dynamic then plants!
-Keep a Critter Journal or photo diary. Then go hunting!
-Creatures of the Earth. Look for critters that live under rocks, old pots, mulch, or brick. Identify any that you see using books or technology. Draw pictures and learn about habits and habitats. Then create some habitat by building a bug house with a pile of rocks and plants.
-Creatures of the Air. This takes more patience but carefully observing flying creatures is super fun and often surprising. Practice being a flower by sitting still while you watch the bees at work. Identify any flying insects and catalog them in your Critter journal.
-If you get excited you could start a worm bin or build a mason bee house . . . creatures are a gateway to the garden for young people.

Digging In
-Designate a place for digging and building – get some sturdy small shovels, assorted pieces of wood, bricks, and such. Let them go! Use big muscles, test out engineering ideas then add water and see what happens. Digging big holes and trenches are the stuff of childhood memories – just call 811 before they dig!

KING 5's New Day Northwest is Western Washington's only local daytime talk show. It's hosted by former NBC foreign correspondent and Emmy winning journalist Margaret Larson https://twitter.com/_margaretlarson.

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