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Gardening Kits for Little Green Thumbs

April 01, 2015
The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the kids have officially taken hostage of your house. Time to go outside! We’ve put together a gardening kit and DIY birdfeeder craft to help get everyone out in the sunshine and stay there. Whether you’ve got an afternoon with your family or a playdate with the neighbor kids, this kit is bound to help keep everyone happy—plus away from the screen and out of your house.

Gardening kits for kiddos

Garden kits are perfect for playdates with family or friends. They’re cute, easy to put together, and full of playtime opportunities. With a quick trip to a convenience store and some crafty “putting materials into a box” skills, you’ll be ready to get everyone outside and having fun. Any shoe-sized box will do, but if you don’t have an extra shoe box a Ziploc® container works great. Keeping kits individualized will cut down on the mess and eliminate the “he’s not sharing the seeds!!!” cries. See? We’ve thought of everything. Gardening kits for kiddos
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates

Materials

  • Terra cotta pots
  • Chalk
  • Shoebox or Ziploc® container
  • Ziploc® brand sandwich bags
  • Seeds of various plants/flowers
  • Soil

  • Mini shovels (for fun)

Directions:

  • 1

    Predate:

  • 2 Pre-portion soil into individual Ziploc® brand sandwich or snack bags - if your hands do get dirty, the easy open tabs on Ziploc® brand bags will come in handy.
  • 3 Combine all materials into an old shoe box or large rectangle Ziploc®container.
  • 4 Include fun little extras like mini garden gnomes for an added touch!
  • 5

    Party time!

  • 6 Set up an area that you’re ok with getting dirty. If you have a backyard—perfect! If not, put down plenty of newspaper.
  • 7 Have your kids (and parents!) decorate their terra cotta pots with chalk! It’s not super permanent, but it is super fun and easy.
  • 8 Fill pot ¾ full of soil. If you’re inside, putting soil into a large rectangle Ziploc® container beforehand cuts down on mess. Put the pots in the container and shovel the dirt in - much tidier than trying to shovel out of a bag of soil.
  • 9 Have kids make holes in the soil with their fingers. Drop the seeds into the holes.
  • 10 Cover with soil.
  • 11 Water.
  • 12 Watch them grow (or send them home with parents in a Ziploc® container to catch any spills).
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates


Now-what Bird feeder

The kids have successfully chalked and planted, so now what? DIY bird feeder! With just a few simple materials and quick steps, you can get the bird feeder party going lickety split! Now-what Bird feeder
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates

Materials

  • Rice cake
  • Bamboo skewer
  • Peanut butter
  • Pipe cleaners
  • Quart sized Ziploc® brand bag filled with birdseed

Directions:

  • 1 Have an adult carefully poke a skewer through the cake to make a hole.
  • 2 Smear peanut butter on a rice cake (remember where you put the hole) and drop into a quart sized Ziploc® brand bag filled with birdseed. Easy open tabs make it easy for little, peanut-buttery hands to open the bag.
  • 3 Shake in the Quart sized Ziploc® brand bag until it’s evenly coated! (And to keep bird seed from getting everywhere.)
  • 4 Insert the pipe cleaner through the hole you made and make a loop.
  • 5 Hang it in a tree or send home in a Ziploc® brand bag for safe transport home.
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates
Garden Kit for Outdoor Playdates