Great news, studies show the benefits of school gardens and the positive effects they are having on our young learners. At Kidsoft we were so impressed with some latest research results we had to write about it.
Parents continually worrying about the poor diets of their children could be a thing of the past as a simple answer has been brought to light.
The Australian Catholic University and the University of Texas have published that school gardens are a definite motivating influence towards children wishing to eat healthier and organic food.
They stated that children who helped create and got involved in school gardening projects growing fruit and vegetables found that the children enjoyed eating their own grown produce. Creating something from scratch, watching it grow and then being able to eat and enjoy seemed to stimulate them into a healthier outlook at food.
Altogether thirteen school garden projects were researched in Australia and the United States to see how they effected the eating behaviour of the children. The results proved that the children’s attitude towards healthy foods changed which showed a promising strategy in place, and to start it has early as possible.
All the schools that were researched ranged from pre-school through to Year 8, which also shows this can be continued throughout primary as well. At least six programs increased their vegetable intake, and changed the attitude of the children.
So, overall a positive outcome and it also got the children into thinking more about the environment and preferring organic foods. This can only have a great long term effect, so it’s important that our educators and childcare centre managers read this. Establishing a school garden project can easily become part of a curriculum.
It’s so simple to create a gardening project which gets the children involved, keeps them occupied, stimulates the creative and communication part of their brain with great results.