What it is Really Like to Garden with Toddlers

Cheerios sent out free seeds for their campaign to #bringbackthebees.  My son loves honey and the moment he found out honey comes from bees he decided he loves bees as well.  I was one of the 1.5 billion people who received their free seeds.  In anticipation of our new butterflies from our Live Butterfly Kit we decided to plant the seeds in our backyard. This part of the yard was previously covered in ivy and it was now very dry.  I think the water hose might have reached this far, however the kids really enjoyed using their bucket with an attached watering hose.  We (I) made several trips back and forth with water.  They of course argued a little over who was able to water the ground.

They decided they wanted to dig a little with their shovels.  They were having fun slinging mud everywhere. I tried to tell them to dig a little everywhere, however they just kept to dig one big hole.

I brought out the hand tiller, I did most of the tilling, however they wanted to help as well.  Little Dude actually did an amazing job on his turn.  Baby Girl insisted “Me Turn!”

She found it a little more difficult to move the tiller through the dirt, well mud…  I think their favorite part of this project was playing in the mud.  I tried to explain that we didn’t want a lot of mud, but they were having too much fun.  I am so glad I had switched them to their rain boots, as they were eventually covered in mud.

Hmm??  That is a lot of mud. They were having a blast.  They were a little sad when I told them that playing in the mud was over and it was now time to plant the seeds.  I poured some of the Cheerios #bringbackthebees seeds in each their hands and told them to wait to throw them in the dirt (now mud), however in true toddler fashion, they threw them down immediately.  I am not even sure where most of the seeds went.  I gave my son a few more that were leftover in the package and was able to get a quick picture.  I tried cover a few of the seeds up.  It will be interesting to see if the seeds grow, either way, thank you Cheerios for this amazing learning experience! If these do not grow, we will try again.

Later that evening, we checked in with our caterpillars from on our Insect Lore Live Butterfly Kit.  We have a couple caterpillars starting their J shapes to start building their cocoons.  We are so excited!

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