There are many benefits of botanical gardens for kids. We already know that getting out in the fresh air does wonders for kids. In addition, some kids and adults have a sense of calm when they plant flowers.
But do you know that there are also developmental benefits for kids when they visit botanical gardens?
In the words of John Burroughs “I go to books and to nature as the bee goes to a flower, for a nectar that I can make into my own honey.”
A visiting to a botanical garden will also help kids learn and develop emotions like sympathy and love towards landscaping.
Before the benefits are explained, let’s first describe a botanical garden.
What Is A Botanical Garden?
A botanical garden is a garden devoted to cultivating, developing, maintaining, and showcasing a wide variety of plants identified with their botanical names. They can include specialized specimens of plants such as cacti and other succulent plants, herbs, and plants from different areas of the world. Depending on the species, they may grow outside, in greenhouses or in shade houses.
Now, let’s discuss some of the benefits of botanical gardens for kids.
Engages All the Senses
Children learn best when they get all their senses engaged. Visiting Botanical Gardens, children can touch and feel the dirt, seeds, and flowers, see the vibrant colors and varied plant sizes, hear the sound of the vegetable when taken from the plant, and smell the flowers’ astonishing scents. Involving all the senses allows children to appreciate and comprehend the principle of planting along with all the mathematical and science concepts that go with it.
Learning about Sustainability
Professional landscapers, scientists, archivists, naturalists, beekeepers, or master gardeners work in the botanical gardens. Part of several botanical gardens is a comprehensive community education system which may involve demonstration gardens, public seminars, and even classes in subjects such as flower painting, composting, food forests, harvesting, beekeeping, or medicinal herbs. Some places focus these lessons on kids.
Therefore, visiting botanical gardens provide an educational opportunity for kids. This is one of many benefits of botanical gardens for kids. They are taught how to conserve the ecosystem around the. Kids are also taught about how they can play a role in keeping the Earth safe with them. They start to see every flower and fruit differently. This experience makes them closer to NATURE. Therefore, children learn from an early age to get involved in activities that help make the world green.
Botanical Gardens Help Kids Relax
Botany garden is full of green lushes, beautiful flowers, and sculptures made purely from herbs and plants. They have activities to engage yourself with, playground, treehouses, and ponds that helps calms the soul. It relaxes the mind and lets you experience nature in a way in which you have never before.
As Wassily Kandinsky has said; “Color is the power that directly influences the soul.”
Children experience a sense of happiness from seeing all these spectaculars flowers and sniffing all these scents they never experienced before. This helps them to relax and to forget about all the burden of school. A simple visit to a botany garden makes them feel connected to nature.
Exposes Kids to the Differences Between Cultures
“Botanical gardens are designed in many different cultural gardens to represent different cultures; such as Japanese gardens”, says David Young. They are Decorated with cherry blossom trees and bonsai. There are many other representations of different cultures as well, such as Chinese dragons made form flowers and drawings representing cultural importance.
All of these small things help the children to understand the different types of gardens and cultures. It helps them comprehend different cultures around the world and develops a sense of unity and brotherhood in them. It also helps eradicates racism from the children’s minds.
Introduction to Native Plants
Native plants are often the hardest to grow plants within your own garden space. Such plants are well adapted for feeding native pollinators and wildlife, as well as supplying butterfly habitat and other valuable habitat.
Many plants are not native to our soil, such as:
- Norway Maple
- Common yarrow
- Garlic mustard plant
- Mayweed
- Dame’s Rocket
- Common ivy
These are just a few examples; the list can go on.
You will encounter these native plant species as you visit the botanical garden and study their leaf arrangement, bulbs, and seeds, and you will be able to recognize them when you see them again, nearer to home.
Children and Native Plants: When children realize that these plants came from other parts of the world, they start to think about their soil and why it doesn’t grow here. These questions make there deductive reasoning better and help them to develop their brains.
Visiting a Botanical Garden
Since visiting a botanical garden with kids have quite a few benefits, you may be interested in visiting one of them. South Florida has some great ones. For a list of them, go here Botanical Gardens in South Florida
Conclusion
There are a variety of benefits of botanical gardens. They include engaging the senses, learning about sustainability, help keep kids relaxed, helps explain differences in cultures, and introduces them to native plants.
Nature has a soothing effect on every living soul, and because of the urbanization, we are losing the calming effect of our lives. Botany garden brings nature to us, and it helps us to gain knowledge about the world we contribute to destroying. It lets the youth of our generation to learn how to conserve our society.
It helps them to understand nature and how a seed can grow into a large tree. Nature gives them a lesson that nobody can. Nature also plays a role in the positive development of the young mind.
The benefits of botany garden are endless, and it helps us understand things that our minds usually cannot.
