Young kids are born environmentalists. They love to explore nature and relate to the growing organisms that are part of their world. The mixture of science and magic and love is irresistible.
We’ve raised butterflies and grown bean plants and this spring we are planning on growing sunflowers.
Since I am all about eco-education (my consulting company and site are called Naturally Educational!), I was happy to get a sneak peak at the new Gigglin’ Garden Gang Indoor Greenhouse.
Last year I loved watching some of my favorite bloggers, like Maggy of Red Ted Art, participate in the Sunflower Club and I am looking forward to joining the fun this year with my kids.
When I agreed to check out the Gigglin’ Garden product, I did not know we would be able to use it to grow sunflowers–how perfect!
Out of the box I was impressed with the adorable and appropriate packaging. What’s neat about this indoor greenhouse is that it is a complete approach to teaching children about growing plants.
Most other indoor growing products I have seen only contain the growing kit. This set has the growing kit, a book, CD, tote bag, a coloring sheet, and a sticker. Plus there are free videos on “gggTV“.
My son and I read the book together, which he loved because there were jokes. I probably don’t have to tell you but preschoolers, kindergartners, and primary school-aged kids love jokes!
My son also digs (get it?) the idea of “characters”. So, having all the materials introduce the members of the Gigglin’ Garden Gang as part of the kit got him invested in the project before we even started. I really liked that two of the characters are male. Boys are too often overlooked in the packaging and marketing of indoor greenhouses…but they enjoy growing flowers, too!
As an educator and a parent, it is clear on the website that the creator of the kit is passionate about eco-education and healthy living. I would have liked to have seen more of that message explicitly included and reinforced in the kit itself. All the elements are there but I had to make the connection for my kids.
We found the seeds and got to planting our own “Sunflower Suzi”!
The soil pellets are very cool. You pour water on them and they expand.
The kids really got a kick out of this!
The kids inspected and then planted their seeds. My daughter loves eating sunflower seeds but the kids have mostly seen them either on the sunflower or shelled and roasted. So, it was fascinating to see them in their shells.
We can’t wait to see our sunflowers sprout and we are excited to do this again in the spring with my daughter’s Daisy Troop so we can transplant the flowers outside!
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WANT IT: Gigglin’ Garden Indoor Greenhouse ($21)
Get more information about the Gigglin’ Garden Gang on Twitter and Facebook and check out my Google+ story.
This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and, as always, my opinions are my own.
