Give the gift of gardening to kids this Christmas

Master Gardener Carrie Petty says…. Happy December Everyone!

Let the shopping begin! Our gift giving can have tremendous value when it comes to teaching our children life lessons. As a gardener, teaching our children through play has been a passion of mine for years. Nothing better than playing outdoors for our kiddos! So why not choose gifts that promote playing outdoors, gardening and help build nature lovers this season.

Gardening is the teacher of many life lessons. The garden can teach a child compassion, by the observation and preservation of living things. Teaching children that living things have great value. It can teach the philanthropic lessons of giving. By giving flowers to a sick neighbor, or sharing crops with other little gardening buddies. Math, science and critical thinking are all lessons learned while planting, especially counting seeds or petals on a bloom. But most of all, the garden teaches a child that good things come to those who wait. Patience.

Many thanks to my partners at Fiskars, Toys R Us and Hobby Lobby for the toys on today’s show, all of which teach a terrific gardening lesson and are so much fun to play with, these toys will all be donated to the WISHTV8 for the Giving Tree Toy Drive, benefiting the Indianapolis Public Safety Foundation, who serve our community on such a massive scale. These toys benefit children in need after tragic situations have occurred.

Thank you to the men and women who serve Indianapolis in uniform and thank you to WISHTV8 for being a leader in our community for so many years.

This kind of community alignment helps us all “Grow a More Beautiful Life!”Biography:

Carrie Petty is a fourth-generation Hoosier! She is a lecturer, Master Gardener, as well as a top Garden and Lifestyle Blogger. An amateur naturalist, painter & photographer, Petty loves teaching families how to, “Grow a More Beautiful Life.”

Find here articles monthly in all the TownPost Magazines and on her gardening & lifestyle blog: www.CarriePetty.com She can also be found on Facebook and Twitter @Caroline_Garden.