During the cold months of February and March, summer gardens might seem far away. Yet now’s the time to plan next year’s vegetable patch or herb garden. Why not make garden planning part of your homeschool day? Use this free and fun seed catalog scavenger hunt printable to learn about some unusual vegetables and get your kids excited about gardening. You’ll find the link down at the bottom of this post.
Why A Scavenger Hunt to Get Kids Into Gardening?
Have you seen some of the strange, exotic, or downright beautiful new vegetables in today’s seed catalogs? We’ve found everything from blue corn to purple sweet potatoes and carrots.
And kids love these “oddly” colored vegetables that you just don’t often see at the supermarket. So when they have to find some of these veggies in a printed seed catalog they can see them up close. And they might want to even germinate some seeds indoors, or grow some in a backyard garden. After all, they could impress their family and friends with a bushel of black radishes.
What You’ll Need
Here’s what you’ll need to get started.
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- One or more print seed catalogs which include vegetables that grow in your gardening zone.
- One copy of the scavenger hunt list for each child.
- A pencil or crayon.
- You might want to have either a tablet or a local gardening book nearby so you can easily research any of the veggies that catch your interest.
How to Use The Free Seed Catalog Scavenger Hunt Printable
It’s simple. Just print off as many copies as you need. And then work through each item on the list. Encourage your children to study each catalog to find the item. Or pre-readers could just look for pictures of the vegetables. Older children could learn to use the index, table of contents, and learn about vegetable and seed classifications for gardens.
As you locate each vegetable, talk about them! Questions to ask include:
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- Where does this grow?
- Why is it that color?
- Would we want to grow it here?
- What other vegetables are similar to it?
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Where to Get Free Seed Catalogs
It’s so easy to get free print seed catalogs in the mail. Just do a quick Google search for your area + seed catalogs and you’ll see a list. Or check out this list of 60 Free Seed Catalogs and Plant Catalogs newly updated for Spring and Summer 2020.
And by the way, old seed catalogs are so useful for kids’ art projects and collages!
More Free Gardening Resources for Kids
Looking for more tips, tricks, and free “gardening with kids” resources? Check out some of our other posts right here:
Teaching Homeschool in Your Garden
Math and Literacy Learning Garden Printable Pack – Free
Free Gardening Ideas for Kids Printable 3-Part Cards
Warmer weather will be here before you know it so start planning your garden now!
Now head on over to An Off Grid Life and grab your free Seed Catalog Scavenger Hunt printable!
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Sarita Harbour is a busy mom/step-mom, and grandmother blessed with seven kids ranging from age 32 down to seven. She lives off the grid with her family in a lakefront chalet in the beautiful wilderness of Canada’s far north. She spends her days teaching, writing, and learning the ropes of homesteading off the grid. Visit her site, Off Grid Life, for free printables and resources on homesteading, homeschooling, and self-reliance for the whole family.
