The hands of a father and daughter playing with garden soil

Composting For Kids – A Fun Learning Activity For Your Children

Make composting for kids fun with these tips. Composting is a great tool to teach your children. It is a great topic for scientific investigation and discovery.

The hands of a father and daughter playing with garden soil

Composting For Kids

There are different forms of composting that you can do with your child. Worm bins are popular with younger children, while teens may prefer building the larger outdoor composting systems.

Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the EarthCompost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the EarthComposting is great for the environment, and teaching kids when they’re young and impressionable will have long term benefits.

There are number of reasons why composting is becoming so popular. Composting helps many communities with its landfill issues. Though it cannot fully solve the landfill problems many communities have, it is certainly a starting point.

Composting also allows one to convert much of their waste into other needed products, such as those needed for gardening and landscaping. The product created as a result of composting is much more environmentally friendly and good for the soil.

Outdoor systems are actually quite easy to create. Leaves and other yard debris are usually quite plentiful and can be used to create a compost system. Most all organic matter can be composted, with the exception of diseased leaves and branches.

Composting For Kids Video With Peppa Pig

How To Build a Compost Bin

Compost piles or bins are simple to create, useful for your garden and good for the environment. A compost pile can be free standing, or can be protected by putting it in a metal garbage bin, or created from wood, wire, or other similar material.

There are also ready-made compost bins that you can purchase. The enclosure should be approximately one cubic yard, and be in an area where it can remain free from animal waste.

To ensure that your compost pile has everything that it needs be sure and include all of the following, including a mixture of:

  1. Dry materials (ex. dry leaves, straw, wood chips, newspaper)
  2. Fresh materials (ex. grass clipping, kitchen scraps)
  3. Soil
  4. Air
  5. Water

Include in this three parts dry to one parts fresh. You will want to alternate the layers and water them keeping it as moist as a wrung out sponge.

Continue to feed your compost pile with dry and fresh matter. There are a few items you shoulsdn’t include in your compost pile. These include: bones, meat, animal feces and greasy foods.

How to involve kids in the composting process

Children love to take an active role in composting.

  1. You can have them sort food scraps after cooking and meals so they learn what is appropriate to add to the compost.
  2. Cleaning up the yard will bring on a whole new meaning for the kids when they know it has a purpose.
  3. Use the compost with your child to create a garden.

Composting and gardening teach children science, responsibility, good nutrition and many other valuable lessons.

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Worm Composting For Kids

Kids LOVE worms! So feel free to show them how vermi-composting works. Here are just a few things you can talk to them about and let them experience:

  • how much do worms eat
  • find out how fast they grow
  • how fast they multiply
  • learn how they process the food scraps

Here are a few books that will help you make worm composting fun for your children.

Worms Eat My Garbage, 35th Anniversary Edition: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System: Compost Food Waste, Produce Fertilizer for Houseplants and Garden, and Educate Your Kids and FamilyWorms Eat My Garbage – How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting System: Worms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting SystemWorms Eat My Garbage: How to Set Up and Maintain a Worm Composting SystemThe Worm Book: The Complete Guide to Gardening and Composting with WormsThe Worm Book: The Complete Guide to Gardening and Composting with Wormsbuy button

Now you’re ready to have some fun composting with your kids 😉

If you're trying to make composting for kids fun, there are a few tips and activity ideas. Teach them what goes in the compost pile and what doesn't, and how worms help making soil fertilizer.

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