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The two things your children really need from you are your affection and your attention. You can, and you should offer them this every step of the way. Spending your time with them is crucial and it does not have to divert you from other things you need to have done. You can include them in everything you do, particularly when your tasks are as creative as landscaping is.
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Build a home for the fairies
If someone still believes in them, your children do. How about you stir their imagination even further by asking them to help you build a fairy garden. Ask them to help you decide which part of your garden is the most suitable and most likely to be enjoyed by fairies, and you can start your work there. From what we know about them, they are tiny, they like green, and a lot of flowers. They are really hard to spot because they live in such private places and try to stay out of sight. There are many ideas you can use to build a house for them, starting with old pots or borrowing a birdhouse design idea. Ask your children to select the flowers and help you plant them.
Let their imagination run free
Have them agree on the theme from one of their favorite books and use it to remodel your garden or at least a part of it. Ask them to tell you how they imagine it and what they want to have in it. They should draw a ‘blueprint’ of the garden. Look at their ideas and think of ways you can assist them. If their plans are too ambitious at certain places, scale it down a bit, but find a good explanation why you did it so they do not get disappointed.
A responsibility garden
Have your children each pick a section of your garden they would like to call their own. Offer them a selection of plants they can choose out of to plant in their garden. Make sure there is a bit of everything. Explain to them what each of the plants requires and ask them to keep a journal about it. They can draw each plant and write what it is they need. If they cannot write they can draw every step. Their task is to tend to their little gardens themselves. Make sure you are there, helping them with their garden so they do not get sad or frustrated if something goes wrong.
Build a holiday resort for birds
This is a perfect opportunity to teach them how to be environmentally friendly and take care of other living creatures. You will have a lot of fun making garden art. You can make a dozen of little ‘bungalows’ or a bird hotel. Make them a bird bath so they have a place to swim at and drink water from. Make sure this is in the part of your backyard a bit further away from the patio so you do not scare away the birds.
Growing something from nothing
Oztech reports that a lot of people are closing off their decks with patios during the winter and use them to keep their plants protected from the cold, as a form of a greenhouse. Use this to help your children learn how to grow plants from seeds. Purchase a selection of seeds and help your kids plant them and take care of them. Once the spring comes, if the plants survive, replant them in your garden or alternatively, each of the kids can plant them in their own garden. Depending on your children’s age, they can assist you with more serious DIY projects around the garden. Do not worry if you occasionally do something which is not aimed at them but you simply need their assistance, you will still be spending time together and they will end up learning something from it.