Click here to watch our adventures from the day!
Bok Tower Gardens is in Central Florida, about an hour drive from Orlando. There is a lot of interesting history, daily carillon concerts at the Singing Tower, plenty of gardens, a kids area, and lots of shade!
I’ll share some ideas to do before, during and after your visit, as well as three educational insights that are quick and to the point so multitasking moms like me can be a mom-boss (or dad-boss) while making sure your kid is the smartest on the block!
Before
Read some books about the place you are going. I read the BabyLit version of Secret Garden to my daughter the night before we went. You can ask your child questions, such as what are they hoping to see and do. You can do some research about where you are going. Do an online search or use these photos of a carillon tower, blue heron, cabbage/brussel sprouts and gopher turtle. When you get to Bok Tower Gardens, have a little scavenger hunt with your family using these items and more you’d like to add.
During
Ask your child questions about what they are seeing and doing. Talk about how the environment is working with the animals and plants. Ask, “Why do you think the gopher turtle has a sign to not touch it?
Throughout the day at Bok Tower Gardens, we followed my five and seven-year-old nieces as they explored the whole place. While it may seem simple to let our children lead the way, we are actually developing their decision skills, imagination and leadership confidence.
- Many times, we just lead the way without thinking about it too much. At one point, my niece asked me, “Which way should we go?” I did my best to quote Robert Frost and sound literary and explained the road less traveled. We engaged in a short conversation about what that meant and she chose the path less traveled and said how we might find a place no one else has! All throughout the day we let the girls make decisions on where to go. Even at the end of the day, when we had about fifteen minutes left, we let them decide how to spend the last few minutes. This is a good way to tie in time management - bonus skill!
- Both my nieces loved exploring the kids area and the whole place in general. They kept making up stories for where we were going and we would ask questions to hear about the world they were creating. They were finding paths that led to little sitting areas, and they thought they were the first to discover them. The kids’ garden had climbing logs, a spider web climbing rope, mallet instruments, a fairy garden, an art station, a water pump and a giant snake sand pit. We visited the kids area twice during the day and the girls loved it! My one year old was able to walk around and enjoy much of it too! When we went to the fairy garden area, we engaged in conversations about who might live there and loved hearing the girls’ imagination wander. This outdoor area was a great place to foster imagination!
- Because we let the girls lead the way, they were able to be leaders of our day’s adventure. Developing leadership skills in young children is so helpful for their future years. When our nieces wanted to lead us, we followed. As parents we can be confined by a schedule, so it’s easy to say, “no, we need to go this way”. We had the mindset at the beginning of the day that this was all new for them and we had no set agenda. We want to lead by example and sometimes that means letting our kids lead the way and we end up modeling how to be a good team player. This will not only build confidence in their leadership skills because we listened to their ideas, but it will show that we trust in their choices and can enjoy what they want to do. You can ask a question like, "Which way are we going next?"
After
Complete fun activities together as a family. When you can extend what you have done during a visit like this, you keep the learning alive and growing.
There are lots of ways to make connections to any place you visit with your children. Not only do these connections help further their learning, but it’s a great way for you to continue engaging in what you do together as a family.
Here are some books and toys to connect learning to exploring the outdoors!
Here are some books and toys to connect learning to exploring the outdoors!
- Talk about the day’s adventure! We will ask some questions like: What 2-3 things did you enjoy the most? What are some things you'd like to do again? What is something you learned?
- Grow a fairy garden together! Continue cultivating responsibility with gardening.
- Paint rocks together and put them around your home/yard area.
- Read Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg by Gail Carson Levine. I loved this story about Tinkerbell and her friends. It's a trilogy and I linked in the less costly kindle version.
- In the kids' area, there were stacking pieces of logs. Jenga would be a great way to play a game together that requires stacking and balance. How fun would it be to play this game and have a conversation about the day you all had together at Bok Tower Gardens?
- Are you a crafting family? How about making a stepping stone to remember the day?
- Did your kids love the carillon chimes? Try letting them explore bells at home! My daughter has this set and we love ringing them for fun: Set of 8 hand bells.
I hope you get to explore Bok Tower Gardens or any outdoor garden place too!
