Families and children at the 4C Head Start Midway Child Development Center in Sanford, Florida, have begun for a joyful adventure. Together, they built a family garden. At the same time, the children from Midway Classroom A designed a colorful banner to decorate the garden.

Head Start family gardens are where children and families grow plants together as part of the Head Start program. These gardens can help children develop in many ways.

Some of the benefits of a family garden include:

• Social and emotional development: When their plants do well or struggle, children can express feelings such as joy or disappointment.
• Cognitive development: Kids can explore how plants grow and change, and feel the different textures of leaves, stems and flowers.
• Language development: By reading about gardening and talking about how plants grow, kids can learn new words.