Right now, on my long kitchen window sill, sit five small flats of freshly planted seeds (beans, peas, carrots, green pepper, and pumpkin.) We planted them over a week ago and managed to cover most of our kitchen and ourselves with dirt. But my preschooler faithfully and carefully waters them after breakfast every morning and she's anxiously waiting for the first sprout to show. I so hope they grow and can be transferred to the newly dug veggie garden in our backyard.

According to this article, if our gardening dreams come true we may be doing more than teaching our kids where food comes from. They may also eat more veggies. A study of nearly 1,700 children in rural Missouri found that those who usually ate homegrown fruits and veggies had one full serving more a day than those who didn't and were more likely to prefer the types of produce that they grew at home.

You don't need to live in the country to garden with kids. If you'd like to test out your green thumb with your youngsters, you can try container gardening (here's a tip: hollowed out oranges or grapefruit make excellent bio-degradable containers), planting in a window box, or even digging a small plot like we did. The joy is in the digging, the planting, the getting dirty, and the time spent together, as well as fresh veggies all summer long.