🔭 Science, nature and the world · 🔧 DIY, making, 3D and electronics
KidsGardening
By KidsGardening (Kids Garden Community nonprofit, Vermont). Visit KidsGardening
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
A US nonprofit site that helps teachers and families garden with children. It has a free library of lesson plans, activities, growing guides and garden-design help sorted by grade from preschool to 12th grade, some in Spanish, plus webinars and school garden grants. A small store sells downloadable guides, online courses and books, and a $5 a month Content Club gives store credit. Adults can join an online community forum. Children mostly use it through a teacher or parent.
Our take: A strong free resource for teachers and parents who want to garden with kids; not something a child would browse on their own.
Checked in a browser
A browser check on 2026-10-25: what loads, the ads and trackers we saw, and what a child meets first. Not a hands-on test.
| Child safety: 4 out of 5 | No ads or chat; an email newsletter pop-up and a Donate button, both aimed at adults. |
|---|---|
| Data: 2 out of 5 | Google Ads remarketing, the Pinterest tag and Mailchimp tracking loaded before the cookie banner was answered, though no ad was shown. |
| Ease: 2 out of 5 | An email pop-up and a cookie banner covered the first screen; the site is written for educators and caregivers. |
| Cost honesty: 4 out of 5 | Free lessons; a Donate button and a merch shop are the money asks. |
What we found
- The first visit contacted 24 third-party hosts on 15 sites and set 14 cookies, including doubleclick.net and givebutter.com cookies.
- Google Ads (ad.doubleclick.net, googleads.g.doubleclick.net) and Pinterest (log.pinterest.com) fired with the Accept / Decline banner still unanswered.
- A "10 Favorite Garden Activities" email sign-up pop-up filled most of the first screen.
- A floating Donate button stayed on screen.
From the test: A free gardening site for adults who garden with kids; its first visit loads Google Ads and Pinterest tracking and opens with an email pop-up.
| Ages it suits | grades Pre-K-12 (through adults) |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | The online Kids Garden Community forum says all members must be at least 18. The main site has no terms of use or age rule we could find. (terms) |
| Price | Free, with paid extras. Free lessons and activities; downloads and courses about $5-$15 each; Content Club $5 a month for a $7 monthly store credit (Oct 2026). |
| Works on | Web |
| Account | No account needed |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | No AI. |
What's good
- Large free library of hands-on garden lessons by grade
- Grants that pay for school gardens
- Spanish materials and adaptive strategies for inclusion
Watch for
- No privacy policy found on the main site
- Built for adults; there is little a child can do on screen alone
- Some of the best guides sit behind a small paywall
Data and privacy
We could not find a privacy policy on the main site (the usual privacy page returned not found). The forum rules ask adults to get a parent's permission before posting photos of children. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
No independent study of the site found. The maker's 2025 impact report says it reached 2.5 million children and awarded $390,000 in grants and supplies.
In the Big Index
Alternatives to KidsGardening
Desk researchPaidNo ads
Adafruit Circuit Playground Express
Adafruit Industries · ages about 8+ with adult help
A low-cost, flexible first electronics board for kids 8+ with a helper; kids who want a guided kit may prefer a subscription box.
Desk researchFreeNo ads
Adafruit Learning System
Adafruit Industries · ages about 10 and up with an adult
A top free resource for families building electronics together; kids should not work through it alone.
Desk researchFree, with paid extrasNo ads
Algodoo
Algoryx Simulation AB · ages about 8 and up
A great creative sandbox for curious kids and science classes; parents should supervise use of the public sharing site and forum.
Desk researchFree
Babble Dabble Do
Ana Dziengel · ages about 3-12
Great for families and teachers who want craft projects with a design or science twist; an adult should pick and prep the projects.
Desk researchFree, with paid extras
Birdbuddy (AI bird feeder)
Bird Buddy Inc. · ages family use; kids with a parent's account
A fun family science gadget for bird-curious kids if parents accept the subscription and default model training; skip it if you want an offline camera.
Desk researchFreeNo ads
BirdNET
Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics and Chemnitz University of Technology · ages about 9 and up with a parent
A good pick for a curious older child with a parent who is comfortable sharing recordings for science; Merlin is friendlier for beginners.
Where these facts come from
- https://kidsgardening.org/
- https://kidsgardening.org/content-club/
- https://kidsgardening.org/product-category/downloadable-resources/
- https://kidsgardening.org/store-policies/
- https://kidsgardening.org/our-impact/
- https://community.kidsgardening.org/home
- https://community.kidsgardening.org/termsandconditions
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.