Children are commonly curious by nature. It is not unlike them to want to ask questions. Couple that with a special initiative meant to help spark interest in gardening you’ve got a recipe for fun outdoor learning.

That’s where the DeKalb County Regional Office of Education enters the fray.

At Lions Community Park in Waterman, visitors will find that a small section of the park is designated as a toddler garden. Activities resume at that park for the season on Monday, April 6.

A toddler garden is a concept aimed at helping children develop an understanding and respect for nature.

It typically relies on having a dedicated space for gardening in which children and their families can drop in at their leisure and lend a helping hand.

Leaders from the DeKalb County Regional Office of Education recently took time to showcase their latest toddler garden at Lions Community Park, 435 S. Birch St., Waterman.

DeKalb County Regional Office of Education regional superintendent Amanda Christensen said that making a fourth toddler garden a reality means something special to her.

Other toddler gardens exist at Welsh Park in DeKalb, Chamberlain Park in Genoa, and Knights Park in Sandwich.

“It’s a little personal, too,” Christensen said. “I’m a master gardener.”

Christensen pointed to her office’s ability to secure funding to help support Basics DeKalb County, a framework adopted by the DeKalb County Collaborative for Young Children in 2018, which she said seeks to identify ways to interact with children that promote age-appropriate brain development.

The basics are rooted in a theory that there are five ways to target a child’s developmental progress.

Staff from the DeKalb County Regional Office of Education tend to use early development toolkits to align with each of the basics. Parents are also provided with strategies to do at home.

Christensen said the activities that children engage in are focused on that concept.

ComEd and Openlands announced recently that the DeKalb County Regional Office of Education has been named a beneficiary of the Green Region Grant Program.

The two entities have been distributing awards to help aid conservation projects across northern Illinois for more than a decade, according to a news release. This equates to about $2.45 million in total funding.

The Green Region Grant Program was intended to support 18 projects in 2025 for a total of $150,000, according to a news release.

Christensen said there’s been a lot to take away from their efforts to develop toddler gardens.

“And with each one, we learned something new,” Christensen said. “And then in each location, too, we wanted to work with the community or work with the agency or village that controlled the land, so each one has a little bit different spin on it.”

For example, the city of Sandwich and the county’s Regional Office of Education were both in agreement on supporting and sustaining the pollinator population, Christensen said.

“That one is very much geared toward, ‘What are pollinators?’” she said. “And are we growing things that pollinators will come to?”

In Waterman, the local Lions Club wanted to have an agricultural theme to the toddler garden.

Christensen said she had turned to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle and Cantigny Park in Wheaton for inspiration on how to establish a toddler garden.

“You really have to go to the larger arboretums or botanical gardens to see their children’s gardens,” Christensen said. “If you go to Morton Arboretum, they have a wonderful children’s garden. It’s not what we do here, though.”

Christensen said she’s proud of what her office has been able to achieve with each of the toddler gardens.

“We also had to forge our own way because there weren’t a lot of models out there for what we wanted to accomplish,” she said.

Christensen said a lot of thought goes into selecting a site for a toddler garden.

“We tried to find locations where there’s a safe space for the littles to be, but it’s also near a playground for older siblings, so that parents can supervise and engage both,” she said.

Project leaders expressed appreciation for all the donors they’ve had.

The toddler gardens require their share of maintenance throughout the year. That’s on top of the initial start-up costs.

Stephanie Davies, a garden coordinator for the DeKalb County Regional Office of Education, said it’s a big undertaking.

“It’s me, and then I have two part-time helpers that come,” Davies said. “We’re just coming in and weeding and watering. And then in the fall, we’ll come through and clean everything up.”

Davies said having the right location, along with the right partner organization, is important with any toddler garden.

“The mowing and the trimming up to the garden, we need that partner who’s willing to do that,” Davies said.

But staff from the county’s Regional Office of Education have some help from area children and their families with tending to the toddler gardens, as well.

Davies noted that kids enjoy being out in the toddler gardens.

“They love the water,” Davies said. “I’ll give them a water can, they will water all day.”

Christensen touted her office’s ability to engage with both children and their families.

“It’s nice because they get to help,” Christensen said. “We have a planting party in the spring, and they get to come out and help plant all the plants, and then they get to help harvest the vegetables. The kids, when they go to the Morton Arboretum, they don’t get to do that.”

Programming at the toddler garden in Waterman resumes April 6 and will continue every Wednesday at 10 a.m.

The toddler gardens are open to all.

Christensen said it’s been generally easy to find a helping hand tending to the toddler gardens.

“Because it’s open to the community, they can come out anytime that they want to,” Christensen said. “When they’re playing at the park, they can come over and check on the tomatoes, see if there’s anything that’s ready. So, it’s really exciting to have the kids here to do that.”