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Great ideas. I used to plant lettuce with my kids in the shape of their names. They were very proud of 'their' lettuce as it emerged. I also gave them each a bucket to collect rocks as a bit of competition (they were close in age) as I worked in the garden.

And canned with them -- I was quite offended when one son won a blue ribbon at our community fair for his green beans and the woman in charge smirked and commented that 'we all know' who really packed that jar. Huh? My son picked, cleaned, packed, and sealed his own jar with his initial on the jar lid so we would know whose was whose.

Deb, I canned with my mom as a child, too, and now my boys can with me. Anyone who doesn't think a child is capable of learning to preserve food is just ridiculous. I actually used to get the same reaction from people for some stained glass projects I did for 4-H. My mom was a professional stained glass artist, so people assumed she did the projects for me. Once a judge heard someone make a snarky comment about my mom having done the project, and she turned around and told her that she had seen me doing demonstrations of stained glass in person, and knew that I was very capable. And she also told the lady to take a close look at my hands. . .which were scratched up and full of glass splinters. LOL Stained glass work is not kind to manicures!