Anita Croft, Growing Kiwi Gardeners

Business overview

"All young children will know how to grow their own food"

My mission for Growing Kiwi Gardeners is to inspire the early childhood community to build an ecologically sustainable curriculum that seeks to reduce human impact on the planet through gardening programmes and professional development

Products and services I offer

Gardening with Tamariki Hands-On Programme - a hands-on gardening programme for children in early childhood services

Gardening with Tamariki Online Programme - a one-year online programme that supports early childhood teachers to embed gardening within their curriculum

Professional development workshops and webinars for early childhood teachers

Whole-centre professional learning for early childhood teachers

Why I'm in the Venus Network

I joined Venus because I am relatively new to business. Coming from a background in education, I wanted to meet and network with business-minded women to help me change my mindset from educator to business owner.
It has been the best thing I could have done and I have learnt so much about running a business since I joined Venus.

Testimonials

"For me as a kaiako, the highlight has been to observe the tamariki enjoying their gardening experiences and taking their learning home with them. I have heard a lot of inspiring feedback from the whānau of their child naming plant life and the whānau are enjoying gardening with their child/tamaiti in shared gardening learning experiences!" Janet Walker, Lollipops Patten Street

"I have watched your webinar over the last few evenings and I'm just so impressed. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences with us.
As a primary school teacher, your messages made sense for older children as well. I loved the practical tips, as well as the links that you had made to Te Whariki, which again linked in so many ways to the NZ Curriculum." Leigh Cowan, Manchester Street School

"I absolutely LOVED your webinar the other day - so much content and ideas that we can use with our tamariki and for personal use. It's really meaningful and valuable what you do. You are also great at speaking, engaging and professional" Callie Norman, Arrowtown Preschool

My point of difference

I am a qualified early childhood teacher, with almost 20 years of teaching experience, and a life time of gardening experience. I understand how young children learn and ensure that my programmes and professional learning are linked to Te Whāriki, the early childhood curriculum.

My latest business news

With Aotearoa moving into the Red COVID setting at the end of January 2022 I could no longer visit centres to operate my hands-on gardening programme, so I turned the programme into Gardening with Tamariki Online. This was launched at the end of April 2022. It is a one-year gardening programme that supports early childhood teachers to embed gardening into their curriculum. It includes 8 modules of gardening and gardening-related information, videos, learning experiences, an online community and a monthly live zoom session with me.