Category: Spring

Outdoor Math Games

By Mariah Bruehl, 21st July 2015

Summer is often when we all want to be outside to enjoy the sun, play with friends and explore nature. Fun in the sun can also coincide, playfully, with keeping up our math skills. The games and activities below can be played both outside and inside. The key is that they are portable and can be enjoyed in both environments.

Bracelet Fact Game:

Materials: pipe cleaners, colored tape or thin post-it notes

This activity helps children to remember basic facts in an area of your choice. Help your child or group of students decide on facts to practice (addition, subtraction, multiplication or division). Start with five to learn and practice. These should be facts that the child knows how to figure out but needs to gain in recall speed.

Activity: To play this as a game with two players, have each player play with the same facts on their bracelet. One player keeps the facts on the questions and the other player turns hers’ over to the answers. The first player asks a question or gives an answer and the other player locates it on her bracelet. For example, if player one calls out 5 + 5, the second player finds the answer 10 on her bracelet and calls it out. Starting with the answer is fun too, where the answer of 10 is called out and the other player locates the question 5 + 5. Children can also play on their own by quizzing themselves and checking answers.

Beach Ball Facts:

Materials: large beach ball, sharpie pen

This game can be played with as little as one player to a whole large group of players. Before playing write math facts on the spaces of a beach ball. Choose facts based on your child’s needs. To play alone, the player simply tosses the ball up in the air, catches it, and answers the question closest to him on the beach ball. If playing with other children, the ball is tossed back and forth and each player answers the question closest to him when he catches the ball. This game is easy to take with you and can be used in all different subject areas by simply changing the questions.

I Have, Who Has Card Game

Materials: I Have, Who Has card set (click on photo above to download)

This is another game that can be taken anywhere but does require a group of children. To play, pass out each child one or two cards, depending on size of group, and have them figure out the answer to their questions. Have students form a circle and the player with the start card begins. Students play until the player with the end card plays. Encourage children to answer quickly so that it becomes a fast paced, quick recall, game.

Hopscotch Counting or Facts

Materials: sidewalk chalk, and flat small sticks

I just taught my own children the game of hopscotch and we played for hours. In this version, it is played the same way as the original with a little twist in the labeling of the boxes. Instead of labeling each square with numbers one through ten, have your child practice skip counting. We labeled boxes by 2’s and 3’s to practice but you could decide on something different. Another fun idea is to start the first number higher, maybe 22, and then count by 2’s. Your boxes would be labeled: 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38, and 40. Facts can also be written in the boxes with or without the answer. You could make boxes labeled 1+1 = 2, 2+2 = 4, etc. and have your child say the facts as he/she moves through the box.

Link: http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Hopscotch

Have fun!

An Invitation to Learn About Seeds

By Mariah Bruehl, 19th March 2015

Despite the deep snow all around us, there is a stirring of spring under our feet. The temperatures are not bitter cold as they were, we can stay outside for longer and linger in the sunshine more and more. As the days begin their slow warming cycle, our thoughts turn here on our homestead to the coming gardening year. Though the soil cannot yet be seen, let alone planted, we are plotting the myriad plants that we hope to grow in our garden this year.

While we can’t get our garden on outside, we can begin to learn a little of the plant life cycle inside. Call it a placebo, but I want to share my enthusiasm about seeds with my boys beyond their practical help in the garden. I want to share with them the mysteries of life beneath the soil.

The first activity we explored was this free activity from Montessori Print Shop .This activity involves matching the names of seeds to their pictures as well as the plants they come from. It encourages children to understand where seeds come from and to notice how many of them are common in our own kitchens. This is a great opportunity to talk about the uses of some of the seeds too. For example fennel is great for tummy aches and sunflower seeds are a common and nutritious food.

Next we moved on to looking at the evolution of the bean seed. I chose this one because it is something we eat often and so familiar. I wanted to look at this common item from a new perspective and learn the science behind the food source.

For my 6 year old I used this great free resource from Twinkl (Bean life cycle worksheet (younger children), it is an sequencing activity to help develop their understanding of the order in which each step appears. The first worksheet works on sequencing, while the second encourages understanding of the cycle of the seed/plant. It is very simple but really effective and a great way to begin learning about life cycles more broadly.

For My older son we used this great resource from Exploring Nature (Bean life cycle worksheet (older children). This activity also involves sequencing but to a higher level and requires identification of more subtle differences as the plant evolves from seed to plant. A great follow on from this would be to actually plant a bean seed and watch it grow, matching it to your sequence to see if it follows the same pattern.

For my younger son I gave him another matching activity (known in the Montessori method as Nomclature) that gives more detailed vocabulary on seed development. This activity (found free on The Helpful Garden website)-introduces scientific terminology is a great way to encourage confidence and curiosity in children. Once they know the terms they can apply them to other types of seeds that they come across.

I also provided an extension activity found on the Montessori Print Shop , that goes into more detail about each life stage, explaining the terminology in more depth. This would be a great accompaniment to some seed observation and dissection!

Along with the information it’s really wonderful to explore real seeds and watch them grow. You can soak beans and use them for dissection and observation, you can grow a seed in a small cup or even germinate seeds on paper towels to watch them sprout. By sheer luck I discovered a cluster of sprouted seeds inside the squash I was cutting up for lunch! Along with a magnifier, these provided a great way to interact with living, sprouting seeds.

Investigating Spring: Resources for Young Scientists

By Mariah Bruehl, 18th March 2015

Springtime sun and rain puddles naturally raise our children’s desire to explore outdoors. Often, we do not need anything but the time and desire to be outdoors to initiate springtime investigations. As soon as we walk outside, observations begin. However, there are a few other tools we can provide children to further their natural curiosities.

Children’s literature is plentiful and rich with books about birds, seeds, flowers, mud and weather. I almost always start with literature in introducing topics to students. There is magic in story and deep connections develop between reader and text. Conversations begin naturally through text and story and often ideas or questions emerge for exploration. When this happens, it is the perfect time to lay down the book and explore with our senses. Maybe take a spring walk bringing along observational tools: sketch book, pencil, watercolor, magnifying glass, and a field guide or two. Or, set out a collection of seeds to sort, classify, and pattern. Or begin planting some seeds in trays and record daily observations.

Children’s Literature

1. A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long

Dianna Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long have created such a magical book in A Seed is Sleepy. The illustrations are whimsical yet realistic. When looking through the text with young readers have examples of some of the seeds in the text and see if, while sharing the book with you, they can locate the seeds in the illustrations. Discuss actual size, versus the magnified size presented in the book. Ask your child why the illustrator might have decided to create them magnified. Discuss how to illustrate observations scientifically: realistic with great attention paid to detail such as color, size, and shape. Also, discuss the wording of the text. How is a seed sleepy? How is a seed adventurous?

2. Spring Walk by Virginia Brimhall Snow

The flower illustrations in Spring Walk jump out at the reader quickly as the flowers are in bright, bold colors as spring flowers naturally are. The illustrator highlights the colors even more with a detailed but colorless background. The flowers jump out because of their prominence. A fun way to use this book may be to teach your child how to take close up photographs (micro) that bring out the details. Or, one may sit with a sketchbook, pencil and watercolor paints to practice detailed, observational sketching.

3. Flowers are Calling by Rita Gray

Rita Gray has written a springtime rhyming text to share with readers why flowers are an important part of spring and what insects / birds use them as a food sources. Kenard Pak’s illustrations are delicate and detailed. A child may sit for a while with each page to study the arrangements of flowers, insects and birds. This book may be used as a field guide to bring along on a wildflower walk. There are several pages dedicated to simple, yet stunning illustrations of spring flowers which the author names and describes.

4. Mama Built a Little Nest by Jennifer Ward and Steve Jenkins.

The study of birds in springtime is perfect to take our students and children outdoors. The book Mama built a little nest by Jennifer Ward and illustrations by Steve Jenkins provides readers with a beautiful story accompanied by detailed facts. Ward introduces us to many different birds and invites us to learn how they create their nests. Jenkins collaged illustrations are colorful and bold. It could be fun to try creating a collage of a birds’ nest found on a spring walk.

5. Feathers: Not Just For Flying by Melissa Stewart and illustrated by Sarah Brannen

Another bird book to delight young readers is the new book entitled Feathers Not Just for Flying by Melissa Stewart and illustrated by Sarah Brannen. This gorgeous non-fiction book is ideal to refer to when studying the birds of spring. The author focuses on feathers and their many uses. One idea may be to have students study found feathers and create detailed sketches. These sketches could then be written about in poetic form such as Haiku poetry.

6. Mud by Mary Ray Lyn

This story, by Mary Ray Lyn, is a lovely introduction to the exploration of mud. Lyn uses few words yet the words are perfect and will provide new vocabulary for our younger students. The illustrations by Lauren Stringer have a unique perspective, as though the reader is the one playing in the mud. Read aloud Mud and then explore by taking your child outside to explore in the mud. Let him/her take their shoes off and describe what it feels like to walk through barefoot. What words describe the feeling? What does it smell like? Do you hear any sounds? Or bring some mud inside using a plastic container. Put out some newspaper or plastic and begin exploring with your child. What does it sound like when you mix it up with a stick? Can you paint with it? Does it have a smell?

7. Laughing Tomatoes And Other Spring Poems / Jitomates Risuenos Y Otros Poemas De Primavera

Let’s add in some poetry and better yet poetry in two languages: English and Spanish. This colorful, poetry book is perfect for ages up to fifth grade. The author brings spring alive with poems about spring and how it makes people feel. Poems range from quite short (3 lines) to many lines. The illustrations are whimsical and light: a real spring feel! Enjoy this book with your child and then play with writing some spring poems together.

8. Spring An Alphabet Acrostic by Steven Schnur and illustrated by Leslie Evans

This spring acrostic poetry book is perfect for the Kindergarten / First grade classroom. The author uses acrostic poems to tell the story of spring. Follow this book up with students creating their own acrostic poems about what spring means to them.

9. Lost in the Woods by Carl R. Sames II & Jean Stoick

This beautiful picture book tells the story of a young doe and the first days of its’ life. The photos will captivate young learners and is a perfect accompaniment to discuss spring births.

10. And then it’s spring by Julie Fogliano and illustrated by Erin E. Stead

The pictures and words work together to tell a fun story about waiting for spring. Children will relate to waiting for spring to come and the excitement that follows when it finally does. Use this book to discuss personal experiences in waiting for spring.

11. Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine by Allison Wortche and illustrated by Patrice Barton

Rosie Sprout’s Time to Shine is a lovely, personal story about growing up and making choices. Children will connect with Rosie and how to tries her best to do the right thing after a mistake. Children may enjoy planting their own bean plant and make observations after listening to this story.

12. Amazing Plant Powers by Loreen Leedy & Andrew Schuerger

Loreen Leedy has created another fun non-fiction text that will grab young readers attention. In Amazing Plant Powers Leedy provides readers with catchy facts, micro photos and detailed drawing. Try creating catchy brochures with students to display information learned about certain plants. They will love emulating Leedy’s style in publishing.

*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.

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A Charley Harper Scavenger Hunt

By Mariah Bruehl, 10th March 2015

Our world is full of opportunities to learn and discover something new if we keep our minds open and experience new things. It is also essential to show this concept to the children in our lives.

Last summer, I was able to attend an amazing concert and light show called Lumenocity (see below for a clip from a YouTube video).

This was a phenomenal experience where art, music, and technology were combined! The show featured a local artist that was new to me, Charley Harper. I was stunned that I had not heard of this artist before, especially with his local ties. After the program, I was hooked on his artwork. I immediately came home to search for more information and view more of his works. I was also excited to share this new to me artist with my daughter. Charley Harper’s works are so playfully perfect for children and she was able to see how enthusiastic I was about learning something new.

Charley Harper was an American Modernist painter who specialized in wildlife artworks. Capturing his subjects with a minimal amount of visual elements, he illustrated many books and created many prints and posters. I love the clever titles for his artworks and their simple, yet beautiful depictions:

Art and nature certainly go hand in hand! I decided to combine the two in an activity to get children moving outside, appreciating art and nature all at the same time. Using the artwork of Charley Harper, I have created a fun spring scavenger hunt. Use this printable to go on a nature walk and see how many of these creatures you can discover. I hope that this activity will open your eyes to the beauty of spring and lead to new interests and activities around your house, just as experiencing a new artist has done for me.

If you get hooked on Charley Harper art like me, check out the Charley Harper Art Studio to see more of his works. If you are looking for a mindful gift for someone in your family they have an outstanding selection of children’s products. We have two puzzles at our house, and I have my eye on some of the books, sticker sets, and coloring cards.

Collaborating with Nature

By Mariah Bruehl, 25th June 2014

Kate from An Everyday Story is with us today to share a fun way to bring together an appreciation of nature and our creative spirits…

It started with a stick, “Mummy wouldn’t this stick make a great tree house?…It’s a great shape, but it’s a bit small.” My five year old son wondered to himself how he could make this stick into a tree house… “What if we drew a tree house on top of the stick?” I suggested. He looked a little puzzled at first but then became very excited once I explained.

When you start looking around at all the differently shaped leaves, sticks and flowers in our yards, you can’t help but be inspired. A small round leaf could be a balloon, a long leaf could be a boat sailing on gentle seas or a snippet from a pine tree could be beautiful Christmas tree.

The tree house was just the beginning. Soon we had pages of pictures, as each different leaf or petal inspired different creations. We wanted to keep them but sadly the transient nature of petals and leaves means they will eventually wilt. For now we have pictures to remember them by.

An Invitation to Learn About Birds

By Mariah Bruehl, 23rd May 2014

Today Emma from 95 Acres of Sky is with us to share some great resources and ideas for learning about birds with the little naturalists in our lives.

At this time of year, when winters grip finally seems behind us and the monochrome of winter is being replaced by full spring bloom, it seems like every moment not spent outside is a waste. But sometimes, just sometimes, nature does not cooperate with our wishes and so we must compromise by learning about outside; just until we can head out again of course.

This year I’ve tried to incorporate more Reggio Emilia learning strategies into our family life, this is an educational model that encourages open ended learning opportunities for children. It also encourages an inspiring environment that allows them to create and learn in a way that feels right to them. A way of setting up this kind of activity (and something I learned here on the Playful Learning site) is to create an invitation to learn, an open ended activity with no particular goal in mind but a clear focus with limited materials.

Our house is full of books, both fiction and informative, but I rarely see the boys reach for one of them unless their interest is sparked first. So by creating an invitation for them, I am drawing their attention to a specific subject but not telling them how they should interpret that information. For me this approach blends beautifully the guidance that children need with the freedom to create that helps them thrive.

For this invitation I laid out two books about birds that we have on our nature shelf, a fun quiz game and some drawing materials; I placed age appropriate materials for both of the boys so that they could interpret at their own level. I didn’t give them any guidance as to what they should do but allowed them to discover and be inspired. And inspired they were! My youngest son drew several pictures of birds and then used some miniature binoculars from our discovery basket to look for birds out of the window. My eldest son (now 8) decided to create his own book of drawings based on the bird encyclopedia.

I was so excited with how well the boys reacted to this spontaneous (yet thought out) invitation, and there was much bird talk in the house for hours after the activity too. My eldest son was so proud of the book he created he couldn’t wait to show it to Daddy as soon as he came home. Though I had thought they might focus on the identification aspect of the bird books, instead they interpreted the material in an artistic way, my son using it as an opportunity to develop his drawing skills and engaging me in an art lesson of sorts. It was lovely to support him as he strove to improve and refine his art work in a way I hadn’t seen before.

If you’d like to lay out a similar invitation for your children, here are some suggestions for what you might like to include:

Bird field or identification guides such as the Audubon Backyard Birdwatcher or the wonderful book Bird Songs 250 North American Birds in Song, which actually includes recordings of each bird’s sound, a truly exceptional identification tool.

For games like the one shown in our invitation look for Professor Noggin’s Bird’s of North America. There are many other in the series covering all sorts of subjects and a great way to improve everyone’s knowledge. There are easier and harder questions that allow younger children to enjoy too. These Fundana games also look wonderful and is something I’m dying to try out this summer! Or this wooden matching game would be lovely for younger children.

Imagination Childhood also has a lovely range of field guides and inspiring nature books, covering everything from birds to beetles. They also stock beautiful bird posters a great reference guide to have on the wall at all times.

And if you’d like to introduce a little technology, there are of course bird watching apps such as iBird Pro and the Peterson’s Birds field guide ,which is full of beautiful and inspiring illustrations that are sure to engage anyone’s imagination.

The great joy of this kind of learning is that it is only a jumping off point, the materials should be carefully chosen but don’t have to be new or expensive. A great field guide from the library and the art materials you already own will quickly become a gateway to a new learning adventure; and the fun thing is, you really don’t know where you’ll end up!

Dandelions: A Playful Activity For Bringing Them To Life

By Mariah Bruehl, 21st May 2014

Monique of Green Acorns is with us today with to share some dandelion inspiration on this lovely spring day!

Dandelions – they seem to spring up overnight to decorate our yards with bright sunshiny-yellow polka dots. They’re cheerful, hardy, and tenacious. They provide magical experiences for many children who are amazed at how quickly they turn into puff balls and who find great amusement at blowing their seeds away and watching them head off on an adventure clinging to their tiny parachutes.

Recently while my children were happily playing with the dandelions strewn throughout our own yard, they were thrilled to find some who had put their “hats” on. They excitedly called me over to see. Hats? My oldest daughter went on to tell a brief story about the dandelions not being too sure about how they feel about losing their golden color and turning white so they put hats on to hide the change taking place. They then decide that they look just as beautiful and let their hats fall off to reveal their new look.

I loved this little story!

We went on to do a spontaneous dandelion study and recorded everything in our nature journals. They are really fascinating plants and we all learned something new about them. Did you know that the flower head is made of lots of individual florets, not just petals? The “hats” are the florets that have gone by and closed up. They eventually fall off to reveal the fuzzies. Did you know that those white fuzzies are called pappi (plural form) from the Latin pappus meaning “old man”? Makes sense. And there are so many fun things that you can do with dandelions. It occurred to me later that evening, however, that my daughter had opened the door to another engaging way to explore this flower. By bringing it to life in a different way. By personifying it. What a fun twist to their playful learning experiences.

Here’s what we did:
After making and recording our observations of a dandelion, my children filled out a printable that I created (you can download it here). They could choose to either place a sample of any part the plant in the detail box or draw a picture of it. They then added as many adjectives and descriptive phrases about the detail as they could. I encouraged them to use figurative as well as literal descriptions. Next we read several story books about dandelions. Here are some to check out:

Dandelion Adventures by Patricia Kite
The Dandelion’s Tale by Kevin Sheehan
The Dandelion Seed by Joseph Anthony
A Dandelion’s Life by John Himmelman
Stars in the Grass by Mia Posada

After reading each one we pointed out and discussed the various examples of personification and simile. The kids then brainstormed some of their own. You could choose to stop here and have the children write a simple sentence or two using personification (“With all her petals reaching out like the rays of the sun, Miss Dandelion greeted me warmly”) or even a short poem like a haiku. If your child would like to go on to write a short story, help him or her develop some personality traits and identify a dilemma to build on (seeds being nervous about where they’ll land, pointy leaves scaring off other plants, etc). Then let their imaginations bring new life to the dandelion!

Note: This activity is most appropriate for 3rd graders and older. My almost six-year-old was able to make comparisons with prompting and record a simple sentence. She also enjoyed using these flower cut outs for some imaginative play – an engaging way for younger children to personify an object.

Meaningful Literacy: Vegetable Stones for the Kitchen Garden

By Mariah Bruehl, 25th March 2014

I think the dream to carve out a little spot in our yards to grow our own produce is a common one. Growing and nurturing something with our own hands has given our little family such a deep sense of joy and connectedness; to each other, to our food and to this space in our yard.

We started creating our first kitchen garden about three months ago. We still have a lot to learn about soil preparation, crop rotation and natural pest control but this space has provided such wonderful opportunities for learning for our children; we planted the seeds together, watched as they grew from seedlings into plants and eventually produced delicious vegetables…which almost always get picked by tiny helping hands and straight into little bellies. However my children are learning more than how to raise and nurture seeds, this kitchen garden is also providing opportunities for meaningful literacy.

These little vegetable stones were an opportunity for my son Jack (5yrs) to write in a purposeful and meaningful way. These vegetable stones were for our garden; their garden.

I collected small clippings from different plants for my son to identify and match to the word card which I had written in both lower-case and capital letters. He then used these word cards to create his vegetable markers using some beautifully smooth beach stones and a permanent marker.

My children really enjoyed creating these stones for their vegetable garden. Over the next few days they added more stones under more plants.

I think it is so important for children to have opportunities to read and write in meaningful ways; writing for a reason, reading to discover something, in this way we can help to nurture and preserve that innate drive to learn and help to keep learning connected to real life. Whether it’s by helping to write shopping lists, reading steps in a recipe, or creating vegetable markers from stones, we can gently encourage literacy by engaging our children in meaningful tasks which are relevant to our children’s lives.

More about our kitchen garden here, and our homeschool routine as well.

Ready For Spring: Garden Planning with Kids

By Mariah Bruehl, 17th January 2014

Here in Central California, we have an early grow season and the perfect time to set your summer seeds indoors, or in a greenhouse is January and February. Knowing how desperately my children wanted their own garden beds to tend to this past summer, I made a real effort to include them in the planning process.

Here are some simple steps to creating a fun garden planning afternoon with your children.

1) Gather your resources.

In our house we have an ever growing pile of gardening books, as well as piles of seed/nursery catalogs. I found most of them at Library sales or online at Amazon (buy used for pennies and just pay for shipping). Most seed and nursery companies will send you a free catalog if you subscribe to them online.

I had the kids sit and go through the books at their own pace over the course of our morning. I loved seeing them sit side by side and point to the beautiful photographs and critique the delicately illustrated garden plans. I realized my children were as intrigued by flowers as they were by edibles. It made me realize I needed to plan a few more flower beds this spring.

2) Seed Shopping

Because of my penchant to seed hoard, I let the kids go through some of our seeds and choose four vegetables for their raised beds. I then let them choose two companion flowers to plant alongside the veggies. It was interesting to see which seeds were chosen by which child. My daughter essentially wanted to know which plants made salsa and chose from there. My son chose his favorite vegetable – lettuce. And after that, it was just a matter picking a few plants that would complement his favorite tomato sauce.

If you don’t already have a stash of seeds, this can be such a fun opportunity to go to your local garden center or nursery and seed shop. Or you can do my favorite thing, and sit together and shop online. Go here for a wonderful list of seed companies. We use Rare Seeds and LOVE all of their seeds and they have a very high germination rate.

And while we’re talking about trolling online and garden geekery, go to my gardening page on Pinterest. My children love to just sit and scroll and exclaim and plan their fantasy gardens. And if you really want to my your child’s day, go to Pinterest and search “fairy doors.”

3) Plan it out.

In that children are impetuous and impatient, I like to make them sit and really plan out any activity they are going to do. This year I created a form to let them draw out how and what they wanted to plant in their individual raised beds.

I was amused to see how dedicated they were to their plans. My son planned to have a circle of marigolds protecting his vegetable plants in the middle, while my daughter was much more invested in all the pretty flowers sprinkled amongst her veggies.

The reason we let the kids have their own beds is that they want ownership in the endeavor of gardening. Sure, they love picking tomatoes and peppers with me in the summer, but this year they’ve consistently repeated that they want to pick THEIR own tomatoes and peppers. And I am willing to make the effort in order for them to realize that this garden with live or die based on their efforts and their efforts alone.

4) Garden Markers; a fun little project.

Because surface sowing boring old seeds in our milk jug greenhouses a couple of months before we start the garden can be a bit anti-climatic, I planned to have the kids make their very own garden markers for the four veggies they chose to grow. I used what was on hand, markers, wedges and a few paint sticks and simply told. Go here for a DIY garden marker inspiration. There is a lot of potential for creative interpretation here and I would love to see what all of these amazing Playful Learning parents could come up with.

While the years, the obligations and the general chaos of adulthood can seem to dull our senses and distract us, children are still fresh and open and drawn to nature. They don’t see a beautiful sunset and sigh and talk about the beauty – they smile, their eyes flutter and they FEEL the beauty. They feel this way about everything in nature, from ladybug to swiss chard. Children also like to get dirty, really dirty. Even the most hesitant child will eventually break through the fear of the unknown and relish the feel of the loose soil on their hands as they place their plants in the carefully dug holes. Gardens grow food and beauty – and children love everything about them. So, go and grow a pot of flowers together. Grow a garden bed, plant an apple tree, grow a pot of flowers together, or go to a u-pick berry farm this summer…let your child participate in the miracle of growth.

Gardening for Kids: Germinating Seeds

By Mariah Bruehl, 10th September 2013

I love seeing all of the signs of spring popping up around the web from our friends in Australia! Kate from An Everyday Story is here to share some great tips on germinating seeds with the little gardeners in our lives.

It’s spring here in Australia. All around us the plants and trees are awakening from their winter slumber. The yellow wattle trees are in full bloom and the neighborhood is bursting with blossom trees in all shades of pink, white and brilliant red.

We’ve been spending a lot of time in the garden this last week; tending to our neglected little vegetable plot. Not much beats turning over soil, pulling weeds and spending time in the warm sun.

My son Jack (4yrs) has been curious about how plants grow, he wanted to germinate some seeds.

So with a tiny greenhouse from the hardware store and mix of seeds left over from last season, Jack and Sarah (2yrs) planted their seeds. We planted corn, snow peas and sunflowers.

We talked about what seeds need to grow, why the roots grow down and the plant grows up. We also planted one snow pea seed in a glass jar with some wet cotton wool and placed them on the windowsill.

Everyday Jack checks his seed to see how it is growing. Having the seed in the glass jar means Jack and Sarah can see what is happening underneath the soil in their tiny greenhouse.

First we noticed the seed swelling, then a small dot appeared on the seed. The following day a tiny root appeared. Soon a little green plant emerged from the seed.

If you’re heading out into the garden to plant some seeds with your little ones, I really recommend germinating a couple of seeds in a glass jar. While the seeds sit hidden in the soil, the glass jar gives the child a little window into what is happening, maintaining their interest in the project for longer.

We are looking forward to when our seedlings pop through the soil and transplanting them into the vegetable garden. I do really love gardening with children; plants, especially vegetables, require long term care while providing wonderful hands-on learning experiences along the way.

And at the end of all that hard work and care, they will have some delicious vegetables to harvest and eat. That is always the most exciting part.