Plants

Knowledge about plants is a fundamental part of understanding the world around us.  It is so important to allow small children to have interactions with the out of doors.  This allows them to foster an appreciation for natural resources, earth science, and dare I say most important of all CURIOSITY (one of my two favorite words).  This is such an easy thing to do.  Go outside.  Allow your kids to be outside.  Sometimes you may have to  MAKE your kids go outside.  It is so healthy for them to be outside.  To hear, touch, smell the natural things around them.  Allow them to run in the grass with their shoes off.  Talk about how grass feel on their feet and how it may turn their feet green (conversation on chloroplast).  Find a flower and compare it to a tree.  Find the parts that are similar and ones that are different.  Compare, Analyze, Talk, and most importantly - Do.  For pete sakes - We're homeschoolers - lets go outside.

I don't know how many times I've thought about the irony of looking at pictures in a book and reading words on a page on a subject that was less than two feet away out a window that could be experienced.

Having said all this.  I've added links that I thought were fun. Hee-Hee.

Making a plant grow

Plant Growthh



Parts of a Plant


Plant Life cycle Game

Below are pictures of an activity we've been working on.  We took seeds we had around the house(I really had no idea if they would actually grow or not).  We had Chia seeds and two sizes of white beans.  We put them in a plastic ziplock baggie with a wet paper towel.  Then we taped those to our sliding glass door that doubles as our learning board and Viola.  The Chia seeds were fun because they started sprouting roots in about 24 hrs.  Amazing.  Then the small bean sprouts started about a week.  And our last runner up were the large white beans.  These took about two weeks to start to sprout.  It was fun to see the difference in all three and the time it took for each one to start to sprout.

This leads to an excellent conversation about each and every thing has a time and a season.  Some seeds start to sprout very fast and some take more time.  Each one has a unique root system.  Each seed has a different way of sprouting.  It's been really fun for the kids and for me.

About two weeks after we started watering our seeds we were able to transplant them to a pot.  We will continue to grow them to watch the full life cycle of the plant.