Starting Seeds

We have a plethora of seeds started for our garden here at the DC.  Not all of them will actually be in the garden that we will grow here.  Mainly because I have more windows that have wonderful sunlight, more so than at home since three sides of our home are porch covered.  So some of them will go to our home garden. 

The kids love to talk about our garden and making plans.  We talk during lunch time about which foods grow in the garden and it is funny because they will say things like hot dogs and popsicles grow in the garden which would I guess in a much more perfect world.  But talks like this lead to discussions of where other foods do come from and which foods are made from vegetables grown in the garden and they always know which vegetables came from our garden.

 

I wanted to involve the kids more this year in the garden from seed to table.  So we began by the children helping me make newspaper pots to begin some seeds in.  We actually started out with Roma tomato and Marigold seeds.  The most of our vegetables we will sow the seeds directly into the garden.  But our new window seed shelf is currently home to four trays of seedlings and soon-to-be seedlings. 

 

I also ran into a temporary problem at the beginning of our process, which I seem to run into often, of finding I left something at home that we need.  In this case it was the plastic wrap to go over the trays to use as makeshift greenhouses.  I looked around the rooms and was lucky to find two zip up plastic carrying cases that I had saved when I bought two sets of toys at the thrift store.  These are working like magic and are quickly turning into two of my favorite mini greenhouses.  They are like the zip ups that sheets or comforters come in.  It is a fantastic use for them. 

 

So here are a few pictures of our seed process that lets you see the kids spooning dirt into our pots.  It has become a daily event of checking to see which seeds have sprouted.  Especially for me... the one who waters the most.  If you have any questions on starting seeds for your own garden please shoot me an email!

Starting Letters

Tracing is a good way to help kids learn to draw straight lines.  Straight lines that lead to letters.  I took out the children's journals this morning and turned to the first available page.  I used a ruler and made the letter A with broken lines.  Then drew a picture or two of items whose names begin with the letter A. 

Some scribbled on the page.  Some colored in the pictures.  But as I instructed what to do I was proud that the kids traced the lines of the letter as best they could.  Then I asked them to make their own letter A on the blank page to the left.  They gave it a good shot and I thought this little exercise turned out great.  A+ on this project.  There will be more letters to come!