We are getting to that time of year again when we start planting things in the garden. Which initially goes really well. Although inevitably we get really busy as the the weather gets better, or watering becomes a chore because the water butts are empty (we are blessed with a very long garden). Then we go away which means bribing relatives to come and water for us, with the end result being that we let it go a bit too much! But there is nothing quite as good as eating your own potatoes or peas. Wanting to foster this enjoyment with monkey, when he asked for some seeds to plant during a trip to the garden centre, we opted for cress and mustard which he could grow inside.
I remember as a child growing them in discarded egg shells, however monkey has an egg allergy so thought best to stay away from the old traditions this time round! Instead we used some old desert containers (thank you dine in for £10) and cotton wool. With a sharpie I drew on some happy faces for ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ as they were quickly named. Monkey added some eye stickers we picked up in Tesco, before sprinkling on the seeds – thankfully you get loads in a packet so it didn’t matter if some went astray. Then we watered and waited.
From my perspective the waiting was the best part, as he use to come down every morning to see if they had grown anymore… and top them up with a ‘drink’. I took pictures on Day1, Day2 and Day3 which I have laminated to use for sequencing cards, for him to put in order. As this is our first attempt at sequencing I purposefully kept the number small, but you could easily expand it.
For monkey the best bit was cutting ‘hair’ for lunch.. the cress wasn’t a great hit unfortunately, the mustard went down better, so I am sure we will try this again.
I also plan to do something similar with sunflowers to give monkey more of an understanding of how things grow. Last year we planted sunflower seeds but didn’t get them in the ground quick enough so our sunflower wigwam didn’t really work! I will be trying it again so watch this space for updates, hopefully it will be ready for his Birthday party in the Summer.
10 Responses
Oh we’ve just done this in an egg box made into a caterpillar. It had googley eyes and antenna and legs made of pipe cleaner and each section had different seeds so we had dill, rocket and beetroot. Dexter loved watering it every morning
I remember doing this at school when I was younger. I love the little faces you have made on the containers. I think I will have to try these with my own children as my toddler would love growing something xx
Cress is such a great thing for little hands as it growws so quickly. Will be good in some egg sandwiches!
I love growing cress! I remember growing it as a child. I have done it once with Baby, but I need to do it again. x
Oh wow, the memories of growing cress at school as a child, not that it was ever as fun and cool looking as these x
I remember having to grow cress in little flower pots as a child. It was so fun nurturing our own life form and then getting to eat an egg mayo and cress sandwich after!
I loving growing cress and have done it many times. The kids love doing it to in Nursery
I think we all – at one point or another – grew cress in school. So funny to think about it. Maybe it would also be fun to grow vegetable sprouts together with your kid? There’s a great variety in seeds for sprouting and it’s very healthy to eat them.
N always used to come home with these from nursery, although I have to say that after the first harvest it kind of dried out and went mouldy. We’re a bit rubbish at gardening.
Sunflowers will be an exciting one to grow! Cress is great because it pops up so quickly. They have quick satisfaction from their planting 🙂 x