Have you ever wondered why kids are fascinated by watching plants and flowers grow? Young children have an innate curiosity about the world around them, and learning how a seed grows can be one of the best ways for toddlers to explore the amazing process of nature!
Growing seeds is not only an entertaining activity for your little ones, but it’s also educational – teaching children about science principles such as germination, sources of light, and water. Plus, growing a garden is something that everyone in the family will enjoy as everyone watches with anticipation until those first few shoots emerge from the soil!
In this blog post, we’ll discuss why it’s important to teach toddlers how seeds sprout into plants, what supplies you need to get started, and fun ideas for activities so your kid gets hands-on experience planting their own garden at home.
Our older son woke up asking about seeds. Obviously dreaming about the plant life cycle, right?
Why it’s Important to Teach Toddlers How Seeds Sprout into Plants
As parents, we can’t help but feel a sense of wonder watching our little ones grow and develop. But have you ever wondered how we can teach our toddlers about growth and development in the natural world? One exciting way is to introduce them to the fascinating process of how seeds grow into plants.
By sharing this knowledge with our children, we provide them with a tangible connection to nature and help them develop an appreciation and understanding of the environment around them. This knowledge is not only essential for their learning and development but may inspire a lifelong love of gardening, environmentalism, and being outdoors. T
eaching them the basics of how seeds grow is a fun and engaging way to encourage your little ones to explore and learn about the world around them.
Teaching Young Kids about Nature
My husband cut up apples as part of his breakfast. Our son was enthralled with the seeds. He saw the remnants of a lemon on the counter. He asked about the seeds.
Then he scurried over to his reading corner to find his ‘how seeds grow’ books. Almost simultaneously I saw a pin on Pinterest that led me to a gorgeous FREE Plant Life Cycle printable. Voila!
I fired up my printer, gathered my son & the books and we were off with our morning activity.
Normally I would have printed color on card stock, then laminated the cards. Today, I seized the moment.
We put the steps within the life cycle in order.
Then we used books to match the steps as we read along.
ChildrensBooks to Introduce How a Seed Grows
We used three wonderful books to guide us through this exercise.
“Oh, Say Can You Seed” by Bonnie Worth is written in a fun and rhythmic verse. We love the Cat in the Hat Learning Series and this book exploring seed to plant did not disappoint. Thing 2 and Thing 2 along with a young boy and girl take us through the basics of flowering plants, they even take us underground to burrow in the ground like a mole to examine different kinds of roots.
“From Seed to Plant” by Gail Gibbons is simple and effective in teaching kids about what can be complicated topics such as pollination, germination, and plant reproduction. We really enjoyed the illustrations but some critics say that not all are true to the plant and make recognizing some plants difficult. We enjoyed them.
“How A Seed Grows” by Helene Jordan is a wonderful introduction to the Plant Life Cycle. We appreciated the illustrations of the varieties of seeds and the simple approach to describing how a seed becomes a plant.
Our favorite part is the activity embedded in the book. A really simple activity for first-time little gardeners that is sure to capture them for a lifetime.
Thank you for choosing to visit our blog today. Come back soon.
~ Marnie