Parts of a Plant

We had been planning to use this week on our Soil Study, but we ended up spending extra time on Parts of a Plant. This is partly because I don't have the money for worm bin supplies this week and partly because it seemed natural to expand on the topic since the kids were still making comments about it. I had someone tell me once that I was "Waldorf-inspired with an unschooling bent" which I think she meant as an insult but which didn't really bother me. At least for the under 7 years, I think that doing things that you and your kids find interesting is the way to go. Anyway, we've been happily finding the seeds inside different kinds of fruit (dates, watermelon, etc). Steve was joking with me at snack time:

"If you give the children a date, you'll have to cut it open."

"If you cut it open, you'll have to show them the seed inside."

"If you show them the seed inside, they're going to want to plant it."

And so on... :-)


Anyway, we have a little pile of seeds we want to plant, including apple, lemon, and date. I know there was another one we looked at but I can't think of it now. Examining seeds is a nice way to bring the plant life cycle full circle, since it puts you back at the beginning.

We have been spending a little time on Mud. Out of the most recent spat of library books, one of the most popular was Mud For Sale. In fact, we had people over for Memorial Day and my friend Laura asked Leah, what do you do with mud? And she said, you put it all over your body. Poor Laura looked taken aback -- little did she know this was part of the plot of the book. Besides making mud pies and so on, I gave the kids their bin of cornmeal back (20 pounds of blue cornmeal, three wooden spoons, and a flour sifter) to explore. I thought that they might articulate some comparisons between having your hands in cornmeal and having your hands in dirt but I didn't hear any conversation along those lines.

This week's field trip is Children's Day on the Farm. Steve is taking them on Sunday. My job is to research the worm bin thing so we can try it for next week. Then we (meaning I) have to make the decision about starting another theme or just hanging out and relaxing over the summer.

By the way, I found a game to go along with our Plants unit. It is the Balancing Cactus from Plan Toys.

This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!