Seeds sprouting

Nothing gets children involved in growing things more quickly than sprouting! The results start showing in days, right there to be seen in the sprouting jar. None of this waiting a week or more to get something poking out of the soil. 

The process has several stages: soaking the seeds in water, often overnight, to awaken them; rinsing them at least two or three times a day, putting them in a sunny window once they're on their way to allow them to develop nutritious chlorophyll, then — best of all — eating them!

There is a number of sprouting supplies you can use, the simplest being steel or plastic screens to put on the top of your sprouting jar to facilitate easy rinsing. And you can buy complete kits to make it even easier. 

Getting your kids involved is the easy part! Teaching them the process as you work together on that first batch of sprouts is the place to start. Once they know how it’s done, it’s time to turn the process over to them; letting them measure out a teaspoon of dry seed into the sprouting jar, letting them soak and rinse seeds on their own once they're comfortable with the process, letting them harvest. Keep them engaged by asking them to help choose seeds for sprouting. Learn with them to identify the different seeds — alfalfa, mung bean, sunflower, wheat — as they go along. Give them responsibility as you teach them biology.

Your older sprouters can get into an important part of the scientific process — observation and record-keeping — with simple journal entries that record when seeds were soaked and for how long, when they first showed signs of life, and when they were harvested. Larger seeds make it easy to identify the parts of the seed — seed coat, embryo, cotyledon — and kids should be encouraged to sketch the parts they see in their journal. Journal keeping can become the basis of larger science projects.

Make photos of your kid sprouting seeds, upload to the App. Write about the process and your kid impressions.