SEEDS

Sharon Cameron!

Before I get into some of the educational aspects of seeds, I wanted to put in a seed-related plug for my friend Sharon Cameron on the hurricane-devastated Mississippi Gulf Coast.  She reports that the situation is still very dire, with many folks living in tents, cars, and severely damaged homes.  She is crying out for churches to adopt families and get them back on their feet. But she doesn’t stop at asking other people for help!   Last week, in a precious handwritten note (she has no computer), she wrote to me:

“We are planting several gardens so we can share fresh produce with others.  We are also planting flowers and veggies and herbs in containers to give to the families in FEMA trailers – something to add color…  Spring brings all things new.  After last year, I need all things new.  Being outside and growing things is a great stress reliever.”

I know my own mom sent her a bunch of seeds a few months back, as well as some other care box items.  If you would like to send seeds, Lowes or Wal-Mart gift cards, money, or household items for Sharon to distribute to her needy neighbors, please ship them off to:

Sharon Cameron

2309 Lloyds Lane

Vancleave, MS  39565-8222

Lydia's Homegrown Seed and Plant Factory

My fifth daughter, Lydia, who is 11, loves gardening.  She has planted pepper and tomato plants (and others) in the backyard, and several kinds of flowers in the front.  She also put in a butterfly garden recently.  She harvested hundreds and hundreds of seeds from her morning glory, marigold and cosmo plants, and then set up a "Seed and Plant Factory" on our back porch, where her younger brothers are her capable employees.  They have spent countless happy hours out there just for the fun of it.  In this ingenious little factory, there is a table for decorating and assembling seed packets, and a bucket on a pulley to transport it to the packing table, where seeds -- which have already slid down a chute and been pulled across the porch via a toy dump truck -- are counted out on trays into piles of 20 and packaged.  Then she made flyers to distribute to friendly neighbors for a "seed sale" at 25 cents a pack.  She and the boys set up a table on the sidewalk last Saturday; they sold about 30 packs, and even gave a “factory tour” to one neighbor couple.  She's our budding entrepreneur! 

You can imagine how much educational value this project has had -- everything from science, technology, counting, handwriting, art, and beginning economics.  This is the kind of hands-on stuff I like best -- what the children make up themselves because they want to do it!

Apologia’s "Exploring Creation with Botany" Textbook by Jeannie Fulbright

As you can imagine, Lydia loves her Apologia Botany book -- and guards it with her life!  The book is a very attractive hardback, with full-color photos, illustrations, and/or diagrams on every page.  Jeannie Fulbright’s textbooks (which also include Astronomy and Zoology titles) are Charlotte Mason style curriculum, and encourage students to create a notebook and do hands-on projects. 

One of the nice things is that Lydia can go through it herself for the most part.  I did help her dissect some flowers recently.  (Fortunately, Thad had brought home a mixed bouquet for me the previous week, so we had a good selection of different kinds.)    There is a whole chapter on seeds.  Even though it is very easy to understand – even for younger elementary students -- I sure learned a lot by reading it!

This morning, Lydia and I were reading the chapter on Fruits, and found out about a lot of the fascinating ways that seeds are dispersed, either by wind or water, by inner mechanisms, by animals, or by humans.  She shares how the inventor of Velcro, George de Mestral, got his inspiration from the hooks of burrs stuck to his dog’s fur.  I thought this next excerpt about spear grass was particularly interesting:

Many fruits of grasses are equipped with latches that can catch onto passing creatures as well.  Spear grass has spiky tips that get lodged on passing animals or can be blown by a strong wind to a new location.  The pointed fruits of spear grass have long, twisted tails (called “awns”) projecting from their tips.  These tails can get stuck in passing animals or can float in the wind. Once the seed hits the ground, however, the first moisture causes the awn to straighten.  This causes it to move straight down into the soil.  Once it dries out again, the awn twists back up.  This actually screws the seed into the soil where it can germinate.  The fruit of spear grass, then, not only helps disperse the seeds, it also helps plant them!

The Exploring Creation with Botany text was written by Jeannie Fulbright, a home school mom of four.  She has a passion for science and a passion for writing, but even more importantly, she has a passion for God.  This is evident in the spiritual applications she draws out in her textbooks. For example, the Botany book likens planting seeds to the multiplication effect of telling other people about the Lord, and gives practical ways for kids to do this.

Check out her web site at www.jeanniefulbright.com and sign up for her e-newsletter!   You can download her most recent Jeannie’s Journal newsletter by clicking here: http://www.jeanniefulbright.com/JJwritingnews1.pdf

Books About Seeds

Your library probably has loads of books about seeds, but here are four picture books that I particularly like:

• One Child, One Seed: A South African Counting Book by Kathryn Cave and Giselle Wulfsohn
• The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
• A Dandelion’s Life by John Himmelman
• Backyard Sunflower by Elizabeth King

Planting Seeds

The obvious activity to do with seeds is to… plant them!  You can do this in so many different ways, from sprouting bean seeds in a cup or in a tray, to planting them in little peat pots on a sunny windowsill, to sowing them directly in the garden.  Just follow the instructions on the seed packet, keeping in mind your own climate.  We Floridians can plant things much earlier outside!

Seed Graph

You are probably familiar with bar graphs from whatever math curriculum you are using.  Now you can make one with real objects.  Collect sets of several kinds of seeds or use a mixed seed packet from a garden shop.  Get some graph paper with squares big enough to hold a seed.  Label the x-axis with the names of seeds.  Label the y-axis with numbers.  For each kind of seed, lay one seed in each square of the "bar" for that kind of seed.  This will allow you to visually compare how many of each kind of seed you have. 

If you have a big change jar, you can make an object graph.  Sort coins by kind (penny, nickle, dime, quarter) or sort a large pile of pennies by year.   In this case the kind or the year will go on the x-axis, and then quantity on the y-axis.  Do you notice any patterns, especially when you sort by year?

Or, sort small candies (Skittles, M&Ms, jellybeans) by color!

A Very Educational Fruit Salad!

To explore different fruit seeds, tour your grocery store’s produce aisle and pick out several kinds of fruit at the grocery store.  Try these varieties: strawberries (which have the seeds on the outside), peaches (which have large pit), grapes (some seedless), oranges (which have seeds in the center) and apples or pears  (which have seeds in the core).  Can you find the seeds in a banana?  Look very carefully for tiny brown dots in the center of a slice.  Cut all of the fruits up, examine their seeds, and then make a yummy fruit salad!  For an extra special treat, add some creamy vanilla yogurt!

Pomegranates

Have you tried pomegranates yet?  They are red round fruits filled with yummy pulpy seeds.  I found some in the local produce store, which is run by a family from the Middle East.  Just how do you eat one?  Check out this web site (which has lots of other “how to” tips on gazoodles of weird and not-so-weird topics!) http://www.ehow.com/how_12320_eat-pomegranate.html  (For the record, you CAN swallow the seeds.  A little extra fiber for your diet!)

Then read the Greek myth of Persephone and the pomegranate, which attempts to explain why we have seasons, especially spring! http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/persephone.htm

Pomegranates are mentioned numerous times in the Bible, usually in reference to their decorative motif use on the temple columns and on the robe hems of the high priest.  Click here for the verses in the English Standard Version.   http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=pomegranate

Click here to read Nancy Campbell's article "Fragrant Homes" which mentions pomegranates:

http://freegroups.net/groups/hopechest/read/?00::124

Seeds in the Bible

Here are a few passages that list “seed” or “seeds” in the verses.  You can find more using the ESV search as above in the pomegranate section!

Genesis 1 -- the creation on seed-bearing plants

Genesis 47 – Joseph saves seed for years of famine in Egypt

Matthew 13 and Mark 4 -- the parable of the sower and the parable of the mustard seed

Talk About Seeds!

As a thinking skills discussion, ask your children several questions about seeds.  If they don’t know the answers, you can look them up together!

What kinds of seeds do we eat? (grains, nuts, beans, peas, sunflower seeds, popcorn, etc.)

What else can we do with seeds? (plant them, feed birds or livestock, etc.)

What are the parts of a seed?  How are seeds pollinated?  How are fertilized seeds dispersed for planting?  What happens after the seed is planted?

What do different kinds of seeds look like?

Mancala

Mancala is a fun and rather simple game from Africa.  It was originally played with seeds or small stones, and is known as a "sowing game" because it is sort of like planting seeds in little holes.  There are many variations of the game, but the kind you can buy at Wal-Mart or K-Mart is played with a wooden fold-up board with 6 smaller "wells" along each of two sides and a larger "mancala" indentation at each end.  The object is to get all of your stones into the mancalas, and involves counting and strategy.  The reasons I like mancala are that it is easy enough for a smart six year old to play, and interesting enough for an adult.  The game is quick, so you can fit it into spare minutes.  In our busy schedule, that helps me do something fun with my kids and make some memories!  You can find out more information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mancala 

World Vision – A Gift of Seeds

Speaking of Africa and seeds…  Would you like to give a gift that keeps on giving?  Donate $16, and World Vision will send 12 pounds of drought resistant fruit-tree seeds for a family in Ghana to plant an orchard!  Click here: http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvibeCCtpItmDspRte.jsp?section=10120&item=1115387

Seeds and Dreams

For the past few years around Good Friday, I have sent out an article called "Seeds and Dreams."  If you would like to read it from the Hope Chest archives on-line, click here and scroll down: http://freegroups.net/groups/hopechest/read/?0::382

Here is the introduction: "A seed is such a strange little thing.  From all outward appearances, the tiny hard brown bit of next-to-nothing seems to have so little potential!    And yet it is this very seed which grows into such a beautiful, fruitful, life-giving plant.  The other odd thing about a seed is that you have to bury it for it to do any good!  Like many things in nature, the seed is a picture of something spiritual – in this case, faith for the future.   A seed is a lot like a dream or a vision.  We all have those!  What do you do when you sense a dream or a vision for the future stirring in your heart?  Stories from the Bible give us some clues, even for home schooling our children."

Is there something else that you remember reading in the Hope Chest but you can't remember where?  Feel free to search my archives!  Click here and use the search box in the upper right hand corner of the screen: http://freegroups.net/groups/hopechest/