Remote Learning: Growing Things (With What You Have at Home!)

Want to grow something and show your children at home the process?

No seeds? No problem!!

Don't despair if the sunflower project you always do in the Spring isn't able to work with Remote Learning! Look around at what you (and your students!) already have at home - you'll be surprised what you (and they) can do when you start thinking outside the box :)

Soon after we realized we weren't going back to the classroom anytime soon, I looked around at what I had - in my fridge, my pantry, on my block ...

The first thing I tried was rerooting romaine lettuce. I had a package of lettuce with the stalk part still attached and I had seen a YouTube video showing how to regrow the lettuce. I can't believe how simple this was! Just cut the lettuce about 1 1/2 inches from the end and take the stem piece and set in water in a small container. Overnight, I could see the regrowth. Change the water daily and within a week or two, you'll see roots start to appear. Plant in dirt and watch it grow!

Seeds from an apple were next, after eating it, of course. I put the seeds into a sealed plastic bag in the sunlight, with a small, damp paper towel and waited to see what would happen. This took longer, but after about 7-8 days, roots and a stem started to appear. A few days later, it was transplanted into dirt and continues to grow :)

Look around your environment, too, not just in the house! These "helicopters" fall from a tree near me every year, so into a bag they went, and .... after two weeks (patience!), a small root system was kicking in!

Carrot greens can be grown from the tips of carrots - good for seasoning and garnishing :)

To grow potatoes, I cut a section of a potato that had some growth at the eye, and put that in a plastic bag, too. I left it in a sunny window, and forgot about it ... until this root system caught my eye :)

No seeds, no problem! You can teach and they can learn - using things that are already around in the home!

Have fun!