Living Without School: Plants

Friday, February 24, 2006

Plants

The Australian Kangaroo Paw....

We are part of a homeschool group that meets on Wednesday afternoons. This is a structured group, although there is an hour in the middle for lunch and play and social time.

We missed the first week this term ( wew were in Melbourne) but have been to the last two sesions.

The theme this term in Plants. The Juniors ( under 12s ) and the Discovery group ( preschoolers) are taking part in the teach/talk time and the activities. The Seniors ( 12/13 and up) are organising either the science experiments or the crafts.

So, at home, I dragged out our Linnea books - Linnea in Monet's Garden, Linnea's Windowsill Garden.

We borrowed library books on plants, esp to help the three who are planning activities. All these books sit in our sitting room.

We have a bean experiment out on the clothesline - can beans grow without soil, with water and in a plastic bag? I'll keep you posted!

We have saved an avocado seed and are trying to sprout it, while it lies balanced over a jar of water.

Oh, and here is a fun craft for stems - Alexander is going to try this with Anthony and all the other Juniors at Group Learning -

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...: Hi Leonie
We're doig planty things as well. Rereading Guzzle Your Garden and Backyard Self-sufficiency by Jackie French. I've asked everyoe to read it so we can redo the back section of our yard ( the way i would like it LOL) .
cheers Tina; 6:23 pm
Anonymous said...: I happened upon your blog from that of a friends, and have really enjoyed what I've read. Just wanted to comment on the avocado. As an alternative to the toothpick and water method, you can plant them in soil like any other seed. Reduces the chance of its getting moldy and not working, but takes longer because the avocado takes a long time to develop its roots, but then it suddenly shoots up quickly like bamboo. We did this -- it took several months to see any result (and no, I didn't pay much regular attention to it at all). Then one day we had a tiny sprout, and within a couple more days it was two feet high. Really neat!

Good luck with yours:-)

Katharine; 12:39 pm
Leonie said...: Jo, let me know if you get avocadoes!

Tina, my kids love How To Guzzle Your Garden - so we had to buy our own copy.

Katharine, thanks for the idea. Maybe I'll try that, too - this weekend. We just finished another avocado at lunch to day...; 1:26 pm

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