The kids will plant the seedlings after their seeds germinate, so today they all decorated their own pots for taking a seedling home. We hauled out all sorts of craft materials, and the kids went wild. Paint, ribbon, spongy stickers, googly eyes, sparkly stars…they were so excited to have a pot of their own.

Kristin, the resident art teacher at Light & Leadership, helped with the project, and the two of us enjoyed watching the kids get creative. They all wrote their name and vegetable on their pots to fully claim their ownership. I couldn’t stop smiling at their excitement and enthusiasm.

The craft almost took up the full hour and a half (these kids don’t take crafting lightly), but we did manage to squeeze in one more experiment before the end of class. We cut out the bottom of a 3-liter water bottle and poked four tiny holes in it. We then slid wood skewers through the holes and into an avocado pit, so that the pit remained suspended in the middle of the plastic container. Next we filled the container with water until the bottom half of the pit was under water and the top half remained above.

I’ve never tried germinating an avocado pit before. I hope I’m not making a big mistake by doing an experiment with children that may not work. Clare says she’s done it but that it takes forever. I’m hoping that “forever” doesn’t mean more than 3 1/2 months.