Cottonball Seedlings

Above: Getting the hang
 of the squirt bottle.
Below: the germinated seed

I wanted to plant seeds with my sons, but it's too early to plant outside. We could start seeds inside with soil in egg cartons or pots, but then I would have to worry about my sons spilling the soil everywhere. Instead, I opted for the cottonball method, which is no mess and really easy.

I gave the boys a plate and told them to count out 10 cottonballs to put on the plate. I gave them a squirt bottle to spray the cottonballs. Getting the hang of the squirt bottle was tricky. My 2 year old squirted himself in the face a couple of times. After all the fun with the squirt bottle, they put the semi wet cottonballs in plastic baggies and added 10 cucumber seeds. We taped the seed baggies to south facing windows. After about 3 days the seeds started germinating.

The boys check the baggies everyday to see if they need more water. They touch the cottonballs to see if any are dried out, and give the bags a spritz from the squirt bottle. We talked about the seeds needing water like we need water. We also talked about naming the seeds because they are alive just like us.

My 4 year old son held up a pickle at the dinner table and told my husband, "this is what is growing in the window." I'm proud he made the connection that cucumbers are pickles, and that we grow our food from seeds.