Growing Watercress with Kids at Home

Vito is 33 months old.

For the second week of August, we’re learning about plants!  So to start with, the boys and I grew watercress at home and they totally love it!  Another activity that is suited for siblings!  Take a look at how Vito and Mavi worked on this together.

All you need are these materials that you can purchase in garden or hardware stores:

• watercress seeds
• fiber grow pots / tray kitchen crop sprouter (or any container will do!)
• cotton balls
• spray bottle (optional)

1.  Mavi prepared all the materials.  He moistened the cottons first before distributing them in the fiber pots.

2.  I made Vito spray some more water on the cotton balls for additional water.  He loves using our garden spray bottle, so imagine his delight when I asked him to do this.

3.  Next, Mavi poured cress seeds in each pot. I only bought a few seeds so I didn’t let Vito help in this one knowing he’ll spill most of it.  But if you have enough, then go for it! Let your little ones help as well.

4.  He’s actually happy and content with the garden spray, so we added some more water before I covered the pots with a kitchen towel. And that’s it! Keep your flower pots in the house and check on it from time to time to see how they’re growing.

I took photos of them, here’s our “next day” watercress.  Most of them crawled out of their seed covers probably during the night so by the next day green leaves are visible already.   Always keep the pot/cotton moist so we spray water (8-10 sprays) one in the daytime and the other at night. By the way, I removed the kitchen towel from here on and decided not to cover the pots anymore.

DAY 3/4.  The boys were so happy that they get to see the leaves more clearer.

Some turned out like this.  I’m not sure if its because they dried out or just lacking water.

Here’s Vito checking the pots.  I made sure the boys check the pots daily so they can observe the changes.  It’s also better to keep a record of their observations day by day. Now this was the thing that I forgot to make Mavi do.

DAY 5/6. Aren’t they lovely? They looked healthy and green! Mavi learned that to be able to have healthy cress, he needs to water them regularly!

Oh what a simple activity and yet the boys had learned so many things like how water affects the growth of plants, their need of sunlight, and on how to be patient LOL.  Why don’t you try this too?

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