Teaching my kids how to grow edibles from seeds is a life skill. It’s just not simply telling them to poke a hole in the pot of soil and drop in some seeds folks. When mama is also a teacher of the littles teaching independency and life skills, my kids learn from the start to end, from A through Z.

Learning Objectives: Kids will learn to grow edible plants from seeds as a lifelong skill. Kids will learn the following:

• L1: How to mix the seedling potting mix
• L2: How to set up the seedling tray
• L3: How to fill the seedling pot with potting mix
• L4: How to record listing of their seedling plants
• L5: How to locate and store the seed packets
• L6: How to sow the seeds in the seedling pot
• L7: How to water the seedling tray
• L8: How to transplant the seedling into the raised beds

Materials needed per kid:

• 2 gallons peat moss
• 1 gallon coarse perlite
• 1 gallon mushroom compost
• 4 tablespoons Oscomote Plus 15-9-12 fertilizer (8-9 months slow release)
• rectangular plastic tub to store the seedling potting mix
• 1 set of Bootstrap Farmer 3.2’inch seedling pots with watering tray system
• 3 to 6 seed packets
• gloves
• pencil
• 1 set of Bootstrap Farmer seedling tray with 3.5-inch pots
• printable: Blank Kid’s Seedling Tray Recording Sheet

Lesson 1: How to mix the seedling potting mix

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Lesson 2: How to set up the seedling pot

I used the Bootstrap Farmer’s 3.3-inch seedling pots and watering tray system and purchased all the six colored pots to make it easier for my my kids and me to rearrange how the plants by the pot’s color. For beginners, assigning three to six seed packets would be ideal for my kids. Numbering the rows of pots is also helpful.

As they learn and master the complete process from sowing seeds to transplanting seedlings into raised beds, then they can expand their growing projects to another set of seedling tray. Starting out with two seedling trays of 12 different plants at first was too overwhelming for my kids.

Lesson 3: How to fill the seedling pots with potting mix

Find a way to teach the kids to fill the seedlings pots without spilling the potting mix everywhere.

Lesson 4: Writing Activity

Kids learn to fill out a recording sheet for their seedling trays for the fall/winter garden or for the spring/summer garden.

Lesson 5: How to locate and store the seed packets

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I established an organized system to store all my seeds that I use for my garden using quart size zip lock bags and Plymor ziplock bags purchased on Amazon for the seeds. I don’t like using paper envelopes to hold the seeds because if I forget it outside and it gets wet, the seed packet would be ruined.

Lesson 6: How to sow the seeds in the seedling pot

On my kids’ seedling recording sheet, I would indicate the number of seeds with dots to show them how many seeds to sow in each pot. The bigger the seeds, the deeper the seeds need to be sow into the soil. Tiny itty bitty seeds are just on the surface of the soil or within half an inch of the soil.

Lesson 7: How to water the seedling tray

Always water the Bootstrap Farmer self-watering seedling trays from the bottom by lifting up a pot and pouring water into the tray. Watering the top of the soil when the tray is filled with water will cause the seed to rot. The kids can use a small watering can or water hose.

Lesson 8: How to transplant the seedlings into the raised bed

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To be updated… So far, I have been doing this step for my little man since he is still learning to be gentle with the starter plants. Hopefully this spring seedlings will be a successful attempt. 😂

Other Lessons:

• Figuring out the estimated harvest date based from the days of maturity information from seed company’s description, date when seeds were sown, and transplant date.
• Sorting Seeds: My kids learned there are edible crops for the cool weather and for the hot weather. Seeds of cool weather crops are called frost-tolerant or cold-tolerant seeds. Seeds of the hot summer weather crops are called heat-tolerant seeds. Since cold and hot are opposites, we do not put those store those two types of seeds together in our seed box.
• Organizing & Storing Seeds: I bought photo storage organizers with 18 photo boxes per container at a local Michaels craft store. Since cool weather is like the cold ocean water in Florida, the storage organizers with shades of blue will be used to store our cold/frost-tolerant seeds. Since spring and summer is when many flowers are blooming in many colors, we use the rainbow colored storage boxes for the heat-tolerant seeds. We labeled the seed boxes after sorting the seeds out.
• Teaching & Learning with Technology: How to create seed labels using Microsoft Word
• Advanced sorting skill: If kids are old enough, the sorting lesson can extend to sorting out herbs, vegetables, and fruit seeds, perennials versus annuals, vining plants versus ground cover plants.