Sure you could instruct your children to mark pots of newly planted seeds with a simple piece of masking tape or a craft stick label, but why not harness their creativity to make something a little more exciting!

Plant your plant marker craft session according to the interests of your kids. If your kids love to craft, this could turn into a hours long crafting activity. Or, if your children always claim to "hate art" like mine do, keep it simple.

The purpose of a this plant craft project like this is not to encourage you to imitate our exact project but to share how easy ideas to keep the kids entertained are always right around the corner.

How to Make Plant Markers for an Indoor Garden

Fortunately, when your kids are making plant markers for an indoor garden like growing beansprouts or planting paperwhites, they don't need to worry about making the markers waterproof!

Instructions

Cut several cardboard rectangles. You'll need at least one per pot.

Decorate the cardboard labels however you wish, using stickers, markers, or other materials.

Glue or tape a craft stick to each.

Pop the correct plant marker into its corresponding pot!

For my 5 year old, who is not yet reading or spelling fluently, I wrote down the name of the plant on each cardboard rectangle and he applied the corresponding letter sticker on top. See how I snuck in a bit of literacy and spelling practice?

I think they add a bit of fun to our window. What do you think?

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I remember growing vegetables from scraps in my elementary school classroom 35 years ago (don't do the math, please). Then, in my college years I toted around a small indoor avocado tree I had grown from a pit. Of all the indoor gardening activities, it is one of the most satisfying. Garbage turns into stuff you can eat! Kind of cool, if you ask me. My older son enjoyed growing root veggies in his DIY see-through planter, but I think he may be liking this even more.

This is what it looks like now (including our coffee bean plant and a random succulent!). We started with celery and scallions, which should the most immediate results, and thus the best to lure kids into the magic. Cut the celery off near the base and the scallions just near the green line and sit the bottoms in water.

Later we added sweet potato and avocado. Both should be suspended in water using toothpicks.

The avocado pit is stalled, I think because the window is not warm and sunny enough yet. We'll see. I'll probably try a new one in a few weeks. I've had great success with avocado pits in the past.

The sweet potatoes are eeking along. We can see some teeny tiny roots and sprouts. Part of the fun of plant science with kids is pitting (pun) one plant against another and seeing which ones "win" the race to grow. That's how we're conducting our kitchen seed and bean race and it's been part of the discussion with the boys about the veggie scraps, too.

There are lots of other veggies scraps you can grow in your window without ever touching a bag of soil. Check out these how-tos:

• Carrot tops, parsnips, beets -- any of these types of root veggies
• Pineapple
• Bok choy and romaine lettuce: just like celery

Have you ever regrown vegetable scraps? What is your favorite way to garden with kids? 

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Despite the fact that I am an avid gardener, I'm embarrassed to say that it continues to be a challenge to get my kids as excited about plants as I am. I had a bit of success with our indoor vegetable garden but instead of forcing them do dig around in the dirt I decided to appeal to their interests.

This plant science activity combines two of my boys' favorite things: racing (everything's a race, don't you know) and scientific observation.

I intended for the boys to do the planting part, but as I could not get them motivated to do so, I went ahead and did it myself.

In separate pots I planted a variety of seeds and legumes from the kitchen pantry: lentils, black beans, pinto beans, popcorn, red lentils, split peas and chickpeas.

Note that my dirty windows are hard to clean from the 2nd floor fire escape, but showing you my filthy windows is all part of my continuing master plan to make you feel superior about your own housekeeping skills.

Legumes generally germinate and sprout quickly, which is very important for impatient little boys.

Each day we examine our plants as they race upwards. Note the price of the split peas. This is some luxury produce we are growing, people.

We chat about:

• which seeds sprouted first
• which are growing the fastest
• the difference in leaf and stem structure
• which pot had the most seeds germinate
• how much water the soil needs

It was interesting to note that the lentils were the first to sprout, but the pintos are the tallest. The red lentils are having a hard time of it, though and we have only just spied a small bit of green struggling to emerge.

I love how this ongoing plant science project of ours is so simple (very important to me!), yet encourages the boys engage their brains.

Do you grow indoor gardens with your kids? How do you encourage them to learn about plants?

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How to Plant Paperwhites Indoors

Paperwhites are perfect for the indoor gardening novice. They rarely fail to bloom and unlike other bulbs, they do not need to be pre-chilled.

There are two ways to plant them: in pebbles or in soil.

Gather your materials:

• Containers -- if you plan on using stones, chose jars with a wide mouth and no drainage hole. If you are using soil, your container must have a drainage hole to prevent rot.
• Growing medium -- either stones or soil. You could also use colored glass stones, which would be gorgeous.
• Water
• Bulbs -- as many as you want. Bulbs take well to crowding, so fit as many in each container that you can

Step one: Fill containers with stones (or soil) at least 3 inches. The roots will need some space to grow but relatively shallow containers are fine. A large round dish filled with multiple bulbs would be very pretty!

Step two: Nestle each bulb slightly into the stones so they are stable and add a few extra stones around the edges. If you are using soil, fill so that the top half of the bulb is above the soil line.

Step three: If using pebbles, add  water until the very bottom of the bulb is wet, but no more or the bulbs will rot. With soil, add water until evenly moist.

Step four: Place bulbs in a sunny, warm window. Roots will start to appear in 1-2 weeks and the tops will begin to sprout about the same time. Blooms will grace your living space about one month later.

Step five: If using stones, check water level every other day or daily if the air in your home is especially dry. You want the water to keep the roots, but not the bulb, wet. If you planted the bulbs in soil you just need to water as soon as the soil feels dry.

By far the hardest part of apartment living is not having a yard because I absolutely love to garden. Fortunately there are a variety of indoor plants that my kids and I can grow. Taking care of plants (even indoors) teaches kids responsibility; it gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment to see plants thrive.

Also, they're pretty.

Resources:

Perfect book to go along with this activity is the book,Paperwhite by by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace, which you should be able to find at your library. Cut paper collages follow the story of a girl bunny who plants paperwhites and eagerly watches their progress.

I bought the stones at IKEA, but you can also find them at craft stores or online.

My favorite resources for bulbs are Old House Gardens Heirloom Bulbs and Brent and Becky's Bulbs, but most hardware and gardening centers will also carry paperwhites in the fall and early winter.

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One of the benefits of membership at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden is that we receive their quarterly publications. A while ago their Gardening with Children book arrived in our mailbox, and one of the activities that caught our eye was a see-through root vegetable garden planter.

How to Make a See-Through Planter

The prep work for the root vegetable planter was a little more involved than I usually like to do, but it wasn't difficult.

What you need:

• Half-gallon milk or orange juice carton

• X-acto knife or box cutter

• Plastic film

• Tape

• Potting soil

• Optional: spray bottle

Seeds for root veggies of your choice. We chose radish seeds because that's what we had. Radish seed are also very quick to germinate and grow, so they are good choices for kids.

Instructions

Cut the top off the carton, then using the cutter, remove windows from two sides of the carton.

Tape plastic film to the inside of the carton's windows.

Fill carton with soil until about 2 inches from the top.

Gently place the radish seeds in the soil to the depth indicated on the seed packet.

We used a spray bottle to gently water the seeds.

Place indoor root vegetable planter in a sunny window. You'll want to keep the soil moist until the seeds sprout, and then watch carefully so the seedlings don't dry out.

UPDATE: I never took any photos (face palm!), but we did manage to grow a few spindly radishes. And I mean very spindly. Still, it was fun to be able to watch them grow. Here's a photo of them sprouting:

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Sprouting beans is a classic classroom science project and gives kids the opportunity to learn about how seeds sprout and grow.

Materials

Instructions

Wet the paper towels and bunch them up into the bottom of the glass jar.

Nestle 5 or so beans into the wet paper towels and place the jar in a sunny spot.

The very next day we saw sprouts and we are amazed at their progress. The sprouts grow nearly an entire inch each day! In addition, the glass jar allows children to observe root growth and notice how seeds germinate first by growing roots.

If the paper towel starts to dry out, use a spray bottle to keep it moist. You can't imagine how much kids enjoy using spray bottles!

(Almost) Instant gardening gratification!

Resources

These books about seeds sprouting are excellent resources to teach kids about the garden science they are witnessing as they watch their beans sprout. (Book titles are affiliate links.)

A Seed is the Start by Melissa Stewart

A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston, illustrated by Sylvia Long

A Bean's Life Cycle by Mary R. Dunn

A Seed Grows by Antoinette Portis

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