Earth day is just around the corner (I believe everyday should be an Earth day) and I wanted to do a Sunday-Funday activity inspired by the concept of “Happier Earth.” Mainly focused on having fun around this concept but also teaching Siya, the importance of preserving, reusing and respecting mother nature.
I definitely don’t have a green thumb (I have even killed a bamboo plant!!). So I knew potting and growing elaborate indoor garden was not on the cards. Moreover, I wanted to reuse something we trash away on a daily basis.
Couple days ago, I was researching about eating eggs and it’s benefit. Little did W3 knew that “egg shells” that we toss everyday in our kitchen waste bin is actually used in commercial world as a great fertilizer because egg shells have 96% of calcium and it decomposes very easily. Siya loves to eat her egg scramble everyday for breakfast, so I was like voila!! our Sunday-Funday activity will be potting plants in the egg shell then.
Step 1 – Material
- Cracked shells and empty carton to hold the cracked shells
- Assorted Seeds – We choose cucumber, tomato, basil and green beans
- Potting soil
- Gardening tool – only if your little one does not use her hands as her tool, like Siya did 🙂
Step 2 – Wash or boil you egg shell
We washed our egg shells with hot water to ensure if there was any strands of salmonelle on the egg shell then it was killed. Once the eggs were clean then we took a safety pin and created a small hole for drainage at the bottom.
Step 3 – Add soil and seed
This was the best part of the activity, Siya had a blast getting outright messy and exploring different textures. We then added tomato, green bean, basil and cucumber seeds, sprayed them with water and finally arranged them in the carton.
Siya then went with her grandparents to the garden in our building and saw our gardener pot some tulips. Siya loved it and kept saying “Woow” and playing with the potting soil.
What a fun day with family it was and regardless of age we all had a blast potting some seeds in egg shells, learning about new ways to reuse and saving the planet in a small way.
We can’t wait for our juicy tomatoes, healthy beans, aromatic basil and cool cucumber to grow!!
Other additional activities you can do is to go to New York Botanical Garden or to your local farmer’s market/garden/nursery stores or read your child planting books such as
- Lola Plants a Garden; by Anna McQuinn and Rosalind Beardshaw
- National Geographic Kids Look and Learn: In My Garden (Look & Learn)
- National Geographic Readers: Seed to Plan
Share below in comments your Earth Day activity with your little one!!
Little Did W3 Knew 