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One of my writing goals for 2019 was to research some information about creating a course and possibly actually create a course.
In my 2019 goals update I mentioned something I was excited about concerning this goal. I had researched some information about creating a course for SchoolhouseTeachers.com, which is an online website my daughters and I have found advantageous for our homeschooling journey.
SchoolhouseTeachers.com is also a division of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, where I had two articles (“Hands On Math: The Hungry Jar” and “Meal Planning: How to Save Time and Money”) published last year.
I wrote a little extra about each of those articles on A Craft to Teach Kids Budgeting and Giving and Personal Pizzas Kids Can Create.
After doing my research and exploring a few of the many courses SchoolhouseTeachers.com has to offer (they have over 400 different courses in a variety of subjects for preschoolers through high schoolers along with many other additional resources!), I came up with three course ideas I was interested in creating and submitted a proposal.
You can find more information about SchoolhouseTeachers.com here if interested.
My proposal was accepted for all three courses, so I have actually exceeded this goal! I have completed two of the courses so far and one of them is now available to SchoolhouseTeachers.com members.
It is called Foods and Food Production.
This course includes information about 26 different foods and how they are grown, harvested, processed, and used. Each of the 26 foods included within this course has introduction questions, links to videos about them, children’s books to read (if available), links to additional resources, a geography section with worksheets to label flags of the top ten producing countries, information about products made, recipes to try, and closing questions.
My daughters and I previewed all of the videos (plus more) that are included within the course together. Even though the course is listed on SchoolhouseTeachers.com for grades 1-3, my daughters (who are quite a bit older) did enjoy watching how the foods grew and were harvested and processed. I thought it was all quite fascinating!
The recommended books in the course are only books that I was able to check out from my library and preview on my own. And there were a lot of books!
I am very thankful for the library and those who help at the library! I had to reserve multiple books that were available at other libraries and have them sent to my library through interlibrary loan.
My daughters and I went on scavenger hunts at our local library searching for all of the other books I didn’t have reserved using a list I created at home from our library’s online catalog.
These are some of the books we brought home from one trip to the library for Foods and Food Production.
We checked out over 50 books on at least one of the visits to the library.
It’s funny watching the glances from other people while trying to check so many books out at one time. It’s not so much fun when one of the cloth bags breaks open on the way out of the library door.
Yeah, that happened…books are heavy! I am so glad my daughters were with me to help carry them all out.
When I was working on Foods and Food Production, it was really cold and snowy, but now it is officially spring! I’m looking forward to having fresh produce again this year from our garden.
So, in anticipation of gardening and watching our own foods grow (and in celebration of Earth Day today), I figured I would share with you fourteen books about seeds, plants, and gardening.
Check out 14 other children’s books about flowers here.
Thirteen of these fourteen books are included as suggested books to read at the beginning of the Foods and Food Production course.
I was able to check all of these books out from my library, but I have provided links to them for your convenience.
Children’s Books About Seeds
A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston
This book talks about many different kinds of seeds in a poetic format with additional information available to read and learn about the seeds.
Let’s Go Nuts!: Seeds We Eat by April Pulley Sayre
This rhyming book with limited text shows a variety of seeds with different shapes, sizes, and colors.
How a Seed Grows by Helene J. Jordan
This Let’s Read and Find Out book discusses what seeds are, different types of seeds, and where you can plant seeds. It then talks about conducting an experiment with seeds and eggshells to discover how seeds grow day by day.
Nature’s Miracles: Once There Was a Seed by Judith Anderson and Mike Gordon
A young girl and her grandpa who both have green thumbs (which the book explains) plant seeds. The girl learns how deep the seeds should go, what three things the seeds need to grow, and how the seeds grow into plants. She also learns what pollen is, why it is important, and how seeds can grow into new plants from the ones grown. The end offers a note for parents and teachers with suggestions for follow-up activities.
Children’s Books About Plants
Exploring Plants by Claire Llewellyn
This book uses simple sentences to describe where plants grow, different kinds of plants, the parts of plants, leaves, flowers, seeds, how plants grow, what plants need to grow, what we can eat from plants, what animals may eat, and how plants help us. It ends with directions to grow your own beans in a jar.
This book has only a couple of sentences per page. It talks about plant reproduction, plant seeds and how they can get to different places, how plants grow, and plants breaking down.
Plant Life Cycles by Sally Morgan
This book has quite a bit of text. It talks about shoots, roots, plant life cycles, interesting plant facts, flowering plants, nonflowering plants, germination, photosynthesis, flowers, plant fertilization, flower shapes, flower trickery, seeds, fruits, how seeds are scattered, producers and consumers, annuals, perennials, biennials, decomposers, and compost.
Plants Can’t Sit Still by Rebecca E. Hirsch
I really like this book! It uses simple text to show how plants move even though they don’t have feet, fins, or wings. Plants wiggle, grow, squirm, reach, creep, slither, crawl, climb, explode, and more. The back of the book gives a more detailed explanation of the plants shown in the illustrations.
Plants Feed Me by Lizzy Rockwell
This book has only one to two sentences per page and describes what a person could eat such as leaves (like spinach), roots and tubers (like carrots and potatoes), bulbs (onions), stems (asparagus), flowers (broccoli), fruits that grow on trees (apples), fruits that grow on bushes (blueberries), fruits that grow on vines (melons), and seeds (walnuts).
Plants We Eat by Christine Peterson
This book talks about different edible plants we eat and discusses vegetables, wheat, leaves, fruits, tubers, spices, and more. It ends with the suggestion to create a stirfry using a variety of plant parts such as carrots, bell peppers, broccoli, etc.
Children’s Books About Gardening
The Garden Project by Margaret McNamara
This Ready-To-Read Level 1 book is part of the Robin Hill School Series. It talks about how the Robin Hill School students, parents, and teacher convert their old sandbox into a garden for the kids to learn about gardening and enjoy the end results.
The Nitty-Gritty Gardening Book: Fun Projects for All Seasons by Kari Cornell
This book is divided into the four seasons and provide projects to do within each of the seasons. It also talks about why people garden and provides a very detailed explanation of garden basics. Each of the projects listed within this book have step-by-step instructions to follow. Some projects include making newspaper pots, growing a sack of potatoes, planting a strawberry basket, growing an avocado plant, and making a compost bin.
The Usborne Book of Growing Food by Abigail Wheatley
This is a detailed book about what you need to know before you start gardening, the supplies you will need, and step-by-step instructions with more facts about growing carrots, shallots, bush beans, sprouting beans, peas, herbs, edible flowers, and more. It also provides tips and techniques for gardening such as how to fill containers, sow seeds, plant, repot, deal with pests, and compost.
Think Like a Scientist in the Garden by Matt Mullins
This book talks about being a scientist in your own garden. It provides the steps to the scientific procedure and then tells how to collect facts, ask questions, do research (with information about Gregor Mendel), and conduct experiments you can try at home.
Will you be growing a garden this year?
For more fun with garden produce, check out these posts:
Pickle Making During National Pickle Month
Brigitte Brulz 
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