G is for Grow: 31 Days of ABCs

Welcome to the 31 Days of ABCs! My fellow bloggers and I are working our way through October to bring you activity ideas for each and every letter of the alphabet.

Today my theme is G for Grow.

G is for Grow Pinterest Fail

When I grabbed the letter G, I had this terrific idea of working with my boys to show them how something actually grows.

Rather than do a typical bulb, I thought I would mix it up and saw this great idea of sprouting an avocado.

Well, the mix up is on me! I popped an avocado in water and waited.

And then we waited.

And we waited some more.

“Mom, is this thing ever going to grow?” asked my son.

PinFail: G is for Grow | Mommy Evolution

Three weeks later and I am still waiting for this darn avocado to sprout!

Absolutely nothing… unless you count all the mold that has grown on this sucker.

While this particular activity was a bit of a bust, my kids still did learn.

When we often do projects with kids, we pick ones that create results quickly.

Well, as quickly as you can grow something.

But in this case, the unsprouted avocado really did show just how slowly things grow.

It also showed us how something molds… yuck!

While this avocado didn't sprout, it did turn to mold!
While this avocado didn’t sprout, it did turn to mold!

From this Pin Fail, my boys really did start thinking about just what it takes for something to grow.

We talked about the trees that grow for hundreds of years from a tiny sapling to grass that seems to shoot up overnight.

G is for Grow Leaf Rubbings

Following the lead of my kids about what it takes for trees to grow, they couldn’t help themselves but notice all of the beautifully colored leaves falling from the trees in our backyard.

Just how do the leaves get food?

Looking closely at the leaves, we could see the “veins” that carry the water from the branches throughout the leaf.

But once we did the leaf rubbings, those “veins” really popped onto the page and made it that much easier to see.

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Leaf rubbings are a wonderful “old-school” project to do with kids.

But it really allowed the kids to appreciate just how the leaves develop and the intricate system they have to move water to all of the parts of the leaf.

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My regular followers know that I believe in the power of books to help educate our kids and begin a more extended dialogue about different subjects.

To keep inspiring your little ones to think about what growing means to them, check out the following garden book affiliate links:

 31 Days of ABCs

Check out our own 31 Days of ABCs hosted by All Done Monkey.

And do you have a letter-learning post? Link it up here!


11 Comments

  1. I love this! Thanks for sharing your pin fail 🙂 Kids learn from that too, right? And you came up with a cute craft to replace it!

    1. Kids definitely learn from fails! I think sometimes they learn even more.

  2. I tried growing an avocado with my kids without much luck either! We did it a little differently though and just placed the seed in the water (with the toothpicks as pictured). The first one we tried did nothing. The second we tried started to grow but then went nowhere. The seed started to split and a root poked out the bottom but after weeks and weeks it progressed no further. Oh well.
    At the same time we also planted loquat seeds in soil in a cut off milk carton and we were surprised at how quickly they sprouted. Unlike our attempts at growing an avocado tree they have gone really well and we have three little trees (about 4 inches tall after a few months).

    1. I actually had to look up what a loquat is! Some people have told me that we should have tried just the seed but really I think my kids learned a lot just from the fail.

  3. This kind of made me chuckle. Reminds me of something I would do lol! You are supposed to do this with an avocado pit, not the whole avocado. I did this with my kids. The root came out first, then the plant. I planted it after it was a few inches all. Then, it got up to 12 inches and then one of my sons killed it. It did take a long time to grow though. Several weeks in our case.

    1. Ha! It’s true. And it was good for the boys to see the fail 🙂

  4. It looks like you didn’t cut open the avocado and put the seed in water. We got our avocado seed to sprout. We put the seed in potting soil in a pot and put it on the back lanai. It took a while but it finally sprouted. Right now it’s just a stem, but we are looking forward to the day we have fresh avocados.
    Hopefully you’ll try again.

    1. I will definitely try again! And honestly, the fail was as much a learning experience for the boys. So in the end it was a win-win 🙂

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