It's a quintessential rite of passage to grow plants from seeds, and now you can watch the growth of the roots with this Root Observation kit from Nature-Watch.

Here's a fun little project you can do so you can have fresh herbs at the ready when cooking. A big bonus is that these frosted blue mason jars look super cute on your kitchen counter. And once the herbs start growing, they add a splash of vibrant green that brightens your space and brings the outdoors in.

Welcome to my garden! Again, I'm trying to grow a little vegetable and herb garden and soon I want to add fruit trees, too. But my problem is that I don't have a green thumb! In fact, I'm pretty convinced I have the opposite.

I can't tell you how much we love the kits we got from Nature-Watch. The one I'm sharing to day is a classroom kit for 25 students called Forever Forests. In addition to providing content for a lesson, this kit comes with enough supplies to plant more than 25 pine trees from seed

There are two ways to compost: The right way and my way ;) I don't compost with the intention of balancing nutrients; I compost primarily to keep our kitchen waste from ending up in the landfill.

We made this Medieval herb garden for the first time back in 2010. I kept the materials and used it again in 2014 when we returned to this unit and again 2018 when we circled back to that unit for the third time (my children are about four years apart so we tend to circle through our units every four years).

Grow your own herb garden using supplies you probably already have around the house. This DIY indoor Mason Jar herb garden was easy to do and you can make one, too! All you need is a mason jar or similar jar. Wide neck is easier than a narrow neck. You also need sand, rocks, soil and seeds. We used basil for our herb garden, but you could use a variety of herbs.

I can't say enough about the Nature-Watch kits we've used so far. They are well designed and take all the hard work out of doing hands-on projects and replaces with simple projects that are easy to do with great results. The projects are meaningful, educational and long lasting. And because we've purchased the classroom kits for projects, we have left overs to use again and share.

Curious to see what kitchen scraps look like after three weeks in the dirt? It's probably what you'd expect, but each time I turn over soil that's been composted, I'm always surprised and thrilled at the same time. It's incredible how quickly the right materials will decompose and how unchanged materials that take eons to decompose look like after weeks, months or years. Another surprise is the temperature.

Growing mushrooms is watching nothing happen for weeks and then suddenly they emerge and grow overnight doubling in size in days. That's what happened with our Mushroom Adventure Grow Edible Mushrooms kit from Gardeners. We bought this kit for our spring nature study, but really had intended to buy when we did our Botany Main Lesson Block to accompany the lesson on fungi.

Growing a Bee Friendly garden is just about as easy as growing wildflowers in a pesticide free urban garden. We used the Nature-Watch classroom kit for this project. The kit comes with everything you need to grow wildflowers in easy-to-transport containers for 25 students. We love the kits from Nature Watch and have used them in our homeschool for years.

Every Spring we eagerly begin our science units. Sometimes we are doing Waldorf Main Lesson Blocks, other times we are doing unit studies. This Bee Unit Study is one we’ve done a couple times so there are plenty of resources and projects available. Curious on how to put together a Bee Unit Study? Start Here to get ideas and see the books and projects to support a Spring Science Unit.

We did a Bee Unit study twice! Once in 2017 (smaller unit) and again in 2019. Whenever we do an updated unit or block, we tend to use new and existing books, we may even do similar projects, but overall, I like to approach the new unit with new activities and projects.

Not every new unit or main lesson blocks gets a new chalk drawing and in some cases, one chalk drawing serves for several units as this one does. This chalk drawing has the image of an owl, the life cycle of a frog and a bee and beehive.

Needle felting is the process of taking wool and compressing it with a very sharp barbed needle. It’s a craft older children can do easily, but I found my younger students loved needle felting! Needle felting is a wonderful craft to add to a spring unit. Mind your fingers!

Bees, like other insects, go through a particular metamorphoses when growing into a mature adult. This hands-on activity engages the student to learn and understand the Life Cycle of a Bee.

Hands on projects dominate this unit! Learn how to make a bee stinger. This interactive activity was not only simple, it was probably the most educational and instructional project of this whole unit. Give it a try!

Artistic work is part of lesson whether it’s a main lesson or unit study. Learn how to draw a simple bee. Art is a wonderful way to bring a creative, hands on aspect to the lessons.

This folded paper game can be used for any subject from math to history. We've made them before for history and poetry. They are great to keep around your school room for fun review work when your unit study is complete.

This is one of our favorite projects this year and I'm sure we'll do this year after year from now on. Rolling honeycomb beeswax is so easy, young children can easily participate.

"I've never tasted a honey I don't like," I told the honey vendor at the farmer's market. Then he handed me buckwheat honey and I made a face. I guess there is a honey I really don't like! Get an assortment of honey or grab a kit and try a variety of honey. Bon Appetite!

We can’t do a bee unit study without also exploring flowers and nectar. For this lesson, we dissected a flower. This is a lesson I don’t recommend for younger children. Instead, go on a nature walk and observe bees in their natural habitat buzzing from from flower to flower.

This demonstration on how bees get pollen is one of the top educational demonstrations for this unit. It’s both simple and instructive and the materials are easy to source.

If you do a unit on bees, you’'ll quickly realize how important they are and how delicate their ecosystem is. This simple recipe for making pesticide-free bug spray is both educational and practical. I hope you try it!

Making Trivia Cards for a unit is an engaging way to help students understand the material they’ve learned. It’s a beautiful, creative and timely project; however, it’s time consuming!

Making a beehive is surprisingly easy and I can show you how with the help of an amazing project based book on Bees. Mason beehives are different than a hexagonal beehive. Learn more by clicking below!

The more you learn about bees, the more you want to support a bee friendly environment. Growing flowers that bees thrive on is surprisingly easy. Learn now by clicking below.

We had the pleasure of touring Janet's property, owner and founder of Backyard Bees back in December 2015. We learned about beekeeping, toured her garden and of course tasted honey! Learn more about the honey making process by visiting Backyard Bees.

A hexagonal beehive is a geometric wonder. Making one can be easy, but we made one that was more complicated than it needed to be. But, it turn out beautifully in the end, and it was helpful in understanding the inner workings of a beehive.

Each spring we do various science unit, and this review post is for a spring unit in which we studies Bees. We typically use Living Books for our curriculum and I share how we liked them and used them.

Once a unit is complete, I share the materials we used, the ones we didn’t get to and how we liked the resources. I Share the projects we did and the lessons we completed. Check out the must have resources, the surprise winners and the ones to skip all together.

Check out the Resource Guide with photos and links to the materials we used.

It's truly beautiful how the handwork in Waldorf education is specifically chosen to help the child on his emotional, educational and spiritual development. The third grade student is going through the nine year change and to help give the child a sense of purpose and comfort during this transition, the curriculum aims to teach the practical arts and skills to the child in the form of shelter building, farming and clothing.

Weaving on a loom is a beautiful way to connect to the artisans of the past. Weaving is a skill and an art that dates back as far as civilization. You may weave without a loom, but if you have one, it’s important to give it a try. Be sure to name the parts of a loom: frame, warp, weft, pegs, shuttle and comb.

Circle Weaving is another simple weaving project that supports the Grade 3 student in their endeavor to master the basic skills for the necessities of life without machines. Learning these skills by hand brings comfort to the child experiencing the 9-Year Change.

Weaving is a skill 3rd graders learn in conjunction with their Shelters Block. Learning the basic skills of shelter building, making clothes and farming ease the Grade 3 student as they go through the 9-Year Change.

With a little effort, you can turn your weaving project into a bag. While I recommend using a small template, you can do a larger one as we did. However, a larger weaved bag in this style is not as spacious or sturdy as you’d like and it takes hours and hours to weave.