Inspired Materials: Sunflower Seed Saving

Here is one of my favorite Autumn Practical Life Lessons- Sunflower Seed Saving. Like many practical life lessons, removing seeds from a sunflower with tweezers helps young children to coordinate the fine motor movements of their hand, develops finger strength and concentration, and indirectly prepares the child for handwriting by developing their pincer grip. Additionally, it ties in nicely with units about the seasons, botany (parts of a plant/parts of a flower), and gardening.

It takes a surprising amount of finger strength and precision to remove the seeds, and I imagine that most people would be truly amazed by how interesting children find this activity and how long children will persist at the activity.

After all of the seeds are removed, children can roast the sunflower seeds, plant them, or use them to make pinecone bird feeders!

Thanks to Terri Todd, of Mapleton Montessori (Boulder, CO), for introducing me to this work (merely one of many debts of gratitude I owe her).

Bloom! Montessori Is Certified to be Eco-Healthy!

We are very excited to be endorsed by the Oregon Environmental Council as an Eco-Healthy Child Care. You can see our listing, and search for other Eco Healthy Child Care Options, at:
http://www.oeconline.org/our-work/kidshealth/ehcc/find-an-eco-healthy-child-care


The Oregon Environmental Council administers the nation's only voluntary environmental child care certification program. In order to be endorsed, the child care must meet minimum standards in air quality, use of environmentally friendly operational practices, testing to verify the absence of heavy metals (verifying the absence of lead, mercury, radon) and volatile organic compounds, and voluntarily compliance with standards designed to reduce children's exposure to toxics and environmental health hazards.

We are proud to state that Bloom! Montessori not only met the required standards, but exceeded them by providing children with filtered water, primarily organic whole foods, minimizing the presence of plastics by using glass dishes and primarly wooden materials that are certified to be lead free and produced by a company in Holland that partnered with Maria Montessori herself, reducing possible lead- contaminated dirt exposure by having children wear indoor shoes, using low VOC paints, using furniture and materials exclusively made of Baltic Birch, Maple, and other solid hardwood (non added urea-formaldehyde wood), and using hard wood floors, rather than wall to wall carpeting (carpets trap mites and contaminated materials and often contain high VOC adhesives).

To learn more about the criteria for being designated as an Eco- Friendly Child Care, please visit the Oregon Environmental Council's website at: http://www.oeconline.org/resources/publications/kitsandtipsarchive/2007EHCCChecklist

Their website also contains helpful information about how to create a more eco-friendly home.