Playing with Plants: Curiosity, Learning, and Enjoyment

Observing flowers with a magnifying glass or planting cuttings are great options for young children to explore and have fun with gardening. They can also use strawberry or avocado seeds, although their changes are slower, the reward will always be a child more connected to botany.

What Do Children Learn from Plants?

A high-magnification magnifying glass opens up the world of botany to children’s eyes.

Playing is learning to live. Play has infinite variations and, of course, has no age limit. We play from childhood to old age, we play with people of different ages and races, of any sex. Play is to life what democracy is to a country: it makes us free if we play by the rules of respect and tolerance. Couples who play together discover each other in unknown facets, just like friends. Play becomes a catalyst for getting to know the other, for capturing the most complex essence of the people for whom we feel affinity. Those who hate to lose learn to relativize defeats and draw conclusions from their experiences. For those who only care about winning, it may seem futile that “the important thing is to participate.” Fortunately, for people who are not very competitive, there are games where everyone wins, where triumph is measured in greater knowledge, where the only loser is ignorance and stupidity.

Children know how to play like few others, although these days we often hear the lament of how much time they spend glued to screens of all kinds; just like the adults closest to them, for that matter. One of the things that usually makes children look away from pixels is nature, in any of its expressions. Of course, animals take the cake and the scepter of winners, and produce an irresistible charm in infants and adolescents. But plants, well explained and understood, produce a breathtaking effect, they are so different in so many things from animals! So you can play with plants, perhaps not in such an interactive way as with a dog or a cat, but they will produce a similar effect of curiosity about the different. If with a pet there is little work to do, more than letting it into the room or the space where the child is, with plants you have to try a little harder to capture their attention, but the reward is very gratifying. The prize will be a kid more connected to his environment and eager to learn more about the fascinating botany.

Exploring the Plant World

You can start by bringing home a sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica). This beautiful plant is native to tropical America and delights everyone by showing its ability to close its delicate compound leaves at the slightest touch. A plant that moves so quickly impresses anyone, as can certain carnivorous plants, other perfect vegetables to play with children. The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) will grow happily in direct sun, outdoors, even in cold winters, with the pot placed in a saucer with water in the hottest months. With its ability to trap insects, and other small animals like slugs, it will draw wide eyes on children’s faces and on those of adults.

Although speed is not such an evident quality in the plant kingdom, children can also be introduced to plant cultivation with those that are quick to reproduce. Cuttings of the wandering jew (Tradescantia fluminensis) produce roots when submerged in a glass of water in a matter of days, so children will see how plants have the quality of cell totipotency: if they lack a part, such as the root, their cells are responsible for creating it. Not even a superhero would be able to do it! The cuttings that are selected must be easy to reproduce, so that the results come quickly.

Cuttings of pothos (Epipremnum aureum), coleus (Coleus scutellarioides), philodendrons (Philodendron spp.) or other tradescantias (Tradescantia spp.) are also ideal. Once rooted, they will have to be transferred to a pot with substrate, thus completing the cycle of their reproduction. Leaf cuttings of succulent plants are also perfect for doing with children, such as those of the mother-of-pearl plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense) or the many cultivars of echeverias (Echeveria cv.) available on the flower market. Simply by dropping one of their leaves on the substrate, they will begin to form roots and new specimens.

The Magic of Seeds

With seeds, there is also a first-order educational and playful journey. One possibility is to start by reproducing those that you have in the kitchen: avocado, tomato, pepper, lemon, apricot, plum… With some of them you will have to have a little patience as they have slow germination, so it is a good idea to combine them with some of faster germination, such as radish seeds.

In addition, with these, you can draw the name of the person who sows them, to be surprised a few days later with the cotyledons so characteristic of this edible vegetable. Those edible cotyledons will then serve, when cut, to decorate a dish and give a peculiar touch to any homemade food. We must not forget or denigrate the educational capacity of a seed of some legume (bean, chickpea, lentil…) in a glass with damp cotton, leaving the seed on the wall of the container to be able to observe the emergence of the root first and of the true leaves later. If you take a photo every day, you will make a beautiful report of the process. This visual testimony is also possible with the development of a strawberry, from the flower until it releases its petals and the fruit begins to thicken. Each day, the child will document the cycle, until completing it with the tasting of the strawberry, a very fair reward for his constancy.

The Wonders of Magnification

The technique should not be limited only to taking photos, and any plant is transformed into a crucible of details when a child is given a triplet magnifier, like a jeweler’s – better than a conventional magnifier – to enjoy each incredible structure. If under a magnifying glass an ant is transformed into a fierce worker, the surface of a leaf is a planet, the sexual organs of the flower in a Gaudí architecture of the highest order. The gift of a binocular magnifier or a microscope could come later, once the child wants to open more doors to infinity.

There are many other possible games to put more seeds of beauty in children. Because in the difficult moments of life, a flower can save us from bad thoughts. You just have to learn to observe it, to notice the beautiful part of what surrounds us, like plants. Playing with them when we are children will give color to our adult life. Plants are indeed a weapon for our future, which will help us fight against the gloomy, against sadness, against the ugliness of the world.