How a Seed Grows

We've gotten this book out at least a dozen times from the library, so I finally just bought a copy. We live in Phoenix, so we plant our gardens 3 times a year. Everybody gets their own garden with their own seeds. My youngest makes sure we all have a windchime in our garden, as well. And we always go through this book the week we plant -- even though my kids know the steps, the book makes it so interesting for them to follow along. The illustrations are really clear. For homeschoolers, this makes a nice tie-in for journaling -- you could even do measuring and charting -- and of course, what you grow, you can enjoy! We love this one and the "Magic School Bus" planting seeds books. The illustrations and text are not babyish -- this book is great.

WE planted a vegetable garden and this was a great complement to doing the gardening and explaining how thing grow.

My four year old grandson loves this book. We have been growing plants from seed on his windowsill and can't wait to try the experiment in this book.

If you are looking for a simple "experiment" for the budding scientist in your home, this is an excellent book. As you read this with your young child, he/ she will certainly be inspired to do what the kids in the book are doing; planting a bean seed and watching it grow. As you read along with the story and follow-up with actually doing the experiment your child becomes part of the story, waiting and watching as his (or her) own seeds develop. Children learn the essential elements of growing seeds. Once you have successfully grown your first bean plants, there is a page at the rear of the book that guides you through additional "experiment" ideas to go even deeper. This book, because it is on the Stage 1 level, is a bit less informative than the other Let's Read and Find Out Science books that we already have in our growing collection which are primarily Stage 2, but certainly worthwhile in that it guides parent and child through a very simple Science project. Basic concepts covered in this book in addition to the seed growing are: 1. Counting (stage 1 is geered toward preschool to early kindergarten) 2. Patience (in that you must wait days to see things begin to happen) 3. The ability to follow instructions (the steps to perform the experiments)

This book should have been more appropriately titled HOW TO WATCH A SEED GROW. Instead of discussing the various stages of development and explaining what happens, the book is basically an extended science project explaining how students can watch a seed grow into a plant. The book talks about the different stages, but only discusses what the planted beans should look like in those stages, not really explaining what is happening or why. Nevertheless, the book does outline a good science project for younger children, but isn't much as a book to read to kids.