Magnolia seeds...

 

This morning when we went out to play Evie spotted something in our tree she hadn't seen before. There was a seed pod on one of our Magnolia trees. The seeds looked like bright red beans and she was VERY curious about them. So we pulled a bunch of the seeds down to get a closer look. 

Originally I considered planting one with her so she could see how they grow BUT some online research led us to the discovery that to do this we'd need to peel off the berries, soak the seeds, scrape off the wax coating, and then bury them in dirt and keep them cold for several months before planting. So we nixed that plan! It was, however, a great opportunity for her to learn how important animals are to how things grow. We do keep a veggie and herb garden and we talk often about how important bugs and bees are to plants and to us but it's always great to have a chance to teach her about how to respect the animals, plants and just the wonderful earth we have been given to live on. So I let her peel a few of the berries down to seeds while we talked about how in nature, the birds eat the berries and then the seeds pass through them and grow all over!

When we were finished we scattered the rest of the seeds in her garden for the birds to eat! :)