Indoor Nature Study Idea- Tabletop Garden

"But what is the use of being a 'very observant
child,' if you are not put in the way of things worth
observing?"

Charlotte Mason Volume 1 Pages 69- 70

One of the ideas of a Charlotte Mason education is to help our children to become observant learners about the world. That is one of the reasons I love this project- it is all about observation. I have been wanting to try out this indoor nature study idea for a while now. Today I went to the store and bought some root vegetables. I bought a carrot, turnip, parsnip, yam and rutabaga. (Did you know in Ireland a rutabaga is called a swede? And rutabaga is also very fun to say.) You will want to pick vegetables that have a bit of green on the top (see third photo).
You are going to cut about 2" off the top of each vegetable. Stick three or four toothpicks near the very top of each vegetable. Set the toothpicks on the rim of a jar and fill the jar with water so that it the water level is above the bottom of your vegetable (as shown above).
Here are my five vegetables ready for observation. My turnip was too big to fit in the rim of my jar, so I placed it in a shallow bowl of water. If you don't have jars, you could do this with all of your vegetables. I even read that you could just set the vegetables on a wet paper towel on a plate. Place your vegetables somewhere they will receive some sunshine or at least some light each day. Check your vegetables each day and record your observations. You will also want to check each day to make sure the bottoms of the vegetables remain submerged in the water.
I put together a free Tabletop Garden Notebook page (seen in photo above) to help you record your observations. Check back in a couple days and I will show you what has happened with my tabletop garden. This is a very easy, inexpensive nature study project (I think I spent $2.39 for all five of my vegetables). I would love to hear about the tabletop gardens you all start. Be sure to check out my other free downloads (links are on my sidebar).