Normally by this time, the temperatures are consistently chilly and we engage our young scientists in helping put our garden to bed for the season. This has not been the case this year so we're still gardening! Many of our plants have reached the end of their life cycles and are no longer producing fruit, but others, like the tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, are still producing fruit which we're harvesting and enjoying.

Which brings us to some unbelievable harvest totals!! 

We were hoping to hold off until our Big & Little Scientists were able to harvest, but the tomatoes were so ripe they were starting to fall off the plant. A little over two pounds of tomatoes were harvested over the course of the weekend and shared with our young scientists during our Monday program. In total, 91 individual bite-sized tomatoes were shared with the group!

Our harvest totals....and the garden is still growing....

48.75 pounds of kid-grown tomatoes, herbs, cucumbers, and peppers (with more to come).

Our growing season continues! The mild autumn weather has allowed our tomatoes and peppers to continue growing. Our cucumbers have slowed their growth significantly, and we haven't harvested any a few days. The thyme continues to thrive, and the basil is going to seed so that we may plant more next growing season.

Thanks to the loving care provided by our young scientists, we have far exceeded our gardening goals! As of 9/16, we have officially harvested over 40 (yes forty) pounds of kid-grown food.

July was a fun and busy month at the Kiddie Science Lab, with our young scientists diving into a hands-on science exploration that included botany, biology, chemistry, and more! We cared for the garden and harvested yummy food. We observed the Lab turtle, Spaghetti, to learn more about her needs and behavior. We spent time with the backyard chickens, Sweet and Sour, and made lots of observations about their behavior and vocalizations.

We learned scientific vocabulary associated with our topic of exploration, and made relevant connections to art which allowed our young scientists to get creative while learning important scientific facts. We got messy, laughed a lot, and explored serious questions such as 'what happens when our water gets polluted?'.

We recycled newspaper and turned it into new paper, we learned about the water cycle and created simple filters. We learned the characteristics of invertebrates and the role they pay in our garden. We conducted chemistry experiments using grocery store ingredients and at one point harvested so many cucumbers each young scientist in the program got to take one home.

The first half of our science summer was incredibly fun and we can't wait to continue the scientific exploration. See you soon at the Kiddie Science Lab! More pictures can be found on our Facebook page. #summerscience2019 #kiddiescience