Temperatures remain coolish. Spring is still some calendar distance away. Yet this preseason calm is just the right time to draw children into gardening activities and foster their natural curiosity about plants and the environment. No child is too young to be fascinated by the mystery of a sprout emerging from its seed. In fact, all kids can participate in some capacity. Whether it’s planning a growing project, shopping for materials, planting seeds, assembling the project or simply taking photos or drawing pictures of the project’s progress, everyone can have a role to play. Make a garden from your dining table Plant seeds or take cuttings from the food prepared for family meals. Be sure to give your projects lots of indoor sunlight and just enough water to prevent them from drying out and not too much to make them soggy. Try these kid-friendly projects: Carrot top - Cut 1/2 to 1 inch below the crown at the top of a carrot. Root in a mixture of half sand and half peat moss. The resulting plant looks like a fern.

Pineapple top - Slice off the top of a pineapple, leaving 1 to 2 inches of fruit attached. Place in a shallow saucer of water on the kitchen counter. When roots appear in a few weeks, plant in potting soil in a 4- to 6-inch pot with a drainage hole in the bottom. The plant resembles the top of a pineapple fruit.

Sweet potato - select a mediumsized potato and root in a glass of water. The water level can come up about halfway on the potato, which will produce a glass-full of roots. Transplant the rooted potato to soil. The resulting plant sends out trailing vines that can be trained around a trellis, frame or window.

Citrus fruit seeds — Oranges, lemons, grapefruit and tangerines can be germinated in potting soil in a 4- to 6-inch pot with a drainage hole in the bottom. These plants are unreliable producers of edible fruit, but have attractive foliage.

Try a bean tent - Start this fun project outside when any threat of frost has passed and the ground has warmed. Set three or four poles — bamboo stakes, dowels or small PVC pipe at least 5 feet long — in the ground in an area of the yard that gets at least six hours of full sun. Secure them together at the top to form a tepee-style tent. Next, tie several rows of string between each pole, creating horizontal supports for the vines to climb. At the base of each pole, plant pole beans, morning glories, hyacinth bean vines — or all three! As the plants emerge and start to twine, guide them up the poles and along the strings. In about two months’ time, depending on the weather, the kids will have a leafy play fort.

When gardening with children, it’s important to remember to set appropriate expectations for success. No gardener or farmer gets a 100-percent germination rate from planted seeds — even 50 percent is very good, and often 25 percent can still mean success. Be sure your project includes enough subjects to ensure at least a few survivors. If the project is a bust, explain the facts of crop failure and try a new project.