A year ago this spring, my kids and I planted 6 sunflower seeds outside our garage. My son was 3, and had no experience with growing things. I thought it would be a good opportunity to see something sprout from a seed and grow, given the right conditions. A week or so later 5 of the 6 seeds sprouted, and there was much rejoicing.
They grew, and quickly.
Full disclosure: I had never grown sunflowers either. I knew that they could get pretty large, but I honestly didn't expect them to be so...robust. Within a short time, these 5 leafy plants had grown taller than my daughter, then taller then my son, and when they got taller than me, my son stated, "Daddy, me had no idea these sunflowers get this big."
The sunflowers continued to grow until they were literally scraping my first floor gutters, and the flower heads were so large that the stalks began to bend under the weight. When the cool weather came we cut them down and stripped all the seeds off the flowers, nearly filling our red bucket. The kids really got a kick out of it and they learned a bunch too; proper planting, watering, locating plants in the right spot, and they even got to see phototropism first hand as the flowers tracked the sun across the sky. All in all a super educational experience.
And that brings us to this year. While cleaning out the garage this spring I found a huge cache of seeds from last year that had been stashed away. The boy and I felt like we should do something with them instead of just feeding them to the birds, so we started giving them away a handful at a time to anyone who agreed to plant them. We haven't gone crazy with it, but in addition to our much expanded sunflower plot (we have over 25 sprouts at the moment), several of our neighbors, both sets of grandparents, some out of town relatives, and my co-workers all have sunflowers planted that started with those 6 seeds last year. I even planted some in the office park where I work. They draw some interesting looks from the landscapers who care for the place.
I still have a ton of seeds, and if things go well I'll have a lot more in the fall. I encourage you to go out and plant something, even if it's just dropping some sunflower seeds in the dirt. You'll almost certainly be happy you did.