10 Kid Projects Using Roses For Valentine's Day

10 Kid Projects Using Roses For Valentine's Day

Roses are great for crafting with especially with kids who really love the little dried baby rose buds.  These projects and activities provide a great way to to enjoy the beauty and joy of roses with children, as well as giving them hands on experience with a wonderful healing herb.

Use these crafts to make unique Valentine's for friends and family instead of passing out the traditional junky candy!  (Well, a little dark chocolate is ok though, right?)  They also make a great Valentine's gift for the little ones in your life!

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Rose Tea Tasting & Rose Bud Salt Art

Rose Tea Tasting & Rose Bud Salt Art

We are playing with roses during February so we decided to make rose bud salt this time.  We also added sparkly red glitter and glued whole baby rose buds to finish off our art work.  I just love baby rose buds, don’t you? 

Use this lovely rosy salt to create unique Valentine’s for friends and family!

 

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The Magic of Chocolate

English: Dark chocolate. Español: Chocolate negro.

Do you remember the very first time you tasted chocolate?  Real chocolate, the kind that is dark with contrasting sweet and bitter flavors?  I do.  It was a bit of a shock after experiencing only sweet milk chocolate up until that point in my life, yet, once I got past that initial surprise, it was obvious I had found a new love.   I love to watch a person's face when they take that first bite of a particular chocolate, before they know what to expect.  Their expression screwing up in delight as complex bitter, creamy chocolate melts on the tongue briefly but fully overwhelming the senses.

Yummy!

Chocolate is delicious but not everyone likes it.  This is hard for me to believe, how could someone not like chocolate?  Apparently it is true though.  Once of my dear friends suffers from this affliction and I find myself feeling strange when we decide to share a dessert because I would of course order something, anything with chocolate.  So I usually let her choose which confection to indulge in.  Another friend confessed to an aversion for chocolate just the other day and a woman we were with said, "Are we on the same planet at the same time?"

High in antioxidants and containing mood enhancing alkaloids, dark chocolate has wonderful health benefits.   Once, to my great delight, I was even told to eat more chocolate.    While I lay on her table waiting for her to 'release my inner dragons' my acupuncturist explained, "You really need to eat more chocolate, dark chocolate to support your Heart meridian."  Thrill filled me as I realized I now had a reason to have more of my favorite thing.

Cocoa beans

Health Benefits Of Dark Chocolate ~

  • High in protective antioxidants as well as vitamins and minerals like magnesium, copper and potassium.
  • Heart healthy effects such as lowering blood pressure and LDL cholesterol levels while relaxing arteries and enabling blood to flow smoothly.
  • Improves blood flow to brain, heart and eyes.
  • May decrease risk of Alzheimer's disease and increase cognitive function.
  • Increases cellular insulin sensitivity thereby decreasing risk of type 2 diabetes.

Because chocolate is so delicious with the capability of being strong in its effect, it should not be approached lightly.  Strive to eat about one ounce per day for optimal effect, I know it is hard...  Chocolate is made from the fruit of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao).  Theobroma means "food of the gods," and that, in my opinion is what chocolate is.

Recipes ~

Peppermint Chocolate Chip Cookies From Mama Rosemary

Homemade Peppermint Patties and Honey-Butter Finger Bites From The Nerdy Farm Wife

Lavender Chocolate Truffles From Herbal Musings

Hot Dandelion Cocoa From Mountain Rose Herbs

Sources ~

Aviva Romm's Top 10 Superfood Picks For Women

Chocolate And Your Health: The Basics

10 Health Benefits of Chocolate

Health Benefits Of Chocolate Growing

Benefits Of Chocolate: Study Finds Eating Cocoa Daily May Improve Cognitive impairment

Heart And Vascular Health & Prevention

Shared On: Time For A Party!

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Natural Living Monday ~ Stop And Smell The Roses

I admit it, I have roses on my mind.  It is almost Valentine's Day!  I adore roses, fresh or dried.  I delight in making tea with rose petals and hips; crafting with sweet little baby buds of rose; and making body care products with anything rose ~ rose water, rose petals and rose essential oil.  With all this rosiness on my mind I wanted to start this week's wonderful blog hop with a little informative herbal tidbit about roses.  Of course Summer is a wonderful time to collect and use fresh rose petals yet even during the cold of Winter we can enjoy the bounty of roses by using dried petals and fruits (hips).  Roses are helpful for supporting immunity and lung health.  They bring a ray of happiness to folks feeling sad in the during gloomy months of late Winter.  Plus they are great for crafting with especially with kids who really love the little dried baby rose buds.

Rose Petals and Hips

Rosa spp.

Roses, in their beauty, open the heart and speak of love.  Yet they offer so much more than meets the eye.  The petals are edible and are lovely added to salads, desserts and even made into rose butter.  They also make a tasty tea (use fresh or dried) that I have found to be quite popular with children.  All that deliciousness brings with it immune enhancing properties as well as soothing coolness for the urinary system, nervous system and heart.  The petals ease cold/flu symptoms and lung congestion increasing lung strength and vitality.  Roses are also helpful in cases of PMS and fullness in the pelvis.  Emotionally roses sooth broken hearts and aggravated nervous systems.  Rose hips, the fruit of a rose, are very high in Vitamin C.  They make a tasty sweet sour addition to teas and foods helping to prevent infections.  I love to soak the hips in apple juice until they are soft and use them as jam on my kids' PB & J.

Roses are often heavily sprayed so be sure to use organic roses.

More please....

Valentine's Day Crafts:

Using Roses With Kids:

Find this and more information about other amazing herbs in my Materia Medica section.

And now....

Welcome to Natural Living Monday where we share all our natural living tips, tricks, and fun ideas.

Thank you for joining us on Natural Living Monday!  I am excited to see the great things you have been doing to live a more natural, whole, holistic life.

Your Hosts:

Amanda from Natural Living Mamma

Katie from Nourishing Simplicity

Angela from Mama Rosemary.

Last weeks most popular posts were:

9 Ways to Waste Less and Save More by A Proverbs 31 Wife

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From this week forward the list is in random order!

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Link back to this week’s blog hop post so that everyone can see the other amazing posts. It is just basic common courtesy.

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Roses at Preschool for Valentine's Day ~ A Celebration of Roses in the Making

Roses symbolize love, friendship and beauty.

The amazing aroma of rose is certainly special and has been used by humanity through the ages.  The scent opens the heart while uplifting the nervous system easing depression and grief.  Valentine's Day offers the perfect chance to explore this amazing plant.  We are having a rose party to celebrate at the preschool this year.  To provide the children with a chance to really explore roses we are going to provide them with a variety of activities.

Rose Tea

Tea made from organic rose petals is delightfully delicious and healthful.  Roses  benefit the respiratory and digestive systems enhancing their function, relieving inflammation and heat as well as helping to ease infections.  Because of rose's uplifting action, the tea is calming and eases emotional irritability.  I have found that most children love the taste of rose tea.

To make simply steep organic dried rose petals in just boiled water for 10 to 15 minutes using about a tablespoon per cup of water.  Sometimes I add a tidge of agave syrup or honey to the tea.

frshrosepic.jpg

Rose Paint

For this activity I am planning to use this recipe from Mommy Nature and then I am going to tweak to fit our needs.

  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 1/2 cups cold water
  • 2 cups hot water

Mix the flour and salt.  Add cold water.  Beat until smooth and gradually add hot water.  Boil.  Beat until smooth.

Then to make rose paint I will add crushed rose petals and a bit of beet powder to enhance the color.

Rose Playdough

This is easy!  Just add rose petals, dried or fresh, to your favorite playdough recipe.  You can further enhance the rose scent by using rose water or rose tea in place of the regular water when making your playdough.  I also like to add glitter and beet powder to the playdough to make it sparkly red!  Or you can add cocoa powder for coloring and make chocolate rose playdough, yum!!

Check out my playdough post for complete instructions!

Rose Sensory Table

I think it would be fun to set up a bin with fresh roses and leaves (no thorns please!) for the kids to feel and smell fresh roses.  Silky soft and fragrant, um....  We will add some cups and things for sifting through the loveliness.

Stay posted for pictures, as I make these things for our party I will add pictures and of course, I will get some action shots from the big day!

Update on those pictures.... well, I forgot my camera and didn't get a single picture!!  So bummed....


Shared On: The Kid's Co-opIt's Playtime!Kid's Get Crafty, Share It Saturday

Roses At Preschool For Valentine's Day ~ Rose Hearts

Roses At Preschool For Valentine's Day ~ Rose Hearts

This simple hands-on project makes fragrant unique gifts for parents, friends and teachers.  Plus it fun!  How often do you get to mix lots of glue with something in a big bowl?  It is a blast to squirt and drizzle glue making patterns and bubbles of white glee!  And here is your chance to join in the fun.

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