Welcome to Mama Rosemary’s Summer Herb Camp!

I am so glad you are here!! Join us every week for a fun round up of projects and ideas to do with your kids during the summer. Each week will have a theme with lots of projects to do using herbs, exploring science and natural, holistic living plus some great crafts for good ol’ fashion fun! Many projects can be adapted for multiple age ranges depending on your child’s interests and developmental stage.

Garden Time Fun

Week One

Our first week of camp finds us in the garden. After all, many of our plant friends live here as well as in fields and meadows, up on the mountains, in the forests and even by “the wayside” all around us in the city.

There are so many things to discover and do in the garden. You may find that you want to spend the whole week (or even the whole summer) learning about one plant family or perhaps creating a little fairy garden or maybe even harvesting and cooking delicious food from your garden. There are so many ideas and activities to choose from. Follow your passion and have fun!

~ Plant A Garden Big Or Small ~

Don’t have a garden? No problem! It is never too late to start a garden. Here are some great ideas for planting child-friendly herb gardens from big to tiny as well as a garden to help keep our most honored pollinator, the honey bee, healthy and happy.

Tiny Garden Starts

Plant Chamomile Potatoes can create the tiniest of gardens in a potato and learn about all about chamomile.

Or create a little home in cup Fennel Babies, munch some fresh fennel and make tummy helping fennel candy, yum!

Fairy Gardens & Other Whimsies

Plant a smaill and special garden where dinosaurs and fairies exist and play side-by-side, Easy Peasy Fairy Dinosaur Garden.

Or landscape a large, helpful Edible & Medicinal Garden for Fairies and humans both to enjoy!

Help our beautiful world and Plant A Miss Rumphius Garden with Red and Honey.

Support Our Most Important Garden Helpers!

Did you know that bees pollinate one out of every three bites of food we eat? What would we do without them? Support bees by planting A Bee Friendly Garden with Natural Living Mamma!

Get The Basics

Learn about how to plant an easy-care Raised Herb Garden with The Organic Kitchen.

~ The Mint Family ~

When learning about herbs it can be helpful to focus on one plant family or even one plant for an extended period of time so as to get to really know that plant and it’s family. One very kid-friendly, approachable and abundant plant family is the Mint Family (Lamiaceae).

Take your time going through these activities. Taste and feel the plants in this large, lovely family. Do they release a fragrance when you gently rub the plant and give it a sniff? What do the stems feel like? Read more about the Mint Family and get ready to enjoy this amazing group of plants.

Mint Family Crafts & Recipes

Got some fresh lemon balm (or any fresh plant from this family)? If so you are in luck! Lemon Balm Pounding is an aromatic and interesting hands-on way to study the characteristics of the mint family.

Playing With Peppermint offers another great way to get friendly with mint!

Get crafty and make the cutest little Peppermint Bugs to spend the day with in the garden!

Fairy Crowns And Mint Magic Cookies are perfect for a rainy afternoon. We love these cookies and look forward to them each and every year, yummy!

This awesome activity is part herbal craft and part science project, learn all about it in How To Make A (Peppermint) Hydrosol.

Finish your study of mint with a tasty bowl of Vanilla Ice Cream With Fresh Chocolate Mint!

~ Garden Crafts ~

Here is a great little collection of sweet little crafts you can make with plants and herbs right from your garden.

Make a lovely Leafy Crown to wear while you work and play in the garden with Twig and Toadstool.

Make cute little Stickers Out of Real Flowers with Real Food RN using pressed flowers.

You'll also need pressed flowers to make the gorgeous Spinning Garden Mandalas with Twig and Toadstool.

Create these adorable little Tree Fairies (inspired by The Magic Onions) using summer time leaves in the place of the red and yellow leaves of Autumn.

Did you know that plants drink water from their roots sucking the water all the way up to the tips of their leaves and flowers where it then evaporates into the air? Conduct an experiment to see this in action yet instead of using the traditional celery stalks, try using daisies like they did over at Twig and Toadstool to create these beautiful Rainbow Dyed Daisies!

Don’t forget the minty crafts from above ~ Peppermint Bugs, Lemon Balm Pounding & Fairy Crowns!

~ Herbal Treats From The Garden ~

What is one of the best parts of having a garden? Eating the fruits of your labor! Create some serious herbalicious yumminess with these recipes.

Roses & Flowers

Rosy Fruit Salad ~ Learning About The Rose Family

Flower Vanilla Butter

Let's Make Elderflower Soda with And Here We Are

The Dandy Danelion & Tasty Dandelion Fritters from Delicious Obsessions

Let's Make Crystallized Flowers with Twig and Toadstool

Pineapple Weed Tea by Montana Homesteader

More Herbal Yumminess

Herbal Guacamole

Foraging For Nettles with And Here We Are and then make Nettle Spanakopita

Honeyed Peach Lemon Balm Sorbet

Make Herbal Honey

Freeze Herbs for later with Real Food RN

Don’t forget the recipes for minty treats above: Minty Cookies & Vanilla Ice Cream With Chocolate Mint, yum!

And Finally...

~ Enjoy These Friendly Garden Helpers ~

Does your child love bugs? Mine does, and truth be told so do I! Lady bugs, worms and butterflies all add to the healthy and vitality of our world. Learn all about them with these great activities and get in some fun time playing with these adorable little friends.

Play With Lady Bugs, go on an Adventure With Earthworms and learn all about the Life Cycle of Butterflies!

Thanks for playing with us!

I hope you had fun and learned some along the way. If you are enjoying herb camp please consider sharing this post with your friend and family so other folks can join in the fun and leave your comments below!

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