Little Herbalists and Healthy Families
Little Herbalists and Healthy Families
Have you ever asked a little child what they are thankful for? Once they understand the idea, thoughts come easily for most kiddos. Mostly they are thankful for their mommy and daddy, those essential beings who fill a little one’s world.
Read MoreThis morning found me up early welcoming that brilliant orange orb as it peaked, with all of it’s mightiness, over the horizon. I love mornings. The freshness of energy recharged gently spinning back into motion. It’s another day of life to live and be grateful for.
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Our fourth week of summer camp is all about using herbs, essential oils and other natural materials to care for our bodies all while having a blast! First is a fully description about how to host a spa day for kids. Then there are some great bath recipes that kids can make. Finally, please find a little section for parents!
Finding meaningful ways to engage children in becoming aware of and exploring their emotions is an important step towards raising confident, happy kids. And the last few weeks the kids and I filled our time together breathing deep, talking about our emotions and playing! I would like to share some of the wonderful projects we did that helped us engage our whole-selves, become aware of our emotions and find ways to center ourselves. These projects are perfect to do with young children and even have complete lesson plans for those of you working with a group of kids. Most of the projects have a bit of science thrown in while all of them offer kid-approved fun and creativity!
Conduct a science experiment with essential oils to see what oils insight certain feelings. Then create a unique piece of art work inspired by an aroma of your choice!
Create a beautiful fragrant meditative mandala from lovely botanicals.
Create a special mind jar with a friendly face. This project helps kids learn to breathe and slow down with they feel out of sorts.
A special twist on Meditation Friends that allows for even more personalization of your child's special new friend!
Simple yoga play with a favorite elephant! We used this super fun book to guide us through a morning of giggly yoga.
Do you have any special ways to help kids learn about emotions or mindful ways of how to engage themselves? I would love to hear about them and give them a try!
Wishing you lots of peaceful fun!
tooties
Who doesn't like a good foot massage? A nice rub is especially relaxing before bed. Massage oils and balms made with essential oils massaged into the bottom of feet at bedtime helps to induce sleep as well as fight infection.
Did You Know ~ Our bodies are able to absorb a phenomenal amount through the skin on the bottom of our feet. In fact an old remedy for coughs is to rub the bottom of the feet with olive oil, put minced garlic on top of the oil and then put socks over the whole thing. Within a very short amount of time the person's breath will smell of garlic! The garlic then helps to fight infection from the inside of the lungs out as the person breathes.
What is better than squishing and squeezing a bag of gooey goodness? This is just what we did recently at preschool. The kids each created their own sleepy time foot balm in a little baggie for mixing. Originally we were going to use tins to put the balms in but what fun is that?
Materials ~
Important Note: These essential oils are generally considered safe for kids from age 2 and up. If your child is very small and may get into the foot balm or otherwise misuse it, please store it up out of their reach when you are not in the room with them. Essential oils are not safe to use internally.
Instructions ~
To Use ~
At bedtime rub a little bit of the balm on the bottoms of your child's feet. This is a great time to connect with a little massage and conversation or lullaby. Then cover your child's feet with socks. Off to slumber land they go!
More~
A meditation, or mind jar, is a jar filled with liquid, like water and glitter. The child shakes the jar which sends the glitter spinning and spiraling. The glitter is like a busy mind, and mind full of thoughts maybe even negative thoughts that swirls and feels crazy. Has the glitter settles down and the child watches it breathing deep into their belly, they can focus on the glitter and let their mind settle down.
These new kids on the block have a special something added to them~ we created layers in the bottle by adding oil colored with a bit of food coloring to the water. This makes it take longer for the contents to settle down giving the child more time to breathe and calm down. It also makes the liquid a bit more sparkly.
Read MoreA couple of years ago, I spied this awesome book peaking its binding out of a shelf at one of my favorite used book stores. I loved Babar as a child and my child loves yoga, so this was a win-win. I brought Babar's Yoga home with me and wrapped it up for my little one's Valentine's surprise, a total gift of love. Immediately upon opening the book she wanted me to read it and with in moments we were both giggling, breathing and doing yoga together. As I said this was a couple of years ago; she loved the book then and still loves it, keeping it bedside along with a few other precious books.
Babar's Yoga for Elephants also made a trip to the preschool with me as part of our unit on Mindful Self Care. The kids and I read though it, having a blast stretching and rolling around on the floor together. We took a few moments here and there with hands on our bellies to take big deep breaths and center ourselves. When we were all done I checked in with the kids to see how they were feeling. I found them calm and centered. We even had a few moments of silence before they went off on their way which is saying something!
The book starts off with a bit about the elephant's history of yoga and then quickly catches up to modern-day Babar who describes how he uses yoga in his life. He offers multiple yoga routines with fun to see illustrations of an elephant doing yoga. My daughter enjoys setting up the book so she can follow the pictures and do yoga all by herself!
Shared On: Kid Lit Blog Hop, It's Playtime!, Kid's Get Crafty
"What's a mandala Ms. Angela?" was the immediate question I received after telling the kids what would be making together. While showing the kids a mandala coloring sheet I brought in for them, I explained that a mandala is a circle with a center. It has patterns. "As you work on a mandala," I explained, "you become calm and reflect on the beautiful parts inside yourself."
Inspiration for this project came directly from Nuture Store's wonderful post about Play Dough Rangoli Mandalas. The instant I saw these mandalas I knew I would have to make them (with an herbal flare) at the preschool as part of our unit on Mindful Self Care.
Our finished mandalas smelled amazing! Some of the children really got into this project. I could see and feel their minds and bodies relaxing as they carefully pressed each plant into their play dough. They would pick up a plant, smell it taking a deep breath and then place it in the perfect spot on their play dough canvas.
A Happy First Day of Preschool With Calming Aromatherapy
Cinnamon Day ~ Herbs For Kids ~
Shared On: Eco-Kids Tuesday, The Kid's Co-op, It's Playtime, Kids Get Crafty
Not long before holiday break we had a lovely day playing with ginger and doing one of the kids' favorite activities, foot soaks! This is a great way to spend a cold winter day especially if little ones are passing any sort of cold around as it stimulates the immune system and helps kids relax.
Read MoreYesterday we made this gorgeous rainbow of food for lunch, a yearly Thanksgiving tradition at our preschool. In preparation for making our delicious rainbow I asked each child to bring in a fruit or veggie of a specific color to share.
Read MoreHerbs for kids and families! Crafting, learning and projects for children, parents and teachers including herbal crafts. Also natural living ideas for healthy families.
