Little Herbalists and Healthy Families
Little Herbalists and Healthy Families
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 MoreA sweet celebration of a girl turning ten years old, my daughter's right of passage into "the double digits" was hallmarked by a riotously fun slumber party. The girls danced to all the new songs; giggled and played tag; ate cake with ice cream; and had their faces painted by a professional face painter. As the evening wore on into night we followed all of this fun up with a bit of herbal crafting before bed. My daughter requested we make dream pillows, spritzers and have foot baths. It was great to work with a group of older children because they can do many things preschoolers just can't do yet!
Cuddly fleece surrounding aromatic herbs what girl could resist? We based our pillows off of the instructions for making a no-sew fleece pillow on Family Fun. We made our pillows like mini body pillows for extra cuddliness. I have made these a few times before with children of various ages. At ages 9 and 10 the girls were able to tie the pillows themselves and I am sure they could have cut the fabric too, but I made sure to have that part done before the party so we could focus on the fun part! This pillow needs to be tied and stuffed. Notice the how the cloth is cut, easy-peasy to do!
We sat in a circle on the floor. The room alive with chatting and tying. When someone had a bit of trouble with her project we would all help. It was a nice little gathering. After the girls had their pillows mostly tied they stuffed them with fluffy filler stuff from Hobby Lobby. Then we made herbal bundles to put into their pillows stuffed full of herbs to enhance sleep and dreams ~rose petals, lavender, mugwort and hops. All the herbs were chosen by my daughter during a visit to Rebecca's in Boulder where they let her meet and sniff the herbs to her heart's content!
Here are the beautiful herbs we used all ready to bundle up; from top to bottom ~ red rose petals, hops strobiles, lavender blossoms and mugwort leaves. A fest for the senses!
The girls laid out their chosen herbs on a scrap of cloth which we then folded around the herbs and hot glued shut. It is important to do something to contain the herbs with this kind of pillow because the pillow is not sewn shut and loose herbs fall out of the pillow. Then they placed their herbal bundle in their pillow on top of the fluff filler, right near the surface so the fragrance of the herbs will drift out when they cuddle with their pillow. After that, all that was left was to finish tieing their pillows and viola! A soft aromatic sleep inducing handmade pillow!
Making spritzers is always so fun. It brings out a bit of magical witchiness with all the smelling and blending of precious elixirs into something amazing.
To start this project each girl received a blank label for her bottle. Creative juices were flowing around our kitchen table as the labels were transformed with stencils and colored pencils.
With their finished labels adorned the girls came into the kitchen where I had laid out a variety of relaxing dreamy essential oils ~ lavender, cedarwood, ylang ylang, cardamom, orange and rose geranium.
The girls sniffed and explored each oil asking questions while formulating their own brew. It was lovely to watch them each pick out what their nose was drawn too. No blend was the same! Once they had chosen oils we added them to beautiful cobalt blue spray bottles which were filled with water. We stuck to using 5 to 6 drops of essential oil per ounce of water. Then we screwed on the spray top; the girls added their labels; a shake and a spray and they were off to enjoy.
Last but not least, the girls indulged in warm salty foot soaks. Deep pans and bowls for the girls to put their feet in were filled with very warm water and the girls, sitting in chairs, eased their feet into the water. "Ah's" and "oh's" echoed around the room as their bodies visibly relaxed.
We had a variety of warming and relaxing things to add to their foot soaks: epsom salt, ground ginger, lavender blossoms and essential oil. As they relaxed and softly chatted, I added what they chose to the water and it was quiet for the first time in hours!
As they finished soaking, their feet were dried and we started foot rubs. They each got a squirt of an herbal infused oil enhanced with lots of lavender essential oil to rub on their feet. The skin on our feet absorbs whatever we put on it very well so it is a great place to use natural oils for promoting health. Lavender on the feet helps ease the body into peacefulness and calm. After all this nice soaking and rubbing, the girls had their feet warm and snug in socks and they were off again to sleep.... well, I wasn't that lucky but they were much calmer after all of our fun together!
Eydie from Fanciful Faces was the incredible face painter we had to our house. She was so fun and could paint anything the girls requested. We had everything from a butterfly to a panda to Santa Claus to our dog's exactly replicated on my youngest child's face. If you are in the Front Range of Colorado, check her out!
Herbs for kids and families! Crafting, learning and projects for children, parents and teachers including herbal crafts. Also natural living ideas for healthy families.
