My 3 and 4 year old family day care group have been showing a lot of interest in the lavender growing in the garden the past few weeks. We have done a few activities with the lavender but I had promised that we would make some special perfume as soon as there were enough flower heads so one beautiful Winter's morning that's exactly what we did and I think I enjoyed it as much as them!
You don't need much to set up this sort of activity. I am always saving jars so I looked in my stash and found some old spice bottles with lids that I knew would make perfect perfume bottles.
After peeling the labels off I displayed them in a rack I recently found in the thrift shop and encouraged the girls to pick the bottle they wanted to make their ‘perfume' in. I added a few baskets for collecting our lavender treasure (I love baskets and find them at markets and thrift shops quite cheaply).
With the important work of choosing the right basket behind us we began our nature walk around the gardens…Don't you just love the fact that my Ruby decided she needed to be a pirate with one glove to go picking flowers!
It's always an adventure to get outside the family day care gate and head off to explore….
These two are the best of friends…gorgeous aren't they?
There was rose geranium to smell, lavender flowers to find and leaves to rub to see if they had a smell. The senses were really getting a workout and filling their baskets with just the right fragrant treasures was important work
We explored the wheelbarrow herb and flower gardens as well as the larger gardens around the house….
With the booty collected we headed back to our table to begin the creative process…
Now it was time to challenge those fine motor muscles as the girls stripped leaves, scrunched flowers and rolled stems to fit into their bottles.
I also added some dried lavender I already had and a few tools to challenge them a little!
There were tweezers, small measuring spoons and recycled scoops from formula tins. Each tool provided a different challenge and worked different muscles. They had to really focus on their eye hand coordination and spatial awareness skills to successfully fill their bottles.
The girls decided what they wanted to put in their bottles and I loved watching as they made their decisions.
They were totally engrossed in the process of selecting the leaves and flowers and fitting everything in. There was a little problem solving as some realised the jars were too full..
There was much opportunity for group discussion and sensory exploration as well as focusing on a job from start to finish.
Such confident and involved little learners!
When each girl decided their jar was full they moved over to a bucket of warm water I had ready nearby and used the teapots and jugs from our outdoor cafe to scoop up some water and pour carefully into their jars.
This was really tricky and I could see they were concentrating very hard to make sure the water was poured into their jar.
When the water reached the top of the jar edge it was time to screw the lids on and give them a good shake. I have also done this with olive or another carrier oil oil to make a fragrant massage oil and half water, half oil works well too if you give it a shake before opening each time.
I explained to the girls that we would be leaving them on the rack in the sun while we had a rest and by then the water would have taken on the smell of the lavender and rose geranium leaves.
When they got up from their rest time I handed them some sticky labels and they each made their own unique design to stick onto their bottle.
They also make lovely gifts with a little extra ‘wrapping'. The girls had lots of fun unscrewing their lids and poking a finger into the water in their jars then dabbing the scented water onto wrists and behind ears.
The collection and creative process in this activity was just as important as the end product (perfume) though.
In the afternoon I decided to use up the rest of the fresh and dried lavender to make some scented bags to put under their pillows at sleep time!
I used some little bags left over from the twins recent Birthday party and pulled out the trays of lavender and tools again…..
They were soon very busy selecting their leaves with tweezers, scoops, spoons or fingers and filling their special bags.
At the end of a very busy day they took home a lavender sachet for their bed or clothes drawer and some homemade perfume for Mum.
Let me tell you we all smelled so beautiful by the end of the day…some might even say a tad overpowering 😉
I really enjoyed setting up and participating in this activity with the girls. They showed such excitement and yet took the process and their creations very seriously.
Nature has so many treasures to offer us, I love being able to introduce this concept to children and watch them grow to love the outdoors and natures gifts as much as I do.
What could you do with something from the garden this week?
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this is great, I think id better start saving spice jars 🙂