Hello! I hope you had the chance to join Nature Art Exploration a few days ago for Supporting a Young Plant Enthusiast: Part 1. If you haven’t, check it out! I hope you all enjoyed your FREE BOOK from Herb Fairies. There’s still time to download it if you haven’t had a chance.

Today, marks the first day that Herb Fairies book club opens for enrollment. It will be open from April 12^th until the 19^th. My family loves Herb Fairies. It’s an amazing way to connect kids with nature, making your family healthier and stronger. The herbal learning system engages kids through stories and exciting hands on activities. Click on the link below to learn more and sign up. When you buy Herb Fairies this week, you will also get a beautiful box set of printed books! If you’d like to learn more about my families personal experiences with the book club, don’t forget to check out Part 1 of this post! Let’s continue with some fun ideas to support your young plant enthusiast.

Start a Small Herb Garden

My family is big on gardening. Sowing seeds and caring for your garden, is a great way to get to know plants. Our excitement over the plants we’ll start the next year, begins mid-winter, and our plans go from seed to harvest over the following grow season. Last year, we had a lot of fun growing some of the plants from the Herb Fairies book series. We created our own “Herb Fairy Garden” for our child nestled among the pole bean tee-pee built in our main garden area. It gave us a nice place to read Herb Fairy books and retreat from the sun. We are always careful in deciding which plants to grow and always research if they have the potential to become invasive. If I’m unsure of a specific plant, I decide against planting it. I highly value native plant communities and make my planting choices based on not crowding out native populations of plants. Our favorites in the Herb Fairy Garden were Calendula, Calendula officinalis, and German Chamomile, Matricaria recutita.

We also grew Chickweed and Marshmallow which tend to be invasive if not cultivated and harvested properly. We grow Marshmallow, Althaea officinalis, to harvest the roots. By harvesting these perennial roots and clipping and saving the flowers, we eliminate the concern of it spreading. We also had a container of Chickweed, Stellaria media, going. We continually clipped back the plant careful not to let it go to seed. Being careful in your planting choices is an important thing to do. Making smart choices that keep Mother Earth in mind is the way to go. Do your research and ask the earth’s permission in the area where your garden is planned to be. Teaching your child how to garden in a way that is mindful to the impact of our choices on the land builds a foundation of environmental consciousness. Be wise and raise wise children! Garden with love and care for the land!

Spending time in your garden as a family is a great way to deepen your roots and feel more connected to each other and the earth. Spend time caring for your garden together, visit the plants, and watch them go through their cycles. Have fun doing garden focused activities together. My family loves to do nature journaling. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the previous post on Exploring Nature Journaling with Kids, please do. It’s a great way to build and strengthen your connections to nature. Nature journaling in the garden makes it extra fun! Here are some Nature Journaling Pinterest ideas to check out.

Watch Videos that Spark your Interest

Another fun thing to do is watch videos about foraging and wildcrafting with your children. Children tend to get excited about the things that the people around them get excited about. I find this to be no different with plants. We spend time out in nature freely exploring the natural world, being curious, playing, and having fun identifying and learning about what we see. It’s fun to explore some of the plants by watching videos to learn more. Susan Weed has a great Utube channel that my son has always loved. Susan has her granddaughter joining in on her plant adventures in many of her videos. Her channel is called Wise Woman Tradition. Sam Thayer is another favorite. He has the Forager’s Harvest DVD which you can find in the store here at Nature Art Exploration.

Simple Recipes

One of the many things my family loves about Herb Fairies is the really simple recipes that go along with the plant of focus each month. It is truly such a great herbal learning system for kids, and it is so much fun to get involved working side by side together. Before leaving today, check out the Herb Fairies book club by clicking on the below link. Don’t forget that by signing up this week, you’ll also get a beautiful box set of printed books in addition to the EBooks and other downloadable materials. The book club closes April 19^th. Don’t miss out on this great opportunity to form an incredible bond with your kids around the healing plants that you will share for the rest of your lives. All new members that sign up by following the links on my site will be helping to support Nature Art Exploration. I will receive a small percentage of the sales that are directed from this site.

Thank you for joining Nature Art Exploration in learning how to support your young plant enthusiasts! I look forward to hearing from you all on your adventures of exploring the world of plants. Please, feel free to comment below with any questions, ideas, or thoughts. Nature Art Exploration loves hearing from you!