The above Calendula photo was taken by my 7-year-old son last year. Nature photography is a shared bliss on all of our adventures.
The love for foraging, wildcrafting, and herbal gardening is first nature for my son. Since he was young, he’s been following his father and me on endless adventures of harvesting wild foods, making herbal remedies, and gardening for wellness. I love that he gets so excited about plants and the way these plants help us heal and sustain us with food. Here in northern Minnesota, we still have a lot of snow on the ground, but on the patches of bare ground, I see a few signs of green plant life starting to emerge. The occasional, warming weather has us excited for spring foraging just around the corner. My son and I have had day upon day of herbal fun around our house.
This time of year, we do a lot of planning for our gardens. We also have fun playing our favorite, herbal adventure game called Wildcraft. We’re excited about picking up where our adventures left off last year and excited to share about some of our adventures here! Supporting our young plant enthusiast builds on year after year in the most natural of ways. We follow our natural curiosities and learn as we go. Nature has so much to teach us when we open up to listening. What are some fun ways to encourage your young plant enthusiast to explore the world of plants for food and medicine?
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Get Started Learning a Few Plants Each Year
Every year, we focus on a few plants we feel drawn to. We learn more about them, forage or grow them, and spend time with them over the year. We like to expand our gardens and family foraging traditions slowly over the years. It’s just our style. We tune into the plants we feel drawn to. There’s so many ways people choose to build their connections to plants. In thinking about it, some are more drawn to learning about them intellectually and others more spiritually. Some, maybe more of a balance between the two. Personally, I don’t think there’s any wrong way to form connections as long as it’s done in an earth-centered manner and it fits your personal and/or cultural understandings. The biggest thing is that we do it. Our global connections to the natural world are suffering, and any way we can encourage connection in a healthy, respectful, and sustainable way is good. Our children need to be outside digging in the dirt, looking at the unfolding wonders in nature, and exploring freely, maintaining their natural connections. Learning about and getting to know a few plants each year, whether it be by gardening, foraging, or wildcrafting, is a great way to support these connections.
Have a Few Plant Books and other Resources to Explore Interests
Identification Guides
I always like to have a few, good plant identification books for our area that are kid friendly. I do quite a bit of research on the materials I buy, since I like to make sure it’s going to be a good investment, something that is going to get used. Books with good picture are wonderful for kids but know that you cannot identify a plant strictly by pictures. Check out the identification keys that the book uses to see if it is a level that would work for you and your children. Some are very intense. Sometimes, it’s nice to preview what you’re considering purchasing at a local library, nature center, or other educational facility that may have identification guides on hand.
Stories that Encourage Learning
My family’s favorite book series that encourages children’s enthusiasm for herbs and wildcrafting is the Herb Fairies Book Club. We love sharing these stories together, and my son reads them over and over on his own. Combining his love of reading with his enthusiasm for plants and wildcrafting has been such a fun experience. Today, I want to give you the opportunity to download a FREE BOOK called “Stellaria’s Big Find.” Its story focuses on Chickweed, Stellaria media. This is the first book in the Herb Fairies book club which will be opening soon for enrollment. We joined the book club last year, and I’d have to say it was the most fun, educational decision that we made all year. We always put a lot of thought into the things we buy. We try to find educational resources that fit our child’s interests and can be used continually. Let me tell you that the book club by far exceeded our expectations. My whole family loves the books, and my son has become a Herb Fairy fanatic. The club has truly inspired him!
There are 13 books in the series and each book focuses on a specific plant, herbal remedies, and recipes. The books intertwine positive messages of friendship and life lessons as the children work to restore the plant magic to the earth by healing the magic keepers they encounter on their journey. Each story is so cute. My son could barely wait until the following month to read the next book. Each month, there are printable plant journal pages for the plant of focus, fairy coloring pages, and recipes for your family to try. There is also an Herbal Root Zine which has extensive activities and recipes. You can download your FREE BOOK here! Check it out!
I’ll have another post in a few days with continued ideas on how to support your young, plant enthusiast along with more resources and information on the Herb Fairies Book Club. My friends at Learning Herbs who offer the book club will be opening for enrollment from April 12th-19th. As their affiliate, I’ll be sharing information with you on the club and how to get signed up once they are open for enrollment. 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. Stay tuned for more details.
Other Family and Kid’s Herb Books
My child gets inspired by a lot of the other herbal books we have on hand, too. After the Herb Fairy series, the herbal preparations in “Rosemary Gladstar’s Medicinal Herbs A Beginner’s Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use” was a good next step. A lot of the plants focused on in the Herb Fairies series are also included in this book. There are a lot of simple recipes that can be worked on fairly independently or with minimal assistance. We love the pictures and the simpler preparations and recipes.
The newest addition to our library, “A Kid’s Herb Book for Children of all Ages,” by Lesley Tierra, was devoured by our young, veracious reader in two days. It will be continually returned to. It has great simple ways to makes salves, herbal lozenges, and other simple recipes to work on with children. If you haven’t had the chance to check out the affiliate store at Nature Art Exploration, please do! The store will be continually expanded with affiliate books and other products aligned with the explorations here.
On April 12th, Herb Fairies will be opening up their book club for enrollment. Enrollment will be open until April 19th. In a few days, please join Nature Art Exploration for Part 2 of this blog post to explore more ways of supporting your young, plant enthusiast in their herbal adventures. We’ll talk about herb gardening with kids and other resources. You’ll also have the opportunity to sign up for the Herb Fairies Book Club! Thank you for joining in on the explorations and don’t forget to download your FREE BOOK here!
