Pressing Flowers with Children

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 Gardens and fields are full of flowers for a few more weeks.  It’s a perfect time to teach young children how to press flowers and use them to decorate their own art. Adding a few real flowers makes projects 3D and cheery later in January. For best results pick fresh flowers on a dry summer afternoon when there is no rain or dew on them.

Pressed Flowers

  Go for a walk around the neighborhood. Young children can practice their manners by asking adults you know if they may pick a few little flowers for an art project.    The neighbor can receive a pressed flower thank you note later. Look for flat flowers like pansies, lavender, baby’s breath, daisies, geraniums, herbs, decorative grasses, and weeds. Petals, and leaves from large shrubs like hydrangea also work well since the whole flower is too big. Children can carefully snip the flower with ½ inch of stem for handling. Point out the parts of a flower and their job to help produce seeds.

  Carry a thick book and paper toweling with you so the flowers can be pressed immediately.  To avoid damaging the book, flowers should have a sheet of toweling on the top and bottom. Some people also add waxed paper or newspaper on the top and bottom. Do not add so many flowers and leaves that the book is puffy and out of shape.  The book will be ruined and there won’t be enough pressure. Leave at least 1/8 inch of pages between flowers.

Easy Drying

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  Be sure the flowers and leaves are not folded or crinkled. Change the paper every day to help the flowers dry faster and prevent a natural chemical reaction that makes them turn brown.

  Place a pile of books or some other weight on the pressing book. Drying time will vary depending on the temperature, humidity, and type of flower. Small flowers may be dry within four to five days. Larger flowers could take eight days or longer.

 Dry flowers will be stiff and papery. Removing the flowers before they are completely dry could cause them to shrink and pucker.  To keep good color and form, place them in consistent heat throughout the pressing process. Attics, car trunks, and garage shelves work well in warm weather.

  Store dry flowers in a box between layers of tissue paper in a warm dry spot until you are ready to use them. Pressed flowers can enhance writing paper, create greeting cards, decorate gift tags, and add to children’s drawings. Use white glue to hold the flowers and let them dry completely. Decoupage or clear nail polish will keep them shiny.

Photos: Fran Dealing: fdarlingfotos

More Ideas and Activities...

See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org.

Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.

Preparing Kids for Change in Fall

 Children behave best when they know what to expect and have practiced what to say.  Children feel more comfortable in social situations like the first days of school if they have practiced the words needed express their feeling and needs.

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  Visit the school, their room, and playground together. Where will coats, lunch, and book bags be placed? Where is the bathroom?

  Discussing and role-playing some of the tips below can be fun for the whole family, as long as, everything is kept light. The goal is to help, not create more anxiety.

Have a Plan

Experts suggest young children need 10 to 12 hours of sleep each night. Plan a healthy breakfast together and send a nutritious snack for mid morning. If children aren’t hungry when they first wake up, give them some water or milk and bag of nutritious cereal, toast, and cheese to munch.  This helps reduce a midmorning grouchy sugar low.

     How much time is needed to dress before breakfast and travel to school? Begin adjusting bedtimes to approximate the new schedule. Have several trial runs and add 10 minutes.

  Choose and set out clothes, backpack with notes and assignments, shoes, and weather appropriate outerwear the night before to avoid morning rush and family stress.

  Practice saying something nice to send the family on their way each morning. Attitude is important. Say “hi” with a smile to the bus or carpool driver and others.  

  At school hang up clothing and follow other school and classroom procedures. Walk and use an “indoor” school voice and open doors for adults and others. When adults use a signal to get attention, be quiet immediately and ready for instructions.

Practice Courtesy

There are many opportunities to be kind, courteous, and helpful. It is ok to let someone else go first in line or the drinking fountain if you are there at the same time. When you make a mess, clean it up. If someone else makes a mess, help them clean up.  If someone drops something, help pick it up. Place trash in the trashcan in and out of school.

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  Welcome others to join your group at recess or any other time. Welcome someone who is new to the school. Talk to another child who looks sad and ask, “Are you ok?” If there is something dangerous or hurtful tell an adult in charge.

  Use the words ”please,” “thank you,” and “excuse me.” Close the bathroom door, flush the toilet, wash hands, dry, and place the towel in the trash. If your stomach hurts, tell the teacher.

  At the end of the school day place all notes and papers in your backpack and be ready to share them with your family.

Photos: Fran Darling, fdarling fotos

More Ideas and Activities... See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.

Creating A Home Art Corner

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 What would happen if you provided an art corner for your children and supplied them with objects found around your home and in the great outdoors?  What if you read to them every day and took them to the library and provided a literacy-rich environment?  Listen to the words of Caldecott Award winning children’s illustrator, Lois Ehlert, tell us about her childhood experience as described in “The Scraps Book: Notes From a Colorful Life.”

  “When I was little, I read all the books on the library shelf, and I thought maybe someday I could make a book. I was lucky. I grew up with parents who made things with their hands.  Mom loved to sew.  She had colorful fabric scraps, buttons, lace, ribbons and many scissors that she shared with me.  Dad had a basement workshop.  He gave me wood scraps and taught me how to paint, saw and pound nails.  So I had wonderful art supplies and tools close at hand.  In a small corner of my house, Dad set up a folding table for me.  It was my spot to work and dream.

 Ehlert goes on to tell how she created a love of art but not for books right away.  She knew that it takes time to develop dreams. 

Easy Ideas

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She finds her book ideas and inspiration from the world around her.  For example, shopping for fruits and vegetables gave her the idea for her book, “Eat  She planted a spring garden for her mother using red, orange, yellow, blue and purple flowers. The result was the book “Planting a Rainbow.”  Children could pick and dry flowers to make a rainbow garden picture for you.

ing the Alphabet.” Your children could eat their way through the alphabet for fun.

  “The Scraps Book.” provides several other sources of inspiration including her ice fishing decoy. Your children could make little bird, or other animal decoys with nature scraps or wood glued together and painted.

  Ehlert tells about her art technique called collage.    She describes it as very messy but “when ideas are flowing, I keep working.”  She uses a variety of tools to create texture, including spatter painting with a toothbrush and rubbing a crayon over a grater.  She adds objects close at hand such as toys, food, pinecones, seashells or bottle caps.  The many colorful photographs in the book show the results and give children ideas for their own projects.

Creative Focus

  Why is this important to children?  Creativity focuses on process of forming original ideas through exploration and discovery.  Creative children learn to think and solve problems for themselves.  They learn not to fear mistakes and feel free to invent, create and find new ways to do things – all valuable and much-needed skills in today’s world. 

Photos: Fran Darling fdarling fotos

More Ideas and Activities... See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.

Making Wind Chimes With Kids

Are you looking for a windy day project for your young children?  Create your own beaded wind chimes to teach patterns, design, and color. Provide fine motor skill practice and another opportunity for conversation.

   To design wind chimes help children create a hole in the center of a cottage cheese or margarine plastic lid with a paper punch. Make eight to ten more holes evenly spaced around the outer edge. Help children cut a 12 inch piece of string for each outer hole and a 14 inch piece of string for the center hole. Wrap a piece of tape around one end of each string to make it easier to thread the beads and tie a large bead onto the end of the other string pieces.

Art and Talking

  Have an assortment of multi-colored beads and small brass bells available. Your children can experiment with color, size, texture and design as they arrange beads and bells on the strings. Carry on a conversation about the choices they make. You may cut several colorful plastic straws into ½ -1 inch pieces to use as spacers between the bells and beads.  Leave at least 2 inches on the top of each piece of string.  Pull the taped end of each beaded string through a hole in the lid. Tie a big knot on the top to keep the string from sliding through. 

  Place one large bead on the 14- inch string and thread it through the center hole in the lid.  The bead will be on the underside of the lid to keep the string in place.  This is the string you will use to hang the chimes.  Find a sheltered spot outside or inside near a window.  Enjoy the melody!   Extend the activity by making additional wind chimes out of driftwood, seashells, spoons, or recycled items.

Wind Science

  As you are working, talk with your children about the wind. What is it?  What makes it blow? Has there been strong wind lately? Wind is moving air.  When warm air rises, cool air moves in and takes it place.  This moving air makes the wind blow.

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  Before dressing in the morning check trees and flags for signs of wind. Go outside and feel the wind, dance with the wind and see what moves with the wind.  Paint a picture or write a poem to describe your experience.  Then go to the library and look for books about wind.  In his book, “Like a Windy Day,” beloved children’s author, Frank Asch, sends a young girl soaring, tumbling and twirling on her own exciting windy day adventure.   Renee Schwarz offers other wind-powered crafts in her book, “Wind Chimes and Whirligigs.”

Photos: Fran Darling,  fdarling fotos

More Ideas and Activities... See the authors’ book “Learning Through the Seasons” at area bookstores and grandparentsteachtoo.org. For more help to prepare young children for success in school see the authors’ web site: www.grandparentsteachtoo.org. Also check our audio Podcasts WNMU Radio 90; Youtube video activities; and join us on Pinterest.