♥ Summer Herb Camp: Week Four Squeaky Clean Bath Time Fun! ♥

Welcome to Mama Rosemary’s Herb Camp

Join us every week for a fun round up of projects and ideas to do with your kids during the summer.  Each week will have a theme with lots of projects to do using herbs, exploring science and natural, holistic living plus some great crafts for good ol’ fashion fun!  Many projects can be adapted for multiple age ranges depending on your child’s interests and developmental stage.

Let’s get squeaky clean 

with herbs and aromatherapy! 

Our fourth week of summer camp is all about using herbs, essential oils and other natural materials to care for our bodies all while having a blast!  First is a fully description about how to host a spa day for kids.  Then there are some great bath recipes that kids can make.  Finally, please find a little section for parents!   

♥ Spa Day For Kids ♥ 

Host a super fun, messy, gooey spa day for your little ones and their friends,

perfect for a hot summer day!

This is a great way for kids to explore using natural materials to care for their bodies while providing a fun activity filled with tactile, creative opportunities.

Materials ~

Feel free to use any combination of the items below to create your own customized special day!

• Kiddie Pool, this will be like a big bath tub!
• Sprinkler
• Clays ~ I like to use rose, french green and kaolin clays.  You really only need one clay but it is fun to have several different options with all the pretty colors to choose from.
• Avocado ~ smashed up
• Fruit Slices ~ I usually get whatever is on sale or in season.  What you want here are slices of fruit high in alpha hydroxy acids which help exfoliate the skin removing dead skin cells.  Sure, there aren’t many kids that will benefit from this action but knowing about it and feeling the effects of the fruit on there skin, that’s pretty cool.  Good choices are apples, grapes, strawberries, oranges and even lemons.  (I would be careful about giving little ones lemons to use though because they might get the juice in their eyes!)
• Cucumber Slices, kids think it is super silly that people put these on their eyes!
• Bowl for Discards
• Stuff For An Herbal Bath ~ roses, lavender, chamomile, mints, calendula etc….  Also, epsom salts, oatmeal and essential oils like lavender, rosemary, rose geranium etc…  And cloth (with a band to tie it shut) or sock for making a bath.
• Aromatherapy Spritzer
• Corn Starch

Instructions ~

Fill the kiddie pool with water.  Place bowls with fruit, avocado and cucumbers outside on a table that is easy for the kids to get too.  You might want to put the table in the grass.  It is going to get really messy and the stuff that falls on the ground can become food for you lawn instead of a big mess on your patio!  Mix the clays with enough water to make a paste and put the clay on the table too.  Put your discard bowl under the table Make sure you have your spritzer and corn starch handy.

Get all of your bath ingredients set up over by the kiddie pool.  Then when you are ready bring the kids over and make an herbal bath with them.  I usually start this off by talking with them about the benefits of an oatmeal bath while I put the oatmeal in the sock (or cloth).  I make sure to tell them about how the oatmeal makes a slimy goo when you squeeze the bundle we are making.  Next we add some epsom salt.  Then show the kids all the beautiful herbs you have to add to the bath and ask the each to choose one herb they would like to add.  Give them each a handful to toss into the tub.  Next add a couple drops of essential oil, using a total of 5 to 8 drops at most.

Next take the kiddos over to your spa table where all you fruits, clay and so on are set up.  And tell them all about how to use these fun substances.

• The avocado is oily and nourishes the skin
• Hydroxy acids in the fruit help exfoliate the skin
• The clays help to nourish and tighten the skin
• Cucumber slices on the eye reduce puffiness and refresh the eyes

The kids can use these to make art on their bodies too, making little patterns and drawings!  A couple of cautions: If you have young kids, be sure to tell them not to eat the fruits and veggies.  Explain that after a piece of fruit or cucumber is used it should be placed in the discard bowl and not back with the fresh pieces of fruit/cucumber.  Finally I always tell the kids not to put any clay around or above their eyes because when it dries, they clay begins to flake and gets into their eyes.  Trust me, this freaks them out.

Then let the fun begin!  Turn the kids loose!  Turn on the sprinkler if you have one.  If you want, you can walk around with the spritzer and spray it above the kids occasionally.

Finally, when the kids get tired of all the spa day activities, finish up with corn starch foot rubs.  The kids always love these.  Just have them grab a seat and give them little handfuls of corn starch to rub on their feet.  The corn starch is silky and cooling, and of course messy!

Thanks for reading about how to host your own spa day.  It is so much fun and I hope you will consider giving it a try!

Next check out some fun baths to make for your kids to use in the tub!

♥ Baths For Kids To Make & Use ♥ 

Each of these baths are not only fun to make, they are great for body and soul!  

Just click on the pictures to get full instructions.

… create a customized Sock Bath full of herbs and oatmeal goodness, slimy and squishy skin nourishing fun!   

… become a chemist experimenting with acids and bases and blow up couple of volcanos, even one in your bathtub! 

... create beautiful layered bath salts!  These were originally made as Holiday gifts but you could change around the scents to make it more Summery.  Consider using rose geranium, sweet orange or even ylang ylang.  Kids love to watch the layers build as the bath comes together.    

 

♥ Well Deserved TLC For Parents ♥ 

Summer time is fun and exciting but let’s face it, Summer can also be a bit tiring for parents.  It is important that as parents we take time to care for ourselves which also models healthy self-care for our children.  Please join me in a the honored art of bathing.  At the end of this post of a few lovely bath recipes perfect for soothing away the cares of any mommy or daddy.  

I am so glad you stopped by!  

Next week Mama Rosemary is on vacation!  Please join us again on July 20th for lots of fun crafts and tasty recipes using a beloved herb, mint.

In the meantime, if you are looking for herbal crafts and creations to make with your kids, check out Herbs For Kids.

Shared On: Eco-Kid’s Tuesday, The Kid’s Co-op, Wild Crafting Wednesday, Tender Moments, Friday’s Nature Table

Mindful Crafts & Activities For Happy Kids

Finding meaningful ways to engage children in becoming aware of and exploring their emotions is an important step towards raising confident, happy kids.  And the last few weeks the kids and I filled our time together breathing deep, talking about our emotions and playing!  I would like to share some of the wonderful projects we did that helped us engage our whole-selves, become aware of our emotions and find ways to center ourselves.

These projects are perfect to do with young children and even have complete lesson plans for those of you working with a group of kids.  Most of the projects have a bit of science thrown in while all of them offer kid-approved fun and creativity!

An Aromatic State Of Mind

Conduct a science experiment with essential oils to see what oils insight certain feelings.  Then create a unique piece of art work inspired by an aroma of your choice!

Happiness inspired by sweet orange essential oil.

Flower ‘n’ Spice Play Dough Mandalas

Create a beautiful fragrant meditative mandala from lovely botanicals.

Flowers, spices and berries pressed into a base of lavender-scented play dough for a calming, centering activity.

Meditation Friends

Create a special mind jar with a friendly face.  This project helps kids learn to breathe and slow down with they feel out of sorts.

Silly friends for helping kids center themselves.

Meditation Friends II

A special twist on Meditation Friends that allows for even more personalization of your child’s special new friend!

New colorful friends with lots of kid chosen personality.

Yoga Play With Babar’s Yoga For Elephants

Simple yoga play with a favorite elephant!  We used this super fun book to guide us through a morning of giggly yoga.

Silly yoga fun!

Do you have any special ways to help kids learn about emotions or mindful ways of how to engage themselves?  I would love to hear about them and give them a try!

Wishing you lots of peaceful fun!

Sleepy Time Foot Balm For Kids

Who doesn’t like a good foot massage?  A nice rub is especially relaxing before bed.  Massage oils and balms made with essential oils massaged into the bottom of feet at bedtime helps to induce sleep as well as fight infection.

Did You Know ~ Our bodies are able to absorb a phenomenal amount through the skin on the bottom of our feet.  In fact an old remedy for coughs is to put rub the bottom of the feet with olive oil, put minced garlic on top of the oil and then put socks over the whole thing.  Within a very short amount of time the person’s breath will smell of garlic!  The garlic then helps to fight infection from the inside of the lungs out as the person breathes.

  

Creating Foot Balms With Kids ~ 

What is better than squishing and squeezing a bag of gooey goodness?  This is just what we did recently at preschool.  The kids each created their own sleepy time foot balm in a little baggie for mixing.  Originally we were going to use tins to put the balms in but what fun is that?

Gosh, their little hands were so busy, I had a hard time getting a clear picture! But you get the idea right? Squishing up stuff in a bag is super fun!

Materials ~

• Shea Butter
• Coconut Oil (optional)
• Relaxing Essential Oils, Some Examples Are ~
  • cedarwood
  • lavender
  • petitgrain
  • sweet orange
  • ylang ylang
  • vetivert
  • sandalwood
  • frankincense
  • rose geranium

Instructions ~

• Place a big spoonful (about a tablespoon) or two of the shea butter and coconut oil in a baggie.  
• Let the children smell the essential oils and pick out a couple of their favorites that make them feel relaxed and sleepy.  
• Add these essential oils to the shea butter/coconut oil blend.  Because this is a really loose project with no exact measurement for the shea butter/coconut oil blend, I errored on the side of too little essential oil, to be safe, rather than risk using to much.  So I used up to 6 drops of essential per baggie.  This means that if the child choose lavender, cedarwood and ylang ylang for the essential oils, I put 2 drops of each oil in their baggie for a total of 6 drops.  See Essential Oils for more information on using them herbal preparation safely.
• Seal the bag shut tight!
• Now for the fun part… Mixing it all up!  It is the child’s job to mix up all that goodness by squishing it around to their heart’s content!

To Use ~

At bedtime rub a little bit of the balm on the bottoms of your child’s feet.  This is  a great time to connect with a little massage and conversation or lullaby.  Then cover your child’s feet with socks.  Off to slumber land they go!

More~ 

Nightmares And Night Terrors, What’s A Mama To Do?

Meditations Friends II ~ The New Kids On The Block

Last year I made these silly centering Meditation Friends with the kiddos at the preschool.  We had so much fun that we decided to make them again but with a new twist to make them even more engaging and personable.  Just like last year started our day reading Peaceful Piggy Meditation which introduces the idea of a meditation jar.  On we went from there to make our own special meditation jars with personality!  

These helpful friends are based on an activity at the end of this amazing, fun book. My six-year-old loves this book. We re-read it often when she is going through a hard time in her life and it seems to really speak to her.

New to the idea of a meditation jar?  Here is how it works  ~

A meditation, or mind jar, is a jar filled with liquid, like water and glitter.  The child shakes the jar which sends the glitter spinning and spiraling.  The glitter is like a busy mind, and mind full of thoughts maybe even negative thoughts that swirls and feels crazy.  Has the glitter settles down and the child watches it breathing deep into their belly, they can focus on the glitter and let their mind settle down.

These new kids on the block have a special something added to them~ we created layers in the bottle by adding oil colored with a bit of food coloring to the water.  This makes it take longer for the contents to settle down giving the child more time to breathe and calm down.  It also makes the liquid a bit more sparkly.

Swirling Mind

What you need to make your own ~

• Bottle or Jar with water tight lid (I used plastic water bottles to prevent breakage but glass would work fine as well.)
• Water
• Oil
• Food Coloring
• Glitter or Glitter Glue (Glitter glue will make it take longer for the “thoughts” to settle down.  Use warm water if you choose to use glue)
• Googly Eyes
• Decorations (We used peel and stick foamies)
• Ribbon or Yarn
• Fabric Scraps
• Hot Glue Gun

Instructions ~

• Fill the bottle half/half with water/oil, or you can vary the amounts ~ we did more water than oil with our friends.  
• Ask the child to pick out their favorite color from the food colors and add a drop or two to the bottle.  The oil and water, of course, won’t mix and the food coloring will color one layer giving you a nice contrast and making it more exciting to shake the meditation friend and to watch it settle down.  
• Next add glitter or glitter glue and secure the bottle shut.
• Then have the child decorate their bottle to look like a face with googly eyes and any other materials you have on hand.  I like to use peel and stick foamies because, well, they are easy!    You can also glue on the face but plan for drying time and that the faces may fall of fast.
• Finally give the new friend a hat by securing a piece of cloth on top of the bottle with hot glue and ribbon or yarn.

Easy Peasy!

  Shared On:  It’s Playtime!, Kid’s Coop, Kid’s Get Arty

Babar’s Yoga for Elephants

An Original Laurent De Brunhoff Book

A couple of years ago, I spied this awesome book peaking its binding out of a shelf at one of my favorite used book stores.  I loved Babar as a child and my child loves yoga, so this was a win-win.  I brought Babar’s Yoga home with me and wrapped it up for my little one’s Valentine’s surprise, a total gift of love.  Immediately upon opening the book she wanted me to read it and with in moments we were both giggling, breathing and doing yoga together.  As I said this was a couple of years ago; she loved the book then and still loves it, keeping it bedside along with a few other precious books.

Babar’s Yoga for Elephants also made a trip to the preschool with me as part of our unit on Mindful Self Care.  The kids and I read though it, having a blast stretching and rolling around on the floor together.  We took a few moments here and there with hands on our bellies to take big deep breaths and center ourselves.  When we were all done I checked in with the kids to see how they were feeling.  I found them calm and centered.  We even had a few moments of silence before they went off on their way which is saying something!

The book starts off with a bit about the elephant’s history of yoga and then quickly catches up to modern-day Babar who describes how he uses yoga in his life.  He offers multiple yoga routines with fun to see illustrations of an elephant doing yoga.  My daughter enjoys setting up the book so she can follow the pictures and do yoga all by herself!

Shared On: Kid Lit Blog Hop, It’s Playtime!, Kid’s Get Crafty