Originally posted June 7, 2017.
Creating a fairy garden with your preschooler is a fun outdoor summer activity. The idea of fairies living among the flowers has captured children’s and gardener’s imaginations for years.
To get in the mood, pick up some books at the library. Cicely Mary Barker, a London watercolorist who lived in the early 1900’s, observed both real flowers and children to create her series of books on flower fairies. Her watercolors are both botanically accurate and capture the grace and beauty of live child models, whom she painted at local schools. Her fairies are enchanting. Her series of books are easy for small hands to hold, are richly detailed and have imaginative poetry throughout.
Creating a fairy garden can be as simple or as complex as you wish. First, walk around your garden with your children and choose a small spot to tuck away a house, fence and chair for your fairies.
Then, gather natural materials from the yard, such as bark, stones, small baskets, and yarn, to build a small house, fence, and chairs. You can create a special doorway out of a nice inviting color, like lilac, for the entrance. Snuggle your fairy house in among your flowering and herbal plants, like lavender, oregano, sage, and purple cone-flower and black-eyed susan.
Make some fresh lemonade and watch for the fairies to flit in and out of their houses.
The Freylinghusen Arboretum in Morris Township has an Annual Fairy Day. The fairies at the lush arboretum need help building their houses. The Seventh Annual Fairy Day is Sunday, June 25 and costs $30.00 per fairy house! The arboretum supplies all the fixings for a fairy house. If you are unable to attend on Sunday, a fun outing for you and your children is to go view the fairy houses, as the houses are left in the lush arboretum gardens and are used by the fairies all through the month of July.
Have fun living in the world of imagination with your children!
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