The Children's Garden, Aotearoa

Connecting with nature, caring for ourselves and the natural world...nature explorations, foot spas, creating our own soothing rituals helps to ground, self regulate and understand our own body's needs. 🩷

Wishing everyone a safe and happy festive season. Hoping you are relaxing with good food, and great company. Looking forward to 2026!

Yesterday, after some discussion about the flowers in our vase on the kai table needing replacing, a couple of children became interested in the idea of making potpourri from the slightly wilting, yet still beautiful, rose petals. After discussing the various ways we could try to dry out the petal, they opted for the 3minute microwave technique over the slower drying methods. How fascinating to see, feel, smell and hear the change in the petals as they changed from "soft" and "silky", to "crisp" and "crunchy".
Crumbling them slightly to add to a repurposed jar, along with a few drops of sweet smelling oils, and WOW... Our own homemade scented rose petal potpourri! We can't wait to try it out in our foot spas!🩷🌹

Learning to roll, creep, crawl, climb, stand, walk, run....that's only the beginning of learning to take a risk...balancing on the side while holding a toy/object, climbing a tree, climbing on and off a low step or stool, getting dirty, getting wet, playing peek-a-boo, hiding from your friends, running fast as you can down a hill, climbing up and down steps (forwards both ways, as that makes more sense to the baby)...it's both wonderous and endless, life learning..."if at first you don't succeed, then try and try again". ❤️