Where we live, it gets too hot in the afternoon to spend much time outside, but our daughters love early morning walks.  This weekend our 7-year-old asked if we could do the spring flower scavenger hunt that we had created for Mother’s Day.  This gave us a great opportunity to talk about how different flowers bloom at different times of year, and inspired us to make another flower scavenger hunt for the summer.  

Click on the images below to download your free summer flower scavenger hunt card!  One is in English and the other is bilingual in French and English.  When you print it, print in landscape.  Choose “print on both sides of paper” and click “flip on short edge” in order to make it into a card to invite someone on a flower walk.  Or simply print the first page if you only want a one-sided scavenger hunt page.  It can be printed on regular printer paper, but we recommend cardstock.

Summer Flower Walk (French and English)

When the afternoon heat makes staying inside in air conditioning the best idea, we have some suggestions for you on books we love with a flower theme.  Miss Rumphius and Katie and the Impressionists.  We are also enjoying a delightful new book by Sarah Mackenzie that is inspired by Miss Rumphius. It’s called A Little More Beautiful.  The images below are links to Amazon if you are interested in purchasing the books, or you can find them at your local library.

Children seem to naturally love making bouquets, so we love to plant flowers that thrive when cut… roses, zinnias, cosmos, and verbena to name a few.  We also love adding sweet smelling accents to our bouquets – lavender, mint and rosemary – these plants tend to thrive and spread year after year without much care (that’s a big plus when growing a garden of children is really our primary job!).  To help your children make a bouquet, give them options for what can be cut in the garden, then cut the flowers they choose.  (Alternatively, if you don’t have a garden, picking up a bouquet from the store and allowing your children to cut the flowers and make smaller arrangements can also be fun!)  Then allow your child to pick a sturdy, small vase or jar.  Give your children time to arrange the flowers to their liking… a great opportunity for everyone to really take the time to stop and smell the flowers.   

To give your children a chance to really look closely at flowers, painting a still life can be so much fun!  Bringing paper and painting supplies outside to paint in the garden can also be delightful!  Some of our favorite art supplies for painting flowers, and especially painting outside, are the Canson Mixed Media sketch book (great heavy weight paper and easily transportable small size) and Faber-Castell watercolor pencils (sketch and then brush with water) or washable watercolors for younger children.   

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