I LOVE having fresh flowers around the house.  It makes it feel bright and cheery and covers up the mysterious smells that go along with having two young children and almost never cleaning…

 

The weather this year has been kind of crazy, so flowers bloomed early and then it suddenly got cold again!  I wanted to be able to enjoy those beautiful flowers before they died from the frost, so I snipped some and set up a flower arranging work for L.

I first gave L a pitcher full of water and told her to pour it into the vase.  Both of these are made of real glass — letting your children use glass teaches them to be careful with their movements.  L has had plenty of practice pouring  from her water pouring work and from pouring her own drinks at meals.

Next she put all of the flowers into the vase.  We talked about the names of the flowers, their colors, and how they smelled.

Finally, L put the vase on her work table in the living room so she could enjoy her flowers while she worked.

 

We have done this work several times in the months since, and I’m convinced the fresh flowers make all of us happier.