Fairies have never been more popular with children, especially with the revival of Disney’s Tinker Bell and her fairy friends. A fairy garden is the perfect project to get children out enjoying nature and fresh air.
Make a Children’s Fairy Garden
A fairy garden can fire the imagination and teach kids lots about the natural world. Some ideas to consider when designing such a garden include:
- Using colorful flowers
- Creating a fairytale play area
- Hiding fairy statues and fairy lights in the foliage
- Putting up bird boxes and feeders
- Making homes for local wildlife
- Creating secret hiding places complete with miniature fairy furniture
- Making a special place to leave gifts for the fairies
Choosing Flowers for a Children’s Fairy Garden
Use bold colours and tactile plants in the child’s garden. Flowers that have an interesting feature, such as the opening and closing "mouths" of snapdragons, will fascinate little ones.
Sensory plants are also ideal, such as heavily scented blooms or long grasses that will sway in the wind. Plants that attract bees and butterflies, such as lavender, are also excellent choices.
Encouraging Kids to Garden
Set aside part of the garden to make a small vegetable patch or flower border that the children can be responsible for. Seeing the wonder in a child’s eyes as she watches a plant grow from a tiny seed or eats a piece of fruit she's grown herself is wonderful. Parents can get children growing tall sunflowers or enormous pumpkins for Halloween! There are lots of colourful gardening tools available especially for children, and letting them look after and use these will give them a great sense of ownership.
Use the fairies to encourage kids' interest and stimulate their imagination. Talk about fairies hiding in the petals of flowers, whispering to seeds to help them grow, and dancing in between blades of grass.
Garden Projects for Kids
As well as growing things in the garden, there are many other ways to capture the imagination of kids:
- Help them to make a bird feeder or bat box to hang in the garden
- Get them to collect leaves and make leaf rubbings
- Ask them to write a story or poem about their fairy garden
- Go berry picking
- Collect items such as acorns and conkers to make fairy cups and other items
- Ask them to draw pictures of the fairies living in the garden
Holding a Kids' Fairy Party in the Garden
Fairy gardens are perfect for holding summer garden parties! Have friends over for a fairy garden party, an enchanted tea party or a magic picnic. Trail fairy lights around the seating area, bake fairy cupcakes, and dress the children up with wands and wings. Don’t forget the fairies – make cups out of acorns and platters out of leaves.
Fairy Games for Children
Fairies love to have fun, so what better way to celebrate a fairy garden than lots of games and laughter? A fairy treasure hunt can lead kids around the garden looking for fairy gold (chocolate coins), fairy jewels (crystals) and pouches of fairy dust (glitter). Alternatively they could be seeking out fairies, by following clues that lead them to different types of flowers!
The Benefits of a Child’s Fairy Garden
There are countless reasons to make a fairy garden for your children. It will stimulate their imagination, fire their passion for nature and gardening, teach them about plants and wildlife, and, most importantly of all, keep their belief in fairies alive!
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An Introduction to Working With Faeries
Louise Heyden - Louise Heyden is a writer, artist, work at home mum, sound technician and former school Library Manager.
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