#30DaysWild – Making a fairy potion

Making a fairy potion using water and natural things found around the garden is a fun, simple activity for children, combining outdoor fun with imaginative play. I remember doing something similar as a child – making “perfume” using water and hydrangea flowers. I don’t think the perfume was all that nice but it was certainly fun to make!

 

A bowl full of water, leaves, grass and petals - "#30DaysWild - Making a fairy potion"

 

What I loved most about this activity was being able to just let the girls get on and make their potion, without needing any help from me other than the initial set up. I set up a bowl of water in the garden, with an old wooden spoon and then gave them a tub to help them collect the ingredients for their fairy potion.

 

Sophie stirring the fairy potion

 

The girls took it in turns to collect the ingredients. One would sit and stir the potion while the other found more things to add to it. Our final potion consisted of a mixture of rose petals, grass, white clover, buttercups and pebbles.

 

Sophie emptying the 'ingredients' into the bowl while Jessica stirs the fairy potion

 

Jessica decided that the potion was a magic one that would help the fairies to fly. Sophie thought the potion would help the fairies make dinner. I suspect that her tummy might have been rumbling at this point as it was coming up to her own dinner time! We spotted some ripe raspberries in the garden which helped to keep her going!

 

Fresh raspberries picked from the garden

 

Stirring the potion at different speeds was fun. Jessica liked to make the water splash over the sides of the bowl. Sophie was more cautious though, stirring the potion gently to stop it spilling. It was interesting to watch their different approaches.

 

Jessica stirring the fairy potion and making the water splash out of the bowl

 

Once the girls had finished making their potion, we poured it across the flower beds ‘for the fairies to collect’. I am sure they were very happy with it!

 

This year we’re taking part in #30DaysWild – a challenge from the Wildlife Trusts to get outside each day in June, do something wild and connect with nature.

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

28 thoughts on “#30DaysWild – Making a fairy potion

  1. This looks great fun. I also remember doing something similar as a child, we would make perfume from rose petals and insist that my gran wore it!
    Nat.x

  2. Aww this is so sweet! I vaguely remember making something similar with rose petals when I was a kid. I think I bottled it to use as perfume! Love how you managed to capture the droplets flying all over 🙂 #countrykids

    1. Thank you – it’s one of those things that I think a lot of us have done as children so it was lovely to see my girls doing it too 🙂

  3. Simple garden activities like this are what memories are made of! I too remember making potions and perfume from petals as a child, and then introducing Clio to the idea. Lavender was always the best smell, somehow the roses always smelt quite nasty by the time we had mushed them to a pulp! Leaving them whole and stirring them as you did sounds a much better idea and a perfect twist with pouring it out for the fairies. You are giving me some great ideas for the children here!

    Thank you for sharing with me on #CountryKids

    1. Thanks Fiona. Flower perfume never did smell that great – although I can imagine lavender is probably the best option. I am sure the girls will try crushing the petals at some stage too – this time they were just happy to stir them.

  4. Great idea doing it as fairy potions. We used to make rose perfume. It was vile smelling and very brown by the end. Yuck, but great fun. #countrykids

    1. Hydrangea perfume wasn’t much better! It was fun though even if it didn’t smell that great 🙂

  5. This is such a fun activity for kids. My children also like to make “perfume” and recently enjoyed making “nettle tea”. They discovered if you pick the very tip of the stinging nettle plants you don’t get stung! #CountryKids

    1. Nettle cordial is on my list of things to try making at some point. I think if you grab the nettle firmly, it also won’t sting you (although I’ve not been brave enough to try!)

  6. Awesome! I’m doing this with my little ones tomorrow (before this Central European heatwave kills everything in the garden…)!! Nice early-season raspberries too! 😉 Greetings from Luxembourg #CountryKids

  7. Mine used to do this. Wonderful for imagination too. Good idea to pour it away. I’ve found a few potions still stewing weeks later. The pigeons have discovered our raspberries, so it’s a race every day who will get there first. #CountryKids

    1. The bowl we made it in is quite useful for other things so it made sense to pour it away. It can’t be nice to find them stewing some weeks later!

  8. I use to make these are a child, as well as rose perfume and mudpies. In fact many of may fairy potions would end up as mudpies thanks to my brother. They look like they had a great time. #CountryKids

    1. Rose perfume was always a favourite of us (along with hydrangea perfume). It didn’t smell that good though!

  9. We made perfume as kids from roses.It went rancid in the end in a jar, left in my bedroom.My mum wasn’t happy when she found it.

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