Outdoor Play : Dandelion Picking

On Mother's Day, we headed outside to pick dandelions at my mom's house and collected them in a basket. Not doing anything in particular with them.

Later that week, we went outside and did the same thing again at home.

Henry thoroughly enjoys picking dandelions. 

He gets excited when he finds them.

He says they're pretty.

Henry has always loved these yellow flowers. 

I think most children do. 

Maybe its because they're allowed to pick them at their own free will.

Henry collected the dandelions in a green basket, and about filled it completely! 

Once the front yard was free of dandelions, 

we set out to do something with these weedy flowers.

The basket of dandelions got dumped out on the sidewalk.

The basket was turned over.

The dandelions with stems attached were poked through the wire basket.

And the flowers were hauled with Henry's end loader [of course].

There was one dandelion with an extremely long stem.

This one proved to be tricky.

Henry found the longer stems were harder to thread through the basket.

Once the top of the basket was covered in dandelions, we started on the sides.
Henry didn't find this part as interesting and he thought the dandelion hat was complete.

Though when I picked it up to put it on him, this is what we found:

Henry wouldn't let me set it on his head, he made me wear the hat instead.

[Sorry, no pictures of that!]

Here are a couple other things to do with dandelions:

• Dandelion Cupcakes and Goop by The Imagination Tree (find another version of this at The Chocolate Muffin Tree)
• Paint with Dandelions by little learners lounge
• Make a Dandelion Crown by 4 kids, 2 guinea pigs, one happy family

More Inspiration: 

30 materials & activities to promote fine motor skills

-- Henry is 3 years old --

-- George is 7 months old --

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