Flower Shop

With Valentine's Day (the biggest flower day of the year!) around the corner, I set up a little play flower shop for my daughter to get a flavor. She absolutely loves it and wants to play all day! She tells me in the morning that she "opened the shop", asks all day if she can be the florist, and closes the shop before bedtime.

I wanted to share the idea because not only is she enjoying it, she's learning a ton in the process.

Flower names and ID. I am proud (as a hort major!) that these words are common in our house: gerbera, rose, ranuculus, orchid, dahlia, and daisy. I just got out some of my old flower books for 'catalogs' and rounded up all the artificial flowers I could find in the house. You could even make your own catalogs from magazines and pictures online.

Money. Maddie is obsessed with money, and this has been a fun way to teach her the difference between dollars and cents, as well as work on counting and numbers.

Writing. As part of the purchasing process I have her write down my order. She usually scribbles, but she has also sounded out some names and learned to write a few numbers.

Desigining. Look at this little florist in the making! She made me a corsage (with a hair clip and bracelet) and changes flowers out of vases.


Imagination. We have had lots of fun pretending we're celebrating birthdays, going to parties and dances, getting married, visiting someone who is sick, and giving people flowers just because we love them.

I'm actually quite enjoying the little bouquets around the house.


***And now a little note on buying real flowers for the big day...

As much as I think it's important to support the local shops, we all know Costco has the best prices, hands down, right?!

Happy Valentine's Day!