Flower pressing is a wonderful way to bridge nature studies with a handicraft in your Charlotte Mason homeschool. There are so many opportunities to get the whole family creating together while learning about flowers and plants in this hands-on activity that even high schoolers will enjoy doing.
Flower Pressing Handicraft
Flower pressing is something that doesn’t take a lot of time, and can create a world of opportunities for additional crafts and hobbies, known as handicrafts, for all ages.
For your Charlotte Mason homeschool, you may want to assign each of your children to gather up to 25 different flowers and/or plants from your nature studies. I would caution you to explain to them the difference because gathering from neighbor’s yard and state parks, or other protected areas where ‘picking’ is not allowed.
Yes, it is important or you will be having a different conversation with different people. (just trust me on this one)
I highly recommend my children to gather wild flowers for learning, and journaling about as part of their nature studies. I have done my fair share of pulling off the side of the road to help my children collect more wild flowers. It is always good to keep a pair of scissors in the glove compartment of the vehicle, just in case you come across some that are difficult to get a stem or two of them.
For your younger children, I would highly recommend getting them the Wildflowers, Blooms & Blossoms (Take Along Guides) and the Trees, Leaves & Barks (Take Along Guides).
For older children, they would like the Smithsonian Field Guide for Trees and the the National Audubon Society Field Guide of Wildflowers.
I also require my high schoolers to sketch at least 25 of each of these in their nature journals as part of their Biology credit, along with descriptions of the flowers and plants.
You can have younger children do this for journaling as well, but maybe just adding about 5 or so of their favorite.
However, this is about bridging your nature studies with your handicrafts, and this is where the fun opens up to the whole family.
Now to the flower pressing part.
The idea with pressing flowers is to do it while they are still freshly cut. Be sure you don’t go hours before beginning the pressing because they will have withered, and the results are not as nice.
To do this on a nature walk, carry a field guide with wax paper already cut inside the pages of the book. This helps to eliminate any staining of the flowers onto your book pages. As your children pick wildflowers, add them to the book for save keeping, and for the beginning pressing.
The pressure in a book is NOT enough to do a proper pressing of the flower, so as soon as you are home, you will want to add several heavier books on top of the guide to continue the pressing part.
If you want to have the best results, I would recommend investing in a flower press because it delivers the best pressing results, while preserving so much color and details from the flowers.
Once the flowers are pressed, you now have the opportunity to create all kinds of handicrafts, including gift ideas for family and friends. Or maybe an business endeavor for a motivated child!
Flower Pressing Craft Ideas
Here are some of my favorite flower pressing craft ideas. They are great for all ages, and would really be a fun thing to do to make your children excited about the world around them, and all that nature has to offer them.
I love collecting all kinds of picture frames at yard sales, for cheap. I literally have a hard time passing them up! They kind to keep your eyes open for are ones that can be painted and looked distressed, shadow boxes, or even black ones that will help the white background and colors of the flowers to really pop off your walls.
These would be great way to take pressed flowers or even plants, and creating unique pictures for bedrooms, bathrooms, or any living space.
Add some calligraphy learning to the picture frames to make them pop even more! Perhaps the type of flower or plants to display in your school room, or a verse to hang to encourage those who read it.
My children has loved making their own book marks with pressed flowers.
They used card stock paper, added the flowers and then used clear contact paper to put them all together. Once you have it done, punch a whole in it, and then add ribbon.
These are great gift ideas for other book lovers!
Young girls, at least in my experience, absolutely love to learn how to create jewelry.
Why not give them the joy of wearing some of their pressed flowers in their own clear charm necklace, and maybe even learn how to sell some along the way. (It could make a beautiful Mom’s day gift, too)
For more hands-on activities with flowers, take a look at these 25 activities!
Flower Pressing Books
Do you have someone that really wants to learn all they can about flower pressing? These books are a great place to start and gather ideas for inspiration in growing a handicraft on their own.