{faux} floral fun for $10 or less...

 To create your own flower shop of  sorts all you need is a few bunches of fake flowers, a happy basket and a bit of florist foam; with a few other bits thrown in. All of this can be found at your local dollar store and much of it may be something you already have on hand or can find at the thrift store. I picked up all these bits for $10 plus tax.

 

To start, disassemble your flower bunches. This will create more flowers for your kiddos to work with and make the bunches more manageable as well. Do not use scissors for this, use wire cutters or the snippy part of your pliers. Make sure you get a straight cut otherwise you may end up with a pokey wire bit or two. If you alter the length of each stem as you cut, your kiddo can easily create multi-leveled arrangements.

 

 

 

Grab your basket and affix a few blocks of florist foam inside. You can glue it all into place or use a loop of packing tape or super tacky double stick poster tape. Styrofoam will also work as will play dough. This will give your kiddos a chance to poke away. Kiddos loving poking sticks into mud piles, and pipecleaners into playdough; so why not flower stems into foam? Stagger and layer your foam for depth, this will help create those multi-leveled arrangements I was talking about.

 

 

 Arrange flowers into various vases and/or jars. Kiddos can select their blooms for arranging and/or place the flowers into the vases as well. It's all good. Set it all up inside or outside and let yer kiddos play flower shop. Add a notepad or two for taking orders.

 

You can also pre-wrap a few blossoms with a length of masking tape or two and have your kiddos twist a pipecleaner around the tape to create their own bouquets. Older kiddos can wrap the tape around themselves. Always give your kiddo a chance to do for themselves, some may want to try wrapping the tape on their own while others will want help.

You can pick up faux sprigs of Baby's Breath and Ferns as well if you like to create authentic deliveries. Take a cue from your kiddo and see how they play with the goodies at hand. Take the time to dialogue with them as well. You never know what will spring from their creative little minds.