How to Press Flowers

What You Need:

• Heavy books
• Flowers
• Wax paper

What You Do:

1. Have your child open the heavy book and flip to a page near the middle.
2. Invite your child to line one page with wax paper.
3. Show your child how to arrange the flowers on the wax paper. Avoid layering any of the flower parts.
4. Tell your child to place an additional piece of wax paper over the flowers.
5. Show your child how to gently shut the book over the flowers, so they are sandwiched between the two sheets of wax paper.
6. Pressed flowers need a lot of weight on top of them. Have your child stack at least two more heavy books on the first book.
7. Now for the hard part -- waiting! Leave the flowers in the books for three days.
8. When it's time to remove the flowers, ask your child to slowly open the book.
9. Show your child how to slip the flowers out of the wax paper. They should be dry and completely flat.
10. Show your child how to gently glue the flowers down on paper. 

Extend the project by encouraging your child to use the flowers to create a special card for someone, a piece of artwork to hang in the house, or to create a cover of a blank notebook they can use to record their wonderings, pictures, or reflections on days passed.