Botany Studies: Herbal Remedy Kit

Just a quick post to show how much we LOVE our Herbal Remedy Kit from LearningHerbs.com.

LearningHerbs.com - Browse their website - they offer SO much more! (and so much is FREE!)

I think this was actually making elderberry gummies
(not included in the kit,
but the elderberries are!
And the recipe is easy-easy-easy -
we added some extras for specific ailments)

The Herbal Kit - price ranges from $67-97 with various promotions. WORTH - EVERY - PENNY.
In fact, after you have the kit and you get started - just getting your hands into it, you'll find that you can buy replacements or change things up through purchasing items from Mountain Rose Herbs (or elsewhere, but we love Mountain Rose Herbs too!).... and we do that! BUT we decided to buy a second kit too!

The kit includes step by step EASY instructions. Nothing fancy; nothing complicated. So don't let my out of order photos here scare you! Legoboy could do all of these himself - in fact, he does done much of it all by himself, when modifying or re-making some items later. He has been doing so since he was 9 years old. :)



We have now made everything in the kit - including the elderberry syrup which works SO great for the flu virus! (the FDA does not approve of that statement, just as a disclaimer - even though there are scientific studies done that strongly show the affect of eldererry syrup on flu strains)

By the by - when it comes to flu.... I had those dried elderberries for almost 2 years. Every time I'd open that cupboard, I'd think, "What is that smell?" It wasn't *bad*, it just wasn't a yummy kind of berry smell either. Well, the day after we fully moved into our house (the apartment was empty but still needed a final cleaning), I opened the new cupboard that housed the elderberries, and thought, "Oh, THAT smells SO GOOD!" When I realized what it was, I realized, "I am sick." Our bodies do tend to crave what they need, until we train them otherwise. And I'd been ignoring all the signs of being sick (blaming it on the stress of moving, the all-day training I'd done that Friday, then doing the final moving of stuff in the rain at the end of a long day, coming into the house (where carpet people were supposed to be GONE already) to find broken dishes in the sink and broken glass all over the floor --- apparently the pounding from above had shaken loose a light fixture, hitting the sink and shattering everywhere, I blamed my feelings on "that time of the month", and my son's own moodiness (oh wait - he was sick too!!!). Talk about ignoring all the signs!!!!

Elderberry syrup though. YUM. And when my body didn't need it anymore, it didn't taste so good anymore. Still good, but not something that I was craving. Same with Legoboy. He really noticed the change in desire for it as he got better.

The best part of doing all this learning together? He could take care of me when I was sick and I could take care of him - no worries!

The pictures below start with the second kit; then move to the first kit. In no particular order. I will try to identify what is going on in each picture, but this is not a narrative so much as a demonstration of what could be done with an herbal remedy kit!

Full contents before unpacking anything.
That white spot is a wrapped up bottle of Lavendar essential oil.
Chunks of beeswax
All the jars, bottles eyedroppers, and tins needed for this particular kit.
Dried herbs (see below)
DVD instructions (with online access and some printed instructions)

First Kit:

stinging nettle sitting in place to make an infusion (all the goodness goes into the water,
then you strain out the physical herbs and drink the infusion - highly nutritious - and EASY)

strained herbs - these can go into the compost or be used other ways, depending on the herb mixture

This is maybe the stinging nettle infusion - the top part looks right,
but the liquid looks the wrong color.
So it might still be the herbal healving salve
herbs when being strained. 

the completed herbal healing salve
once you know how to make one kind, you can make ANY

getting supplies ready for making the salve

further straining the herbs that had been extracted into warm olive oil
just the liquid/oil is then added back to the pan with the beeswax
The bag helps to squeeze all the rest of the goodies out of the herbs. 

the herbal healing salve setting up - just poured into the jars
warm is darker and more liquidy yet
the solid parts are cooler and lighter in color

just a pretty picture of the lavendar essential oil, the olive oil and the tin tops

the salve while setting up - some was still warm (darker)

the pretty box the herbal remedy kit comes in ;) 

overview of the kit contents

closer look at the kit contents

melting the beeswax

Botany Product Review: Kidzerbs Garden Kit

Growing an Herb Garden
Here is the webpage from Learning Herbs about growing an herb garden (we found the Kidzerbs kit when we were at Mountain Rose Herbs looking to purchase individual seeds from A Kids Herb Book for children of all ages. That's when we also found Wildcraft, which led me on a price comparison which led to the discovery of the Learning Herbs site (where the game is slightly more expensive, but comes with TONS of free stuff!). (whew - deep breath ;) )

Description from Mountain Rose Herbs:

Kidzherbs Gift Seed Pack

A Kid's Guide to Growing Medicinal Plants includes:
Kidzherbs written and illustrated by Sena Cech. In this booklet, Sena and her mouse, Cheesie, give you a tour of her garden of medicinal herbs. Full of cartoon and botanical illustrations, stories and recipes.
Each kit also includes 12 packets of seeds from Sena's garden (organically grown of course). Basil, Borage, Calendula, California Poppy, Catnip, Chamomile, Fennel, Feverfew, Flax, Johnny Jump-Up, Lemon Balm and Love-in-a-Mist.
A wonderful gift idea at a great price.

From there, things have blossomed - almost literally (we took a long time to get things planted, then we needed to replace, but our learning has certainly blossomed!).

Here is Legoboy's review of the Kidzerbs Garden Kit for Growing Medicinal Plants.

The Contents - or What is Included in the Kit:

• This kit also included craft sticks. 

Is it what you were expecting?      
Yes.

What wasn't as expected?
Nothing.

Any surprises? What were they?
Yes. The craft sticks.

How have you used this kit thus far?
All I have done with the kit is planting the herbs. We have not used them yet because we didn't have enough sunlight. We are replanting during the winter.

Are there any components you've not used? Why not?
I have not used the craft sticks. I taped the name of the herb to the side of each box.

Would you recommend this kit to a friend interested in growing or learning about herbs? Why or why not?
Yes. I think that this kit is a good starter kit.

Is the price a fair price? Too low? Too high?
Yes. It is cheaper than buying them individually.


Anything you'd like to say about customer service from the company where you purchased this kit? 
(note from Mama: we bought it from Mountain Rose Herbs, but it is actually created by Horizon Herbs)
No.


Anything else you'd like to share with people who might possibly purchase this kit? 
I like it and would buy it again.

Herb Love

Here's a post that has been a while in the making - for something so simple! 

We started various herb studies around this time last year. 

Our indoor garden went downhill fast after some dear friends over-watered; and we had a pest issue with the mulch used - our treatments were too-little-too-late :( 

But the marshmallow lives on! Can't beat that!

We started Herb Fairies when they opened up this past spring. We're not exactly "fairy" people in our home, but it is a neat concept and storyline to teach the various properties and uses for a wide variety of herbs. 

Each month, a new story is released. Legoboy reads the book via the computer and takes a look at some of the other information. He's more on top of things than I am ;) 

Eventually (generally long after that month has passed), I will sit down and print out selected pages for our binder. 

We then listen to the audio-book together while we each color our own coloring page. Again - we're not exactly coloring page people here, but it is nice to color in the flowers and leaves of the plant at hand while listening to a story about it. 

It is really much better to do the stories in the month they are received, because that is the when the plant is already in bloom and going to be in bloom out in nature already. We attempted to grow things inside, but we had a series of unfortunate events - now that winter is soon upon us again (we have a south-facing window and grow tomatoes inside during the winter - they don't grow as much in the summer for us), I think we'll start again with fresh seeds.

I try to print on the lowest ink setting possible - and use up low ink cartridges - so our pages turn out light. It just means we can fill in the details we like (and get the information through our hands again!).


The great thing about our binder is that, even if we did the work in the actual month provided, there is SO much there - that you can easily pick and choose a few things this year; and cycle back around to it next year. We also have a beautiful binder full of recipes, crafts, additional activities, uses, journal pages and background information (like scientific classification information). One would have to cut back on other studies in order to do everything provided in one month. It has really been worth every penny spent.

I myself am really learning a lot and enjoying every minute of it!

Botany: Herb Growing

We have decided this year to forego vegetables and fruits (except for our refuse-to-die tomato plants) and see what we can do with an indoor herb garden. We are combining our herb studies with Herb Fairies (opens up once a year in the early spring - sign up for their newsletter to get an announcement next April), other courses from LearningHerbs.com, my previous health-related studies and the book that started it all: A Kids Herb Book for children of all ages.

Our other Herb posts:
Biology Studies for 2013
Initial post that started the herb studies
Healing Herbs - using grocery store items
A review of Kidzerbs: A Kid's Garden Kit for Growing Medicinal Plants (coming soon)

Other posts labeled as Botany on Montessori Trails


Legoboy takes over the post from here:
(he needed some prompts, so I typed in the questions for him)


What is growing: 

• Calendula
• Flax
• Borage
• Johnny jump-up
• Yarrow 
• Fennel
• Marshmallow
• Poppy
• Basil
• Love-in-the-mist
• Dandelion and
• Chamleomile

What is not yet growing:

• Plaintain
• Mullein
• Licorice
• Lemon Balm
• Catnip

Why did you start this garden? 

Because I thought it would be fun to grow herbs ourselves (note from Mama: fresh herbs have different uses from dried herbs; and store-bought can be SO expensive). Because I can do with my Mama. 

Why is it indoors? Why not on the balcony? 

Because of snow and hail in the winter. Because we have neighbors who smoke and we don't want that yuckiness in our food and medicine plants. And because I spill water and the neighbors below don't like it. 

What is your favorite herb right now? 

Plaintain and Lemon Balm

What are you going to do with these herbs to keep them growing? 

Water them and add more soil when needed. We are buying some flower pots and some clear small storage tubs for transferring next week. 

What are you going to DO with ALL these herbs? 

Plaintain for if I got devil’s club thorns (note from Mom - it's in Herb Fairies but I don't know if we have that here??), or make syrup for coughs and sore throats and when I'm hungry. 

Marshmallow for coughs and sore throats.

Chamomile for bedtime tea.

Why did you choose these herbs? 

Because these are the herbs in the Kids Herb book and some came in the Kidzherb kit which we bought because it had many of the herbs we wanted. When we ordered seeds, we didn't know what would be included in the Herb Fairies series. Now we have more than we wanted, but not all that we would like. 

Our indoor garden:

seeds won't grow without soil.
we added soil. 

Botany leads to Chemistry leads to Anatomy!

One direction our Herb studies have gone is into healing - medicines from our very food and even from our weeds!

During our Supermarket Herbalism E-Course (7 days, totally free, less than 5 minutes a day, truly all typical grocery items), we learned some great things that garlic can do for your body. Legoboy just LOVES the fact that the chopped-up garlic soaked in olive oil creates a fantastic oil to be rubbed onto one's toes for overnight. No cough! And the congestion has all but cleared up. And he gets his toes rubbed every night ;)
(he has spring allergies and this has been a life-saver! and NO allergy meds needed yet!)

That led to questions about what components in the foods cause the various responses. How is it that the essential garlic particles are diffused into the olive oil; then the olive oil, along with those wonderful components (particles) are soaked upwards through our bodies where the garlic takes up residence in one's lungs (endocrine system) - thus cleaning out the airway passages. In the meantime, we explored the reactions of soaking garlic in other substances - what would happen - sometimes a physical reaction, sometimes a chemical reaction. Which are safe to consume and which not? Of the safe ones, what are the options for taking it? (chopped up garlic in olive oil can make a great salad dressing! and if you like vinaigrettes then soak some chopped up garlic in the vinegar type of your preference)

We just had to take a look at the insides of the body to check out the respiratory system.

Not our favorite book due to lack of detail; but
interesting with the pop-ups - it's the one he used several
years ago to first learn about the body.
he keeps it on hand for the 3-d ;)
there are so many wonderful options out there!

Side-tidbits learned: 

we are still working on several
vitamin e bottles of capsules
NOTE: just buy in liquid form
and use an eyedropper ;)

• when you eat a lot of garlic and can't brush/clean it out of your mouth? it's because it is in your lungs, where it should be. 
• we always use vitamin e added to basic lotion as an insect repellent. Our studies above recalled this fact to his mind and Legoboy asked me, "What else does vitamin E do?" It helps with healthy nails and hair, which are the same thing - the particles are just re-arranged. He didn't believe me. 
• I then pointed out that diamonds and coal and our bodies are made of the same stuff - carbon - just with the particles arranged in different manners. He didn't believe me. 
• We then pulled out the crystals he'd previously made of alum - white powder as far as he is concerned, but forms crystals. He finally believed me!
• DOING is a better way of learning than lecturing ;) 

Now, I've hit on things kind of lightly here - mostly because, to give you more details, I would have had to chronicle every tidbit as it happened, and that would be a LONG blog post (or series of blog posts) that would show what happened only here in our home, not necessarily a "program" of study (program being pre-planned). We simply worked through the biology elementary Montessori album and took off on rabbit trails (extensions). ;) Thus, here are some of the highlights of where it could go!

We had long conversations, explored the books we have, used the internet (especially learningherbs.com, but others as well), culled a friend's 5 acres of land, visited the library some, scheduled a visit with a local herbalist... and otherwise really took a lot of time with this. We followed my own interests as well as Legoboy's interests and had a lot of fun along the way. Some days, not much happened; other days it was our sole focus. (past tense! haha! We're still in the middle of all this!)

Present the keys and follow the child (guiding to make sure the path is a healthy one ;) ). Then express such joy when your son brings you these:

Half-dead
but he can tell me the type of leaves; the type of flowers;
what kind of roots they had;
and what kind of seed they came from.
How they are pollinated.
And how they lovely they smell on our kitchen table :) 

Happy Mother's Day!!!