I came across such an interesting idea that each of us has "our own herbs". There was no explanation in the text, it was assumed that in cosmetics and medicinal purposes it is preferable to choose herbs with the smell that you like. There was a hint that there was a method of selecting plants for your home medicine cabinet.
In search of this technique, I came across the eternal "better late than never" and now I can offer you to evaluate games with infants for the development of the sense of smell:
One of the iconic figures in children's pedagogy of the 20th century, the Italian Maria Montessori developed a unique method of early development, in which she paid great attention to the development of the five main senses: sight, smell, hearing, touch and taste.
With a six-month-old baby, you can play different games, one of them allows the mother to introduce the baby to the world of smells and understand which smells the child likes and which ones do not.
For the game, you will need smells that are audible, different from each other and safe for kids. If you do not know what smells should not be actively used in the nursery, then try simple smells: pine needles, chamomile, bay leaf, lavender, string, tea tree, valerian.Do not use essential oils – they are often obtained chemically and the chemical shade is present in the aroma, especially too pungent odors, and, of course, perfumes even the most branded and expensive.
To begin with, you will need 2 smells that are quite different from each other: for example, pine needles and citrus. Bring one of them to your nose and show your child that you are sniffing. You can draw in the nose air quite noisily. When the child is interested in what you are doing, you can offer him a try. The monkey will try to repeat. Offer him another smell. You will see that the reaction is different. You have the opportunity to show which of the smells you like more. But I prefer to find out his opinion first, and only then demonstrate my own.
The kid may not understand what is the matter. It is important that he sees the process of sniffing giving you pleasure. You can ask dad to take part in the game.
When the cub realized that he was offered to play in the world of smells, you can get a beautiful set of boxes with herbs. It's great if the box will depict a plant, well, if you have a twig with leaves, conifers or flowers, then the baby will be able to associate the smell with the appearance of the plant.
Now you can play guessing.
You can pick up the smell for a doll, a bear and even a rattle. then playing guessing will be more fun and easier.
Name the smell: apple, orange, bay leaf, pine, cedar, spruce, milk, sour cream, yogurt, rye bread, bread with cumin, etc.
When your child already knows the smells of food, he can be asked to guess by smell what he will eat now. The discovery that the kid makes, recognizing the invisible, is an unusually pleasant sight from the outside. At first, he may need the help of taste buds, later only the smell is enough.
Try to find words to describe the smells: sour – sweet, cold – warm, thick – transparent, dark – light. You can also associate smell and color, smell and notes.
By embarking on the path of playing with fragrances, you'll probably get carried away with how much you can learn about a person who doesn't yet know how to talk properly. Take it to restaurants with national cuisines, and you will find out what cuisine your child prefers.
After such hikes, it's time to learn how to cook.
Especially pleases the child after 2 is the opportunity to knead the dough. The smell of shortbread, sponge cake or yeast dough is different, but you can make cookies with vanilla, cinnamon, zest, etc.
If you like to add herbs to tea, you can see how long it will take your child to learn and name the smells of those herbs that you add to his tea.
He, perhaps better than yourself, will be able to distinguish the smells of different fabrics, for example, cotton and silk, the nuances of coniferous smells: pine and spruce or citrus grapefruit, orange, etc. So the student surpassed his teacher? you have managed to teach more than you know yourself – catch up).
If a child is making progress and enjoys the process, then you can teach him to mix several smells together. Use the rules of mixing the smells of the European school of perfumery or Ayurvedic ideas about harmony.
You can play a game of "how many fly" with him. To do this, the child must be in a high chair, and you can rub the plant with your palms at a considerable distance from it. For a while he will not feel the smell, wave your hands to speed up the process, and then the first molecules of the aroma will reach his nose, even later the smell will increase and become pronounced. Observe the reaction and the realization that even the smell takes time to reach the goal.
Teach your child to make a choice. Own. Choose safe essential oils and explain that it can smell the way one of the oils smells before bathing. He can choose how to smell. When he makes a choice, drip the oil on his skin. Just remember that the oil should be diluted with a base oil before applying to the skin.
You can play hide-and-seek with a smell. For this, essential oils are better suited. You will have to hide a jar of oil, but for the convenience of searching, drop a few drops next to it. The kid will quickly realize that the smell is stronger the closer to the source.