ABOUT GROWING A JEWELED ROSE
Children have a way of finding something extraordinary in the middle of an ordinary day. A little water becomes somewhere to splash. A cardboard box becomes a spaceship, a castle, or something without a name. Something bubbling in a bowl becomes an experiment that absolutely must be tried again.
They don't know these are the moments we will remember. They are much too busy living them.
Growing a Jeweled Rose began inside days like these, when my own girls were little and one idea had a way of becoming another. We mixed things just to see what would happen, made messes bigger than I expected, followed questions I didn't know the answers to, and invented things simply because they sounded fun. Some activities lasted five minutes. Others took over the afternoon.
I wanted their childhood to feel full of wonder. But the photographs on these pages don't show every hour of those years. There were long days, tired days, and plenty of evenings when bedtime couldn't come soon enough.
But children keep growing through all of them.
Rosie and Jewel aren't little anymore, but their little hands are all through these pages: reaching into bowls, squeezing slime, mixing colors, digging in sand, holding up whatever they had just made for me to see.
When I see those photographs now, the activities almost disappear. I see my girls. I see how little their hands were. I see afternoons that once felt like just another day and somehow became years much faster than I ever imagined they would.
I don't wish I had made every day extraordinary. I just miss having my little girls inside those ordinary days.
They were what made them extraordinary.
Before I ever knew what Rosie and Jewel's childhood would look like, I knew how I hoped it would feel. Then they came along with their own curiosities, their own ideas, and their own wonderfully unexpected ways of turning whatever we began into something that belonged completely to them.
Growing a Jeweled Rose grew from those years. Today, ideas that once had my girls reaching across our table are being mixed, stretched, painted, erupted, and made completely new in homes much like ours.
Maybe one of those ideas begins in your home today. Your child reaches in, adds something you never would have thought of, asks “What if...?” and decides it absolutely needs to happen again.
And while they are busy mixing, wondering, laughing, and trying one more thing, they won't know that anything important is happening.
They'll just be busy being little.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hello, my name is Crystal Underwood, writer and creator of Growing a Jeweled Rose. I created Growing a Jeweled Rose in 2011 to share the playful experiments, messy discoveries, and wonderfully unexpected ideas we were exploring at home.
I've spent years working and playing alongside children, creating hands-on experiences that invite them to wonder, experiment, imagine, and see what happens next. I've always believed in giving children room to play, follow their curiosity, and discover for themselves, trusting that so much of the learning happens naturally along the way.
I hope you find something here that leads to laughter, surprises, and those little moments when you get to step inside the magic of childhood right alongside them.
WHAT WILL THEY CHOOSE?
Some children want to make something bubble over. Others want to squish, stretch, mix colors, make something glow, or build something entirely their own.
Growing a Jeweled Rose is filled with ways to follow those interests wherever they lead. Explore our Play Recipes for slime, doughs, sensory fillers, and wonderfully messy concoctions; discover Science Experiments made for curious little hands; step into the colorful world of Glow-in-the-Dark Activities; or find something just right for the moment in our Seasonal Activities and Holiday Fun.
There is always another experiment to try, something strange to mix, a new way to create, or an idea your child hasn't thought of yet.
Somewhere in all of it is the one that makes your child say, “Can we do this one?”
LET'S STAY IN TOUCH
Have a question, something to share, or just want to say hello? I'd love to hear from you. You can reach me at GrowingaJeweledRose@gmail.com for questions, collaborations, partnerships, or other opportunities. You can also find Growing a Jeweled Rose on Pinterest and Facebook,and read our Privacy Policy.
I WONDER WHAT YOU'LL FIND
There are years of ideas tucked inside these pages, each one waiting for another child to discover it.
I wonder which one will become part of your story.
