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osmoz KIDS is a fragrant section of our site that’s both educational and fun. It will allow you to initiate your children, nephews or nieces, cousins or friends’ children into the delightfully surprising world of scents. Each issue will present a different theme, with smells to discover in a playful, simple and safe way that can keep your little rascals busy on a rainy day…
 

The sweet smell of summer
 
Although summer vacation always seems too short, it does leave us lots of good memories. The memories can be pictures, sounds… or smells. Here’s a short list of some of the smells you can enjoy over the summer.
At the beach
Bottled perfumes and fragrances are often inspired by the beach, the smell of warm sand and ocean waves. And it’s true that there are lots of smells at the shore. Fishermen sometimes sell fresh fish at a fish market that people sometimes say ‘smells like the sea’. I don’t think the market smells as good as papa’s scent: it just smells like fish to me! But it’s true that when you’re on the warm beach, and there’s a cool wind, it can smell really nice. Adults call it a ‘sea breeze’ or ‘sea air’. I just say it smells wet, and a bit salty, like when you find shells in the sand. There can be other nice smells at the beach too, like sun-tan lotion, which is sort of sweet sometimes. People who already have a good tan sometimes smell like coconut oil. There are other sweet smells at the beach, too. My favorite is when the ice-cream man comes: yum!
 
In the countryside
Even if you don’t go to the beach, there are still lots of good smells in summer. You can still smell sun-tan lotion – Mom always makes me wear it when we go swimming at the lake or the outdoor pool. Pools have a lot of smells, too, wet of course, or ’aquatic’ as big people say. But it doesn’t really smell like the sea. It’s a wet smell, kind of like watermelon. But there’s also the smell of the chemicals they put in the pool to keep it clean. That’s why the water stings your eyes sometimes. If you go for a walk in the country or a hike in the mountains, you can smell lots of nice smells, like lavender. People make lavender bouquets that smell good months later, even after the flowers have dried. And sometimes out in the fields, there’s a nice, unusual smell of hay drying.

Summer treats
Summer brings lots of good things to eat, too. Since it’s hot out, sometimes we have ice cream for dessert at home, or an ice-cream sandwich or ice-cram on a stick at the beach. Vanilla, chocolate, strawberry: everybody has their favorite flavor. And we eat lots of fresh fruit too. It’s great, because summer is when fruit tastes best… better than at the school lunchroom! You can smell and taste fresh cherries, peaches, apricots and melons. But I think my favorite summer smell is when we have friends over for a barbecue in the backyard. It smells like smoke and grilled food. In fact, it smells like summer. I can’t wait!
   

 

 

For this activity, you need:
- to open up your nostrils and breathe deep!
- some summer fruit or other treats (but go easy on the ice cream!-)

If you want, you can use a little sketchpad to draw some of the things you smelled, and you can take notes about what they smelled like.

Age range > 8+