I just did a calendar check. Looks like there’s only 6 more weeks of school to go. Time to ponder summer plans and swimming holes and camps and craft projects and all the other things we can do with the long stretching hours of school-less days.

And time too to check in with your child’s teachers and see what they need in these last 6 weeks. It’s when the crunch for testing is over and the options for creative teaching expand. It’s time too when the kids get a little restless, especially those 5th graders who are experiencing their first dose of senioritis.

If you’ve planned on volunteering in the classroom, now’s your chance. And if you haven’t planned on it, might I recommend it? It’s a great way to connect with your kid in a whole different way. You’ll gain insight into their day to day and into their peer group and into the whole world where they spend a good deal of their awake time.

Ask your teacher what they need. Figure out what you can offer. And get in there for an hour or so. You’ll be glad you did. And who knows what you’ll end up creating.

A friend sent me this beautiful poem yesterday. Perhaps it caught my attention more than usual because I had woken up VERY early that morning and wrote a short piece myself about a similar topic. The piece I wrote was about remembering the love that started our families. It was about the fact that if we knew all there was to be done in family life we might not sign up at all but because we start in love it makes it all feel possible. And when we can remember and reignite that love and burning desire that started our families in the first place, it’s not only possible but very much joyful too. My piece you’ll be able to read in 2013 when it comes out in book form from Perigee Publishing. And this poem, that makes me cry everytime I read it, you can read right now…

It’s the time of year for thank-you notes! A habit I love to model and encourage in my children. And one that I know isn’t always that easy to do – especially when there are so many to say thanks to and so much to be thankful for! Sometimes those lists just feel overwhelming. To me and to the kids.

This year we have a new way of doing them. A way that not only says thanks but encourages family connection as well. Read about it on Future Craft Collective and then gather the family for a little collaborative gratitude session!

I guess I just like collaboration. It’s part of growing up in a huge family and also having a big(ish) family now. All of life is a collaboration so why not my work too?

This latest endeavor of mine is a merge of both Slow Family and Future Craft Collective in that it combines sustainable and mindful art and craft for children with a little bit of slowing down and pondering and creative time for the mamas too. (in their own space!) While we offer a creative class for the children, we’ll also be offering an opportunity for mamas (and papas too if they like) a chance to sit and craft, do a little writing, talk with other parents, or just take a little walk on their own down South Congress Avenue. In addition to merging my two worlds, this class will be a collaborative effort with my friend Andrea of Primavera Montessori School and Andrea’s art class, who is an amazing artist and teacher!

Photo by Katherine O'Brien

If you’re in Austin and have a 3-5 year old, and you’re seeking a little creative time of your own, whether tangible or emotional, this could be the class for you. We’re excited about it. And we look forward to getting started! Here’s the details…

Creative Class

for 3-5 year olds…with a little something creative for the parents too

An incredible new art class for your child and an opportunity for you as a parent to have a little relaxing, creative time of your own!

In this brand new offering from Andrea Fiore and Bernadette Noll, we’ll offer art exploration for your 3-5 year old, 1 or 2 mornings a week for one hour. While your child learns, you’ll be encouraged to settle in, relax and create – in an outdoor space with other parents, where there will be a craft offered, writing prompts about family life or art supplies made available. Or, if you’d rather, you can walk the short block toS. Congress Avenuefor a coffee or a bite, knowing your child is learning to explore his own creativity in an art experience like no other. Either way, you win! And so does your child. Read more…

We just looked at the calendar and realized it’s less than just over a week until school starts. WHAT??? Already??? It’s this time of year when I think homeschooling everyone might be kind of fun. I at least enjoy the idea that it’s an idea.

We’re trying to get our heads in the game as far as what it means to start up again with the 6:45 alarm and the homework and the lunches, but honestly, we usually opt for more of a baptism by fire. In some ways that works – especially as far as the rising early goes – but in some ways it sort of catches us off guard.

One thing we do every year is have a little back to school family party the night before. We state some high points of the summer. We all set some goals of things we want to have happen this school year, what we might want to learn or do.  And we celebrate our life together as a family. If you have some things you do each year to make it breezy, I’d love to hear them!

Suz Lipman at Slow Family Online, a great site and resource for all things family, just posted a great list of ways to intentionalize the back to school process – for yourself and for your whole family. It’s a good one with lots of amazing tips. Check it out when you have a few minutes.

And if you’re going back to school here in Austin, be sure to check out our 4th annual Zilker Elementary Back to School Clothes Swap. Bring what you can. Take what you need. We’ll have clothes from infants to adults. As usual, we’ll have sewers and screen printers on hand to help you one-of-a-kind a fave garment picked from the piles. Come and swap and see what amazing ensembles you can put together for back to school!

Children in Nature Austin held a viewing yesterday of a new documentary called Play Again.  It was an incredible film showing the statistics and effects of screen time on the modern day childhood. Some of the stats were scary such as the fact that the average child in the US watches 7.5 hours of screens per day.  To me that seems virtually impossible but all the kids interviewed concurred with some as high as 12-15 hours per day on weekends. This number includes computer time/video games/phones, etc. Any screen at all.

In the film they featured 6 average teens who talked about their screen usage, virtual relationships, game time, etc. They all presented themselves very honestly and, to the filmmakers credit, without any judgment at all about their behavior. They then took these 6 kids out on a nature excursion in the amazingly beautiful woods of the Pacific Northwest (this Texas resident was drooling over the lushness of it all). The belief systems of the kids was revealed in a really poignant way – again without judgment at all.

One of the points made in the film was how we as adults have to model the behavior we want to see in our kids. This is something we have talked about often as part of Slow Family’s mission – model what we want to see. If we are texting, ignoring our face to face relationships so we can check our virtual ones, losing connection with those who are closest to us, that’s what our kids will see and copy. This film definitely has caused me to look again at my own relationship with the virtual world. Don’t get me wrong, I love my virtual time. I love the communities formed around it. I love the sharing of information, photos, ideas via the virtual world. But I have to remember that the real connection has to come first. And foremost. And if I want connection with my kids down the road, that connection needs to be established first.

The film showed too that the connection to nature needs also to be established now if we are hoping to have stewards for our planet down the road.  One of the experts interviewed stated that there “must be a valuing of the earth. If there is no valuing, there is no protection. And if there is no protection, there is no hope.”  I don’t by any means want to sound alarmist but I do agree, that if our kids don’t feel a connection to nature, there will be no desire for them to help protect the planet we live on. And as one of the kids said during their campout, “I like earth. It’s my hometown.”  And I won’t even go into the cravings to consume that are created when screen time is increased.

This film is just now making the festival circuit but is available on their website Play Again Film . I highly recommend every parent watch this film. And I recommend also that every teen and pre-teen watch it with them. (just be forewarned there are some graphic video game images so you can determine for yourself if your child is old enough to see it.) It’s a really insightful and informative film and I think it allows the viewer to form their own judgment – not about others but about themselves and their own behavior.

We don’t have to panic. But I do think we need to ponder, Is what we’re doing working for us? As a family and as a society and as a planet too. As one of the kids said, it’s up to each parent to look at their child’s screen behavior and determine if it’s too much. Is it getting in the way of real relationships with other people? With their own family? With their own self?

As one kid said when they were out in the woods, “This is cool. It’s like more realistic than video games.”

If you see it, I’d love to know what you think. And if you’re in Austin and want to find ways you can get in nature near you, check out Nature Rocks website which has parks and nature events listed by area.

Inspired by my time camping with the Little Green Witches, I’m bringing back the girls group I did a few years ago. With a twist. This time for my littler girl. And for any girls ages 7-10 who would like to join us.

This group, run by Bernadette, is for girls ages 7-10 who are interested in discovering, crafting, writing, singing, learning and exploring all that life has to offer. Together we will ponder the power of our true selves and our connection to the world around us – through weekly and ongoing projects and discussions. In the 6 sessions we will…

* create, make, and explore ways to bring art into every part of our lives.
* discuss joy and appreciation and the importance of living in both
* learn how to tune into our own needs – body, mind and spirit – and tend to those needs as best we can.
* look at the families and communities in which we live and find ways to strengthen our connection to it all.
* explore the earth on which we live and how we can minimize our impact.
* discover and practice good tools of communication that will bring us to a greater connection with ourselves, friends, family and all those with whom we share this world.

In these sessions we will write, craft, hike, explore, draw, create, talk, paint, ponder, make, meditate and investigate what makes us, us. And we will come away with a better sense of what it means to let our own lights shine their very brightest, all the while building the greatest connection we possibly can.

* When: Alternate Tuesdays starting January 18th – April 12th 3:30-5:30 + Saturday community service day (2:45 start for Zilker students who will meet after school and walk over together with Bernadette)
* Where: Sanctuary at Amala Foundation just off Treadwell and South Lamar
* What: Snack will be provided
* Cost: $175.00* Can be paid with cash, check or paypal.
* Questions: Contact Bernadette via email or call 512-627-0652

*Arrangements can be made for monthly payment if needed

When a family splits, the trauma often reverberates for years, as family members struggle to adapt to a “new normal” of mom’s house, dad’s house, and new adult partners in the mix.

Austin writer Jennifer Newcomb Marine and her children’s stepmother,Carol Marine used their own experience around divorce and remarriage to write a book called Noone’s the Bitch; strengthening step families one mother/stepmother relationship at a time. If you are the mother or the step mother and you are seeking ways to create a bridge with the other woman in your child’s life, this book is definitely for you.

Starting this week, Jennifer is hosting a 6 week tele-conference, called Transformation Labs, for women seeking solutions for their own step-family relationships. Says Jennifer, “Creating a bridge enabled us to cobble the family nest back together again. It took time and sometimes we still go backwards, but we have created a foundation that is strong and durable. Now our kids have three adults in their lives who are on the same page, clucking and fretting over them, together. I know they feel loved. They have told me they feel heard.”

If you are in a stepfamily, or know someone who is, and want to learn how to build more connection into it all,  check out the work of Jennifer and Carol.

A friend’s daughter is attending camp this summer for 3 full days a week for free. They have created a great thing they call Co-op camp and all the girls involved attend 4 days a week – 3 of them for free. Here’s how it works… Each family takes the girls 1 day a week. The other 3 days the girls go to a different house. The parent is responsible for creating some camp like activity for the girls either at home or somewhere out in the community.

So far, and only one week into summer break, they have roller skated, swam in a creek and biked at the town veloway. In the weeks to come they’ll do some sewing, bowling, definitely more swimming and who knows what other fun stuff. The total cost is up to the parent – they can either find something free to do with the kids like a craft or a swimming hole or they can choose something with an entry free.

The cost benefits are obvious. Who doesn’t want to attend an innovative summer camp for free? One of the other benefits though is that the kids are getting to explore their own town in a way that they might not have done if just left to their parents devices and they are getting to do it with friends – thereby avoiding the summer cries of wanting to see more friends. And for the parents, they are then committing to spending one day each week solely dedicated to the pursuit of summer fun. Who doesn’t want to do that? In addition, one of the moms said she enjoys finding out about cool places and events in their own town which she might not have thought of or known of otherwise thereby giving her fodder for future family outings and activities.

This seems like total Slow Family to me. It’s slow, it’s connected and everyone involved is finding they are enjoying the summer more than they would have without it.

What ways are you finding to make summer more connected?

I got a beautiful Christmas card from a cousin of mine in Oakland California. It had photos of her throughout the year on her many worldly travels. Pictures too of friends and family here and there. And a very simple list, right down the middle of the page, of simple ways we as individuals can take steps to build and expand community. There are things we can do everyday, and others we can do randomly throughout the year. Things we can do on our own. And things we can do in a group. Things we can do on a whim. And others that will take a little planning.

She got the list from a site called Simple Living. It seems like a great way to kick off the new year! Here it is for all of you to try in your own communities…

• Turn off your TV
• Leave your house
• Know your neighbors
• Look up when you are walking
• Greet people
• Sit on your front stoop
• Plant flowers
• Use your library
• Play together
• Buy local
• Share what you have
• Help a lost dog
• Take children to the park
• Garden together
• Support neighborhood schools
• Fix it even if you didn’t break it
• Have pot lucks
• Honor elders
• Pick up litter
• Read stories aloud
• Dance in the street
• Talk to the mail carrier
• Listen to the birds
• Put up a swing
• Help carry something heavy
• Barter for your goods and services
• Start a tradition
• Ask a question
• Hire young people for odd jobs
• Organize a block party
• Bake/Cook extra and share
• Ask for help when you need it
• Open your shades
• Sing together
• Share your skills
• Take back the night
• Turn up the music
• Turn down the music
• Listen before you react in anger
• Mediate a conflict
• Seek to understand
• Learn from new and uncomfortable angles
• Know that no one is silent though many are not heard. Work to change this.

To this list I would add…

• Talk to the homeless
• Sweep the front sidewalk
• Park in your driveway instead of your garage
• Put free stuff on the curb
• Make and deliver collections for those less fortunate: canned goods, shoes, books, etc
• Have friends over for dinner
• Take a walk around the block
• Plan a nature hike with friends

What would you add to your list?