Features:
1. Tinkergarten’s outdoor problem-solving club (w/ discount!) 2. Tools of the Trade: the NOAA book club 3. Big Life Journal goal-setting kits
+ BONUS! Tools for re-parenting the body
Winter weather, illness, schedules …
Sometimes it all seems to fall in your lap at once like a veritable s*** storm. (Ahem, that’s snow storm.)
This week’s tools cover all the bleak feels with our usual We Build Better Humans resilience. Because that’s what we do here!
I am not only an online subscriber to the Tinkergarten newsletter, I’m also an IRL user. From the time my older child was a preschooler when this outdoor-play-as-learning-module franchise kicked off, my family has loved their initiatives. I’m sharing our discount opportunity with you & the families you love!
Hot tip: In 2022, Tinkergarten moved into a theme-based seasonal curriculum. Winter 2023’s focus is “Problem-Solving.” Need I say more??
For the grownup learners in your life (hey, that’s you!):
NOAA — the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration — is kicking off its book club this year with Leah Thomas’s The Intersectional Environmentalist. Thomas’s work, which dovetails environmental activism with social justice, holistic learning & even personal joy, is not just a book, but also a movement. Join the NOAA book discussion (where they say all are welcome, “even if you haven’t finished … or read the book”) on Jan. 10 via Google Meet. (Phone in instead at +1 470-735-3415, pin 893 497 585#.)
Looking for something kids & grownups can do together? Families & classrooms alike can benefit from the many levels of goal-setting tools available from Big Life Journal. Yep, there’s a discount for that, too!
As a New Year’s bonus, I really want to share with you a special message (& tremendous list of tools) from my friend & colleague Ryanna Battiste. I’m including it in part below — even to free subscribers. 🤗 😇 😇 You can learn more about Ry & her Breathwork Church.
***BONUS CONTENT*** via Ryanna Battiste
Gentle is the new happy.
I feel pretty heavy this week …
I am really checking my inclination this year to wish people HAPPY New Year.
I felt the same way about a MERRY Christmas.
It's nice to be nice and to want things to feel good for each other, but to me it just contributes to the pressure to feel all these comfortable emotions all the time and feel like a failure when we are feeling uncomfortable.
This year I'm wishing you a GENTLE New Year.
May you be gentle with your post-holiday body, so you may tend to her with loving care instead of disgust.
May you find a gentleness for the people and situations that frustrate or drain you as we all find our footing in this New Year.
May you nurture a gentle connection to Source, knowing you are held when things feel hard. …
(Ry shares a personal story in her newsletter about being triggered by something on social media — relatable much? — then using the very tools she teaches to help soothe herself.)
I went from disembodied to embodied in 15 minutes.
Here's how I did it:
I noticed the weight of my legs and feet, and used my hands to massage and thump on my thighs until I could feel myself in my root.
I breathed deep into my womb space. letting my belly pooch out.
I held my warm hand over the part of my abdomen that was clenching and cold.
I used a tuning fork on my solar plexus to clear the energy.
I circled my chest, hands on my knees, to open my heart.
I stroked my neck in a downward motion.
I moved my eyes back and forth to horizontally to elicit safety.
I prayed and opened myself up to the divine, asking for support.
By the end of the 15 minutes with myself, I didn’t just know I was safe, I felt that I was safe.
And little Ry did too.
We can heal ourselves with gentleness.
This is re-parenting.
Ry asks a closing question in her email & then answers:
“Do you know a child who, when triggered, responds well to criticism, judgment, harshness or impatience?”
**“I DON’T.”**
Psst! Want to get to know Ry even better? Check out my podcast interview with her on the Tune In show!