Get Kids Moving
The outdoors is the best place to be as we fight Covid-19 and experience the beauty of fall. Don’t miss the opportunity on warm days for water play, bike rides, creek walking and neighborhood mapping. Go ahead and get lost!
19 Trails in 19 Days
Explore the parks around central Iowa with Shelly Johnson and her family. You’re sure to have an amazing adventure!
Sprouts
Stretch your parenting skills for your stay-at-home kiddos with the Next Step kids’ Garden Curriculum! Easy-to-use activities, experiments, and gardening tips for first-time AND experienced gardeners as well.
Covid-19 Challenge
Even days you don’t feel like going out…do it anyway! We have some resources for planning outings–Iowa’s #99Parks Funpack and The Family Adventure Bundle
Forest Bathing
No matter where you are today, walk outside. Breathe the fresh air. Touch the earth. Pick up a handful of soil. See how you feel.
Chalk Art
Watch your kids’ faces light up as they reveal their first horizon line–priceless! Chalk Mountains is a unique way to create a design and experiment with color. It helps with focus and flow. #aSTEaMactivity
FUN!!! With Kids & Worms
Everything you’ve always wanted to know about worms, and more! Create your own worm composting bin. Learn about the important jobs worms do for us. Talk about garbage!
Want Better Discussions? Avoid the Pitfalls and Keep Moving Forward
Turning over more control of class conversations to students can be scary, but I’ve found that as long as I’m doing my part, students don’t disappoint me.
Summer Days
School has started now, and I’m reflecting on our summer together–trying to decipher what made it so special. Although our calendar looked wide open, never once did I hear the words, “I’m bored.”
New Year, New Intention
So I’m driving home from yoga class listening to an interview of Sue Grafton, the great detective writer and thinking I need to just write a little bit every day this year. Well, is it too late since yesterday was the first?
And then I realize I’m hungry, and I see that the garbage can is tipped over blocking the driveway, and it’s the first day it’s gotten out of the negatives since last year. So maybe I should actually take a walk. And check to see if the little free library needs to be restocked.
And also the Energy Audit guy is coming in ten minutes. And I have at least two text messages that came when I was in Downward Facing Dog, and no telling how many phone calls. Oh, and I still have a yoga class to plan. But here I am, at my computer, putting my intention of writing each day out into the world.
And feeling excited about it!
Resolutions. Intentions. Whatever. If we take them too seriously, they can set us up for failure, discouragement and self flagellation. But no change comes without action. No goals are met unless we do the work. And chunking down the work is key to progress. At least for me.
So, here’s my first chunk of writing for 2018. Inspired by Sue Grafton who was working on W in her series of 26 detective novels, one for each letter of the alphabet. Talking about how she’d keep writing about Kinsey Milhone after Z is for Zero. But that didn’t happen. She left a missing piece, and an inspiration for me.