Each May, organizations and individuals across the United States, like the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI, work to promote awareness about mental health issues. NAMI's theme this year is "CureStigma" …
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Hi all! Summer and extra hot weather will soon be upon us. This blog post focuses on a compilation of fun Austin area activities to keep you and your family busy (and hopefully sometimes cool) all summer long. Think swimming spots, splash pads, free museum days, kids eat free days, movie days, library days, family service activities, and so on.
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It's time for Enriched Family's May roundup of kid and family activities happening in the Austin area...
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April is Financial Literacy Month. In honor of this important month devoted to increasing financial knowledge and increasing the recognition of the importance of financial empowerment, I have updated a post on allowances and included some additional resources for parents.
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As the end of school nears, many of us are thinking about summer camps, summer plans, and road trips. To help you on your road warrior journeys with kids, I have updated a blog post I did in January on podcasts for kids (aka road trip survival tools). I have added some new favorites to the list, dropped some podcasts that are good in a pinch, but are no longer at the top of our frequently played list, and kept those that continue to be top picks.
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This is the fourth and final in a series of posts I wrote on summer camps in the Austin area. Previous posts focused on science and STEM-based camps, arts-based camps, and sports camps. This week's post focuses on day camps and overnight camps. When I think of day camps, I think of a "classic" camp experience - all around fun, incorporating different structured activities, as well as lots of outdoor activities, and plenty of unstructured time for fun - the camps included in this post were selected based on their fit with this camp definition. Overnight camps included meet the day camp definition and have the added benefit of being sleep away camps.
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It's time for Enriched Family's April roundup of kid and family activities happening in the Austin area...
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This is the third in a series of posts I am doing on summer camps in the Austin area. Previous posts focused on science and STEM-based camps and arts-based camps. This week's post focuses on a variety of sports camps, including baseball, basketball, climbing, gymnastics, horseback riding, martial arts, multi-sport , and soccer camps.
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It's time for Enriched Family's March roundup of kids and family activities happening in the Austin area...
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It's time to cast your vote in the 2018 Texas Primary Election! Check out voting information in this post.
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This is the second in a series of posts I will be doing over the next few weeks focusing on summer camps in the Austin area. Last week's post was on Science and STEM-based camps (check it out, if you haven't already!). Today's post features arts-based camps, including visual art, dance, drama, music, and film. Next week's post will be devoted to Enriched Family's March round up of kids and family activities in Austin. I will be back to posting on summer camps in two weeks and will feature a variety of sports camps.
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Check it out this weekend! Nurture My Child Summer Camp Fair 2018
When: Sunday, February 25th, 2018, 1-4pm
Details: The Nurture My Child Camp Fair is a friendly, community focused camp fair to help parents select the right summer camp for their child. Free admission and free parking. Fun, free, hands-on activities. Learn about spring break, summer, and overnight camps for ages 4-18. There will be over $10,000 worth of free camps and giveaways to win at the fair.
Where: Norris Conference Center (2525 W Anderson Lane), Austin, TX
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Believe it or not, it is time to start thinking about summer camps. Many camps have already started registering students and fill up quickly. In an effort to make your life easier, I will be doing a series of posts highlighting different types of summer camps in the Austin area. Today's first post focuses on Science and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) camps.
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It's time for Enriched Family's February roundup of kids and family activities happening in the Austin area...
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Day 5: Always Schedule the Next Dentist, Haircut, Doctor, Fill-in-the-Blank Appointment While you are There
Today's post is about scheduling your family's regular care appointments for the year. This seems comically straightforward, but how many of us take our kids to the dentist and forget or put off scheduling their next appointment? No more. Make it a priority to always schedule your next appointment for any service or medical visit while you are in the office. This will save time in the long run and ensure that you and your family are up-to-date on wellness and self-care appointments....
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Day 4: Create an In/Out Paperwork System
Paperwork clutter getting you down? We are all inundated on a daily basis with mail, bills, important documents, and kids' school forms, assignments, and completed work. I have a simple, inexpensive suggestion to control this paperwork clutter...
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Day 3: Get serious about creating time for self-care.
We have all heard that self-care is important, but how often do we leave this very last on the proverbial list? It wasn't until I was in my late-thirties, early forties (and admittedly when I was out of the trenches of babyhood/toddlerhood with my kids), that I got serious about self-care.
When I say get serious, I mean: I made it a priority by scheduling it and sticking to that schedule as much as possible. I suggest you start out simply and don't overwhelm yourself (in the past, I have been guilty of being the queen of setting unrealistically high and undoable expectations). Choose one area to focus on at a time (such as regular exercise) and don't add a new self-care area until exercise is firmly part of your weekly routine (at whatever frequency goal you have set for yourself)...
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Day 2: Scheduled weekly grocery shopping and a little help from some friends...?
Today's post focuses on scheduled weekly grocery shopping. This and regular meal planning have made such a difference in our family life. This is a very simple, practical idea, but it took our family some time to fully commit to it. The key is to choose a day to make your grocery store list weekly (based on your weekly meal planning) and to grocery shop for the week and stick to it consistently.
I also highly recommend considering the use of an online grocery shopping service like Instacart. This changed our lives and that is only slight hyperbole (no ads or sponsorships here; I just genuinely love this service). Imagine, no more spending 1-2 hours on the weekend driving to different stores and grocery shopping with kids in tow, or running to the grocery store last minute to buy "something" to make for dinner that night when you and the kids are already tired and hungry. This is a recipe for disaster and a whole lot of impulse buying. You know what I'm talking about...
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It’s the New Year. Many of us are thinking about, or are already making progress on, better organizing our lives. And some of us have already given up (been there). In an effort to keep us motivated (myself included), I am going to post one practical, time-saving idea a day over the next five days. These five ideas may save you time, and, in some cases, money, as well as sanity. You will have to put in some time at the outset, but these suggestions will likely leave you less frazzled in the long run. Many are tried- and-true approaches that have made a big difference in the life of my family (others I am still working on).
Some of the ideas may not work for you and your family or may not be a priority; that’s fine. Pick the one idea (two if you are feeling particularly ambitious) that you think would make the biggest difference in your and your family's life and adapt it as needed. Then, once you have incorporated it smoothly into your weekly routine, you can try out some of the other ideas.
Day 1: Meal Planning...
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I want to share a free resource that may be helpful to your family, a friend's family, or families you work with – the Resilient Child Summit presented by GoZen! will occur online next week, January 22-26, 2018. By registering for this free online summit, each day you will receive access to 3-4 expert interviews (from 20 of the world's top resilience experts) packed with practical tools to help kids cultivate resilience and manage stress better.
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