Whether our kids are still home with us, headed to school or navigating a “hybrid” world this year, parenting during COVID brings a host of new challenges, and we all need support.
Our Tinkergarten team is here to help! We’ve reviewed research, consulted experts, talked with families across our community, and revisited the nuggets of wisdom we’ve gained over 23 seasons of Tinkergarten classes. What did we learn? Across the board, the same struggles define parenting in this incredible moment, and the same tips are proving helpful, time and again.
Your Family PLAYbook
We’ve packaged all of these learnings into a Family PLAYbook—a guide to thriving during quarantine. And, we are thrilled to share it with our entire Tinkergarten community. The Playbook is organized into four “steps,” each loaded up with linked resources to make life feel more joyful.
These steps are:
1) Set Up A Schedule That Works for Everyone
2) Encourage Independent Play (and Get Some Time Back, Too)
3) Understand What Kids Really Need
4) Make Sure You’re Taking Care of Yourself, Too
Introducing Play Breaks!
The release of this playbook also kicks off a NEW, free weekly content series—Tinkergarten Play Breaks. These Play Breaks are quick, easy ways to weave outdoor play into your child’s day, no matter what learning looks like for your family. We’ll share our first set Play Breaks with everyone on our mailing list next Wednesday, September 9 to help your family get back into the groove after Labor Day weekend. After that, we’ll send a fresh set each Sunday with versions designed for babies and toddlers, preschoolers, and school aged kids. Inspired by our expert-designed Tinkergarten activities, this series is engineered for efficiency: the goal is to take just a few minutes of setup to spark hours of independent, outdoor play.
Read more about how to kick off your family’s day, build in play breaks, and make the most of meals together. You can also take a peek at a sample week’s worth of Play Breaks.
Come connect!
We all need community right now, and our free #OutdoorsAll4 Facebook group is full of families sharing, supporting and connecting—come join in the conversation! We also know that good advice is like gold, so we’re also welcoming you to ask us questions through our new Ask Meghan series. Each Tuesday, our Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer, Meghan Fitzgerald will invite our community to submit questions via Instagram Stories and share answers to questions from the previous week. Follow us on @tinkergarten to join in. Finally, the week of September 7, Meghan will host two special fireside chats with our community to talk about how our families can not simply survive but truly thrive this year!
Thank you!
We hope that these resources are helpful, and we are eternally grateful for the experts, teammates, and members of our extended community whose questions, stories and insights have taught us so much and have made our parenting journey so much more joyful!
As always, let us know how else we can support you and your family at support@tinkergarten.com. We’d love to hear from you!
