Over the years as I’ve learned, read and taken courses on a variety of wellness related topics, I have often thought about how much I would love bring my children along to these classes or find age-appropriate ways to impart the valuable information I’ve received. I believe in general kids are much more open-minded when it comes to learning new things and although I appreciate the education they are getting at school, it would be awesome if they could also take courses in subjects like mindfulness, kindness, manifesting, self-acceptance, gratitude and health eating.

Since no such program exists in my area (although my friend Leslie is working on something for the fall- woohoo!), I decided that I would take it upon myself to dream up a fun learning experience to undertake with my kids during some of my time with them this summer. I know, I know – “no more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks!” I’ve already promised them that this won’t be like school and we will still have lots of time for chillin’ by the pool, playing crazy 8’s and hanging with friends. I’ll only list a theme for the week and together we will brainstorm ideas for a couple of things we can do to explore that topic (and yes, I am prepared for some sighing and eye rolling as we get started).

I’m going to endeavor to put up 1 post per week on our weekly theme to let you know what we did and how it went. I’ll even include comments from the kids if they would like to share their thoughts. I’m thinking we’ll have some interesting discussions over dinner, go on field trips, write in our gratitude journals, cook up a storm, talk to ourselves in the mirror (this always ends in giggles ; ), make vision boards, hit up the library, undertake kindness missions, meet with some “experts” and just have fun along the way.

Here is my loosely planned out list of topics for the next 8 weeks:

1. Laughter & Fun
2. Healthy Eating
3. Self-Love & Acceptance
4. Appreciation & Gratitude
5. Kindness & Charity
6. Visualization, Manifesting & Vision Boards
7. Breathing & Meditation
8. Spirituality, Karma & World Religions

Maybe we’ll only have a quick chat and do one or two activities per week and that’s ok. There is no timeline and no curriculum and I am not putting pressure on any of us to make this perfect or revolutionary. This is just a trial learning experience to take a closer look at some topics that I believe are important to explore with my children.

All the best to you and your family for a magical summer! Here’s to cold lemonade, running through sprinklers, drippy popsicles, bare feet, skinny dipping, road trips, camp outs, drive-in movies, lazy days, toasted marshmallows, sleeping in, snuggling on hammocks, time with family and friends…and maybe a little bit of learning thrown in for good measure!