Feb 15 - 21 // Dream House Designing, Resourcefulness, $0 Shopping Spree, Orange Bird Feeders, and More!

Plus a contest!

Hello! We’ve got some fun ideas this week and a bonus parenting hack. This week we’re making an extra emphasis on resourcefulness.

Also, keep an ear out later this week for some announcements about the future of the newsletter...If you get a chance, could you take this survey and let us know how we can serve you best in this space? Thanks so much!

Activity: Design a Dream House

In a special episode of the Bancroft Brothers Podcast, the brothers interviewed their mom, Cori Crismon, and she said something that has stuck with me. Raising her budding young artists as a single mom, she wasn’t able to give them many fancy art supplies. But she gave them her emotional support and always made sure they had pencils and paper, and that was enough. They both went on to become accomplished animators and leaders in the industry; Tom is the Disney legend behind Mushu and Tony is credited for Pumbaa and Kronk.

We don’t have to spend a lot of money to give our kids an enriching childhood or set them up for adulthood. Giving them the freedom to create—and cheering them on—is huge. So let’s do that this week! Your kids could spend hours and hours drawing dream houses, and all they need is a pen and paper…and ideally, some colored pencils or watercolors.

First, draw an outline in Sharpie of what kind of dream house you’ll have. (This is something you can do for little kids to help them get started.) Is this home a spaceship? A burrow? A submarine? A house inside a tree? Here are some quickly sketched examples that any adult can draw for their kids ⬇️

Then let your kids go wild! They can build libraries, indoor gardens, slime rooms, saunas, skate parks, dance rooms, indoor skydiving, you name it! You could also limit their color palette to 3 or 4 different crayons to play around with aesthetics. Creative limitations can make the best art!

Some discussion ideas:

• “Okay, give me the tour. I can’t wait to see what you came up with.”

• “Wow, there are so many cool rooms! I’ll bet this would be a great home to welcome others into. Maybe next we can design a whole community center.”

• “Are there any less exciting but important rooms that we might need to include if we were to actually live in here?” (Bathroom, kitchen, laundry room, etc.)

• “How do you like the dream house I designed? I borrowed your idea with the waterslide from the top floor to the pool.”

• “What are some ways we can make your real room more like your dream room?” (This is a good chance to talk about decluttering! I’ve never seen a kid draw a dream house with tons of toys on the floor.)

Contest

Email us a picture of the houses you make by Sunday night, February 20. Our Instagram community will vote on their favorites on Monday, and the winner for each category will receive a gift card to the local small business of their choice!

($25 for 1st place ages 6 and under, $25 for 1st place ages 7-12, and $50 for the winner of the Teens and Grownups category 😎)

Parenting Pep Talk: Resourcefulness

If you feel guilty because you can’t get your kids the latest toys or the coolest clothes, reframe your circumstances this way: you’re giving them the gift of resourcefulness. This is a chance for you to teach them how to thrive even when they don’t get exactly what they want.

This is crucially important for them to learn because as they become adults—no matter how much money they’ll make—they won’t get everything they want. Learning to respond well to lack is a crucial life skill.

Limitations unleash your brains to a new kind of freedom.

Teaching our kids to be resourceful is also teaching them to be optimistic, grateful, creative, patient, persistent, and good stewards. Learning to make do with what we have helps us be kinder to the earth, too, and gives us freedom to use our resources more purposefully.

As a kid, resourcefulness might look like playing with cardboard boxes or turning old jeans into a cute purse. However, as an adult, it might look like bootstrapping a startup, making delicious meals out of leftovers, or even just finding a way to stay committed to a friendship that isn’t immediately rewarding.

Modeling resourcefulness to our kids is one of the big gifts we could give them, too. When they see us repurpose instead of throw away—and when they see us persist in a relationship instead of quit—they’re learning that maybe they don’t need as much novelty as they feel they do.

Below is an example of how you as a parent can be resourceful in a small (but also very big) way ⬇️

Parenting Hack: A Resourceful Shopping Spree

We just talked about giving our kids the gift of no sometimes, but it’s also really important to give them the gift of yes. Here’s a way you can take your kids on a $0 shopping spree and say yes again and again.

Imagine going into a store and being able to say “YES” to everything your child wants to buy. Normally you’d check reviews and look for coupons if you had to decide on a $30 item, but at this store, you don’t have to think about it and you can just say yes.

Good news: that store exists. It’s called the public library. 😉

Whomp-whomp, it’s nothing new. Many of us have library cards. However, practically no one uses their local library to its full potential. This message right here is your invitation to do so.

We can’t quantify how much joy it gives a kid when they can come to you with a book that engages their interests, and you say “Yes! Let’s learn more about it.” It’s also really interesting to see what different kids get interested in as they grow (if we can get them interests beyond the trending video game or toy craze, that is.)

Whether your kids like trains, medieval times, marsupials, or city planning—and maybe they latch onto all those things within a single year!—the library lets you say “yes” when they want to immerse themselves in that world more.

Youtube and the internet are fabulous inventions, but unrestricted wandering can take our kids to dark places that are hard to escape. Yes, you might find misinformation or troubling images in books, but since so many people are involved in the publishing and distribution process, it’s not nearly as pervasive (or easy to stumble upon) as in a blog post or ad.

Speaking of ads, the reason many of us forget about all that our local library offers us is that no one is telling us to go there. There aren’t advertisements sneaking into our subconscious and reminding us to check out books or go to a free class. (This same problem exists with the outdoors, but that’s another soap box.) Corporations and their massive marketing budgets are paying big bucks to commandeer our attention; local government is not.

So here’s your ad: go to the library. You’ve already paid for it with your taxes. And enjoy telling your kids yes.

One of our kids used to be really obsessed with bridges, and she checked this book out multiple times. It made her feel so loved when she received a “yes!”

Tips for going to the library:

• For young children, create some rules and remind them of your expectations. Example: “You may touch books as you look at them, but don’t pull them off the shelves unless I give you permission.”

• Decide beforehand how many books each person can check out, how you’ll transport them, and where you’ll keep them when you get home. (If you lose a bunch of books, this shopping spree will end up costing more than $0…I speak from experience.)

• Check out your library’s calendar of events. It varies by the library, of course, but you might find something that’s really fun! Our family even visits libraries while traveling. In Tallahassee, we took an archaeology class for kids. In Breckenridge, we did an escape room. In Tampa, we saw a play. In Woodstock, we went to a Star Wars party. In Chattanooga, they offer a Crafting with Craft Bevvies class for grown-ups. All these activites were at the library, and all of them were free!

• Ask your librarian about what else your library offers. In Chattanooga, for example, you can borrow seeds, pressure washers, and lots more. There’s also an enormous maker space where you can record podcasts, learn an instrument, use a laser cutter, and more.

• Many libraries have fun play areas for kids that are a good way to get out of the house in bad weather.

• Your library likely has an option on their website where you can order any books within the system to be put on hold for you and brought to the branch of your choice. For example, if the books you want are at various libraries all around town, you can place them on hold and they’ll all be waiting for you at your nearest library. If taking little ones to the library is stressful for you, this is a great option.

• Look into all the digital services available to you through your library. Hoopla and Libby are apps that link with your library card to give you free digital access to ebooks, audiobooks, music, and even movies!

• If you don’t know where to get started with choosing books, Sarah Mackenzie’s website has many helpful booklists, her Readaloud Revival podcast is excellent, and we highly recommend her book The Read-Aloud Family. We also use the booklists on Can We Read, Brightly, and Redeemed Reader.

• If you’re concerned about whether a book’s content is appropriate for your child’s age, you can check sites like Common Sense Media. You can also read the book first! Your kid will feel so loved if you can geek out over a book together.

Act of Thoughtfulness: Orange Bird Feeder

February 18-21 is the 25th annual Great Backyard Bird Count. With all the migrations going on right now, it’s an awesome time to look for birds. Basically, all you have to do is commit to spend 15 minutes looking for birds and see how many you can find. If you record your findings—on an app like Merlin or submitting to eBird on your computer—it helps scientists and other birdwatchers know what kind of birds are in your area.

Plus, slowing down to be observant in nature for 15 minutes is a wonderful gift for your brain.

We made bird feeders out of oranges, twigs or used chopsticks, and scrap fabric (or, even better, twine if you have it.) We used birdseed from Happy Birdwatcher Co, a company that creates blends specifically for your area and season…how cool is that!

You probably want to hang the birdfeeder and get it stable before you pour the birdseed.

You can also just slather a paper towel with peanut butter then roll it in birdseed. We’ve done that too.

Are there any older people in your life who really like birds? If so, invite them to do this activity with you. Or ask them about what birds show up in their yard. You might be surprised by how pleased they are that you asked. Birdwatching is a great way to connect with people.

Here’s how both of our feeders looked after less than two days!

One last note on birding: It only got a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, but The Big Year is a pretty decent movie about birdwatching that has some gorgeous scenery and, of course, birds. Though it’s rated PG, it’s not exactly a kids’ movie because it has language and talks about a married couple’s struggles (you can check Common Sense media.) However, in my (Hope’s) opinion, it’s worth watching if you’re in the birding mood 🤷

Picture Book Suggestions

Hello Lighthouse by Sophie Blackall is a beautiful book about the passing of time, and the illustrations are just incredible. The little glimpses into the lighthouse home are great inspiration for drawing a dream house.

Finding Winnie by Lindsay Mattick and Sophie Blackall is a wonderful true story about a soldier and a bear. I don’t want to give it away, but just make sure you get this one.

Here’s a challenge: find a book on birds at the library! The call number for birds is 598; make sure you check the kid section and adult section, because even toddlers will like looking at the pictures.

From Our Hearts

May your creativity run wild, hand-in-hand with the creativity of your child.

May you daydream together of ways that you could show radical hospitality and be a blessing to your community.

May you make the most with what you’ve been given, in material objects…and the intangible stuff, too.

May you see limitations in your life as invitations to creativity and freedom.

May you feel excited by your child’s interests, and may you discover new shared interests together.

May you see cool birds, and provide nourishment for them as they return (or prepare) for a long journey.

Thanks so much for reading. See you next week!
Warmly, Hope from Family Scripts

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