Each week, in our “Care-Free” Family Playgroups, we gather for an hour or two outdoors and lean into the themes of the season, welcoming new families through stories and songs. We read about nature and sing songs with flowers, bees, and butterflies. We choose age-appropriate books that gently introduce the celebrations of families like yours and families whose traditions and beliefs may differ from yours. We move our bodies. We get our hands dirty. We feed the birds. Laugh together. Catch our breath. And then we snack!

**There’s no cost for you and your littles to join us. We provide coffee for you and allergy-inclusive snacks for kids.**

But unlike a story hour at the public library, what we hope you’ll find at our playgroups is that this space is as much for you as it is for your kids. A space where you’ll find the care and support you need as a caregiver, and where you can find grounding in the natural world while exploring and getting in touch with your own spirituality, whatever that looks like.

Every week, we intentionally focus on 3 values for our time together:

Parenting has never been easy, but in our busy, post-pandemic, screen-saturated world, it feels more exhausting and confusing than ever.

Our playgroups are designed to help. We partner with local and national parenting experts and educators to come alongside you and help you find the tools and confidence you need to help your children grow and develop into the healthy, happy, grounded humans you would like them to be. And for you to feel heard, seen and cared for in the process.

This could include:

Meet and greets with local educators, therapists and nutritionists
Gentle icebreakers to help you connect with other parents and caretakers
Introductions to parenting through challenging topics around race, gender, violence and more

Recent studies have shown what parents and caregivers often understand intrinsically: it’s good for all of us - but kids especially - to be out in nature. So good, in fact, that some doctors have begun prescribing time outdoors as a key component of kids' health and wellness, and as a cure for depression.

And for those who’ve found that traditional models of faith aren’t working as well anymore, often communion with God/the sacred/Divine Presence comes more easily in nature.

That’s why in our playgroups, we emphasize creative outdoor play where parents, caregivers and kids can all find a place to breathe, get rooted, and grow.

Some of our favorite play includes:

Sensory bins for the season (developed with occupational therapists)
Playing in the dirt or water
Feeding the birds and learning to identify their songs
Planting seeds and caring for a sensory garden

We believe that everyone is spiritual - we’re simply born that way. But many of us have left the kinds of regular faith practices we grew up with and others of us haven’t had any religious upbringing at all. So it’s sometimes difficult to know what to do with our kids' spiritual questions and needs. It’s often difficult to know what to do with our own.

That’s why, anchored in progressive Christian liturgical rhythms as well as learning from many of the world’s religious practices, we cultivate intentional spaces - based on the seasons and rhythms of the natural world -- that help you and your kids get more in touch with your innate, but perhaps dormant, spiritual connections with others, our communities, the earth and with the Divine - however you name or define that.

Some of our favorite practices include:

Visio divina with art (a contemplative way of looking at the world)
Family yoga (with an emphasis on pranayama)
Forest bathing (a Japanese practice of mindfulness in nature)
Learning from each other’s faith traditions and family rituals

Our Approach: Care-Free Family Playgroups

We’ve launched “Care-Free Thursdays” Family Playgroups in Oakley!

Why We Celebrate