Welcome
Hello and welcome to Ava & Mar Mar-velous Moments Mailbox!
We’ll be bringing you content aimed at strengthening family connection in unique and accessible ways while fostering curiosity, creativity, and community.
This newsletter focuses on the impact routines & consistency can have on building resiliency in families during this season of great change for us all.
We’ll highlight a product developed for our Back to School Readiness Box which provides a valuable resource in building your families emotional/social skills around some of the scary and unfortunate realities our children may face outside of our homes.
We’ll preview our upcoming fall launches and leave you all with a community call to action.
We hope you enjoy!
Connection Corner
Explore the impact adding a mindfulness activity to your morning routine:
Most parents would agree that back to school season is the most unpredictable season of all and with times of great change comes added stress in our homes.
Over at Ava & Mar Mar-velous Moments we start each day with some mindful moments of connection and the opportunity to reflect on the upcoming day in a calm and empowering fashion.
Totally fair if you just rolled your eyes because who ACTUALLY has time to slow down like that every morning?!?!
I have a slight advantage since I work from home , and currently control my own schedule- back to reality though, introducing a way to start each day with some kind of positive connection builds the resilience our families need to get through the harder stuff that may face them throughout the rest of the day.
Are you looking for some low lift ways to build more mindfulness and positivity into your family’s daily routine? We have some recommendations for you below:
Providing Moments for Autonomy: Having so little control over our schedules is exhausting for us all regardless of our age. Find small moments throughout your morning routine that allows your little one to make choices they might be excited about- what silly socks do they get to wear, pick their own breakfast or lunch, etc.
Empowering Music: Affirmation Song by Doggyland while your little brushes their teeth & a quick check in about anything they are worried / excited about in the upcoming day.
Setting positive intentions for the day: Sharing something positive, uplifting, or impactful you are each committing to for the day before you leave the house:
Big person: I’m going to be brave when I give my presentation today.
Little person: I’m going to be patient when I need to wait my turn.
We have no doubt that building small moments of intentional connection into your daily routine will have large impacts before you know it. ❤
Product Preview
Back to School Readiness Box
Use our situation prompt cards as a stand alone conversation starter along with the talking points we provide or use the Our Role Play Your Day game board to provide a more lighthearted opportunity for your little ones to prepare for some of the ways their day may not go as planned.
We believe that remaining calm in stressful or unfamiliar situations is key to overcoming any obstacle or inconvenience we may face. We also know that for many of us, neurodivergence might as well be synonymous with anxiety.
problem solving skills + emotional intelligence= greater resilience
This activity provides tools and resources to help alleviate some of the unknowns our little ones may face everyday outside of the safety and comfort of our homes.
Check out a sneak peak at 2 of our situation prompt cards & a high level summary of the talking points we provide.
Preparing for an Emergency
Flashing lights, loud sounds, and an increase in activity can quickly become overwhelming which can make navigating a fire or safety drill extra difficult for our little ones and that’s not even considering what would happen in an actual emergency.
This activity provides tips & tricks to navigating this reality with our little ones before they have to face it on their own in a new environment because we know when we can remain calm we are better able to listen to important instructions
Dealing with hard emotions
Feeling like we don’t belong within a group either because we don’t share an interest or are somehow intentionally being excluding is hard for our little ones who generally have such pure intentions towards one another even though its through a limited perspective.
This activity provides tips & tricks to helping your child work through the big emotions that come along with feeling left out and proactively allows them to identify socially appropriate and developmentally appropriate actions they may take.
As we are all navigating the return to school season as parents it so important to also be familiar with how your little ones schools, sports etc prepare for the unknown, what do you need to know about emergency protocols, what safety measures are in place for unexpected pick ups, bullying policies etc.
We’re here to help you ask the hard questions to make sure our families are set up for success within systems that don’t always have the capacity to keep our best interests at heart.
Email: [email protected] to order this activity for the introductory price of $15 plus shipping or for details to order our entire Back to School Readiness Box.
Upcoming Boxes
We’ll be bringing you so many adventures while tackling complex topics this Fall. Check out a sneak peek below!
Fall Festival Adventure Box
Harvest Traditions Box
Seasons of Change Box
Grounding in Gratitude Box
Just to share a few!
Partner Spotlight
We have a new partner!
Ava & Mar Mar-velous Moments has partnered with the Miss Maggie Mack Show
Over the summer we were so lucky to be able to send Miss Maggie our Race to the Duck Pond Adventure Box because she was about to embark on a Duck Adventure of her own!
When we first welcomed Miss Maggie into our family it was because we were in need of her professional services. While that need was short lived and our daughter was lucky enough to graduate from speech therapy in 9 months, Miss Maggie shared such a wealth of knowledge, patience, and kindness that empowered us, as parents, to continue fostering her growth in hands-on and developmentally accessible ways.
Now parents everywhere should consider them lucky to bring Margaret Francke-Olano and her impressive 40+ years of experience in the Speech Language Pathology field to your screens. Through her YouTube content Miss Maggie is able to share language development skills for both parents & children in ways that make learning more fun and accessible!
Follow her on Facebook & Subscribe to her Youtube page . While you’re checking her out you’ll also be able to see some Ava & Mar Mar-velous Moments products in action ❤
We can’t wait to see what adventures we’ll go on together next!
Community Commitment
We all have the power to impact our communities for the better!
Having an impact and shaping the communities we need to thrive does not need to cost a penny (errr I guess a nickel since in just a few short months we will have all managed to outlast this form of currency).
We believe that driving change is accessible to us all through actions of kindness, compassion, and empathy. Each newsletter we’ll highlight some of the no cost community commitments our organization & our family have made to create a brighter more united community.
This Back to School Season- While we enjoy every call to action to send extra snacks just in case, or donate to a teacher’s amazon wishlist are worthwhile activities for those who can afford it. we know there are so many other ways to have lasting impacts without reaching into our wallets.
In the spirit of one of our Back to School Readiness Box Activities: This month we are sharing our commitment to making sure everyone feels included by leaning into curiosity and working to proactively find things we all have in common, rather than let our differences divide us, at times when we all might not be getting along.
Thank you for reading!