GROWnings ‘As kindness is to good, acorn is to wood’ JESS: Let’s consider the tiny acorn. It really is extraordinary that a this little thing has all the magic ingredients needed to grow into such a vast and beautiful living organism as the Oak tree. An Oak tree, tall and majestic, can stand for hundreds of years. The Oak tree, the mighty oak, is symbolic of how hard work pays off over time. It is the subject of many a book and poem. It takes 150 years for an oak tree to GROW

GROWnings Changing Nature a window into the GROWbox vision Let's be the change we want to see! Bethia: Jess and I have been thinking this week about our motivations for the GROWbox project. It’s good to know why you’re doing something to keep you going on the days when it’s uncomfortable and it would be easier to give up. I am increasingly more focused and moved by the urgency to act on the climate change crisis. The more I hear, read and understand, the more I can’t see that

Bethia: I feel a bit ‘Stepford Wife’ writing a blog about (green) cleaning. Isn’t it boooring - don’t we want more in life!? Yes. But the fact is that the mundane tasks in life need to be done. The facts are also that the way we live is not sustainable and it really is crunch time in terms of the need to CHANGE. No area of our lifestyles is immune - we need to look at everything we do and think “is this working with the environment, or against it”. I don’t have all the answer

GROWnings Reviewing the Reviews Bethia: I’m buzzing! One of my favourite connections with my oldest son is when we hit on something that really grabs his interest/curiosity. His eyes get bigger and he’s tripping over himself to get all his questions out! He wants to know EVERYTHING. I said fairly near the beginning of this project that for me ‘success’ will be when we start to see those parent/child moments happening for our GROWboxers. It’s a huge motivation in the GROWbox j

GROWnings Time To Travel Jess: I’ll level with you, I’m missing having a holiday booked in the diary, a circled date with anticipation growing. I’m not desperate to travel right this minute, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere other than here in the British summer time. We’ve got used to enjoying a bit of a ‘staycation’ but I long for somewhere exotic - that family adventure we’d been dreaming about for years, undermined by the lockdown. Holidays are an opportunity for exotic adve

June 27th 2020 GROWnings The Partnership Behind The Product Bethia: “You do know that a partnership is the business model that is most likely to fail, don’t you?” This little gem was passed on to me recently and instead of feeling discouraged, I feel more determined. Is it? Why? What are our weaknesses as the GROWbox partnership? What are our strengths? If we look honestly at our opportunities/threats now, we have a much better chance of not becoming a statistic. I think we h

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! Today it’s Father’s Day! For us it is a chance to celebrate the many amazing fathers out there. The support, the love, the juggling, the teamwork, these are all things to equally cheer about! Traditionally, it has been the mothers’ priority to look after the children and the household, but times are achanging! As children become more exposed to different ways of parenting; different personalities, ideas, approaches they are most certainly benefitting! The

A discussion on the challenges and benefits of home-learning

10 June 2020 Contact: Jess Carter (+44) 07722301375, growtogether@farleigh.org.uk Lockdown entrepreneur neighbours shake up the home-learning scene Neighbours, Jess & Bethia, used the struggles of lockdown to re-imagine their professional future incorporating their values and ethos into an alternative approach to home-learning. ‘GROW Together!’ provides activity boxes that connect kids to nature, promotes mental and physical wellbeing, gives free rein to imagination and buil

There's nothing quite like a global pandemic to bring the world together! With COVID-19 unsettling us all, the awful events in America leading to the #blacklivesmatter campaign, people struggling financially, efforts to homeschool, adapting with the changes and realising that the world may never be quite what it used to, we have had an awful lot to contend with over the past few months. Thankfully the lack of commuting and school runs, very few flights and limited public tra