Featherfin Family Services: Nature Based Family Programming

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🌎Unique Nods to Nature and Childhood for Earth Loving Families

👶 Nature Based Nanny Care
🍄 Pop-Up Curiosity Gatherings
🫂Parental Support and Education

📍NOW BACK HOME in Augusta County, VA!

02/24/2026

Still here. 🤘
Still naturing in kid land. 🤸
Still absolutely loving it. 👏

But as you may have noticed, I am not posting content nor hosting programs at the moment.

Why not?🤔

Because my current Nature Nanny gig has me hanging out and prepping play and learning invitations with these two amazing gals 45-50 hours a week! And as many of you parents and fellow ECE colleagues can attest, while childcare is awesome, rewarding, funny, meaningful, and healing work, it also takes a lot out of you. Most jobs are predominately mental or emotional or physical, but caring for kids is fully all three, all the time.

I do intend to host a few programs this summer and am hopeful that I will also be able to batch record some new Nature Nanny Hot Take parent education video shorts again soon. If you have any topical requests or questions for those videos, by all means, send them my way!

🛝🍄🥾Also, if anyone local to Staunton wants to arrange a play date with an amazing 2 and 4 year old and yours truly, please reach out!!!

12/21/2025

🔥HOT TAKE🔥 DIRECTED VS SOFT ATTENTION

💡Is your focus a fine laser beam or broad and diffuse like moonlight?

💡Does your focus help you think, plan, and do or notice, merge, and be?

💡Does your focus burn through brain fuel reserves or do you sense that it actually helps your brain rest and reset?

Well, the answer is both. We humans need to be able to channel both types of attention.

🧠Directed Attention is what most of us consider “real” focus. Directed attention is celebrated in our culture because it expends energy and leads to results. It is the type of focus that makes us capable of deciding do something or learn something and take the steps necessary to do that very thing. It is aware of time,
to dos, and consequences.

✨But directed attention is only half
of the focus power couple!✨

🧠Diffuse Attention (or “soft”) attention is less well known, but extremely powerful. Diffuse attention, most easily accessed when in nature, expends less brain power but is still online and humming. Soft focus is all about being present and in the moment, about noticing, and about receiving information for just what it is. Some call it being“in the zone” or being in “flow state.” And it is what creative and tuned in moments are made of!

But, in our busy, stimulated culture, one form gets celebrated while one often gets crowded out.

You can probably guess which is the Western Focus of Choice. DIRECTED, but of course! 🫡 None of that DIFFUSE hippie focus, thank you very much 😆. Work hard, play hard, but…keep it hard.

Click the video to learn more and to see a video of a cute baby diffuse attentioning herself into oblivion.

11/26/2025

NATURE NANNY 🔥HOT TAKE 🔥(…though…there is nothing hot about this topic tbh!)☃️🧊❄️💨

In this video, I first give some tips and reminders about cold weather layers 🧤and then I share about a wonderful resource that takes the guess work out of deciding when it’s safe for kids to play outside.🤔

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Don’t let tomorrow’s balmy 66 degree weather fool you, we are about to experience a big DaRop in temps here in the Valley for the rest of the holiday week!!

Buckle up - it’s gonna be 🥶🥶🥶!!!

We are taking a high of 40 with feels like temps in the low to mid-30s on Thanksgiving Thursday, and a high of 35 with feels like temps in the upper teens and low 20s on Friday. 🙀

With temps that low, do you picture your kids stuck inside in front of the TV? Or possibly running laps around the food table in their dress clothes?

Orrrrr do you picture them getting all bundled up in comfy warm clothing and safely burning off energy and have fun chasing each other around the backyard?

Hmmm…but what does “bundled up” even mean? Pj bottoms tucked into some boots—-will that work?

***************

🙋🏻‍♀️❓If you aren’t sure where to draw the line between…

1) Frigidly Cold, as in kids shouldn’t be outside for any longer than they have to be

2) Very Cold, as in it’s okay for outdoor play for a half hour or even more if dressed properly and monitored for hydration, sweating, etc.

3) Just plain cold, as in it’s quite chilly, but if dressed in proper layers, outdoor play is a full-on go for as long as your family wants with monitoring for cold as well as overheating

….boy, do I have a wonderful resource to recommend to you! 📊 Just watch the video above and/or visit the Link-in-Bio to learn more!

11/06/2025

🍄NATURE 👩‍🍼NANNY 🔥HOT 🔥TAKE

Simple Tips for Simple Pleasures
on strolls or walks with babies and toddlers

You can’t do this wrong, but you can do it more mindfully and with nature’s wonders and therapeutic benefits in mind.

Here is the mood trajectory I often notice on these walks -

🤫Beginning phase (entering phase) equals a mostly quiet, observing, calm baby

🧐Middle phase (destination phase) equals a curious, exploratory, and playful baby

🙂Ending phase (exit phase) equals a chatty, happy, but still calm baby

THE TIPS::
1. Walk slowly.

2. Keep silent more than you speak.

3. When you speak, keep your sentences short and descriptive or curious “There is a ______.” Or “I wonder why there is water here?”

4. Stop and give children moments of pause to look and touch.

Carriers are great for this as it gets them sitting upright with a better view and allows them to get much closer to things. For walks too long for the carrier, I will park the stroller and carry the babe a short distance to touch or crawl, and then double back to the stroller, and repeat.

Relatedly, time in nature with littles can be, but doesn’t need to be the time for silliness. Using a baby voice, or “cutting up” generally is something I save for indoor time. On nature walks, I instead try to keep things more peaceful, especially with babies. This is the age for maximum observation, and observing takes focus, so I try not to distract. Plus, nature is sacred to me, and I like to share this reverence with little ones. I’m not somber by any means, I’m just not usually boot-scooting goofing!

4. Sensory everything!!! Crunch, bend, lift, crawl, tear, tickle, stack, ground with bare feetsies. Obviously, watching for trying to put all the things in the mouth!

5. Of course, prepare, but you really don’t need much for a short jaunt assuming you’ve checked the forecast and dressed and sunblocked, etc before walking out the door - phone, snacks, water, diaper, sometimes I’ll take a book to read, and if you really want to kill it, a little first aid kit.

6. Happy strolling and toddling!!!

The Nature Nanny (me!) 🌳👼🤸🍄has IMMEDIATE OPENINGS for part-time Nanny Care on Mondays and/or Thursdays, with the added b...
10/22/2025

The Nature Nanny (me!) 🌳👼🤸🍄has IMMEDIATE OPENINGS for part-time Nanny Care on Mondays and/or Thursdays, with the added benefit of **Friday Flex Days** — perfect for booking lunch dates, spa days, date nights and other special occasions!

I am happy to consider the formation of a
👨🏼‍👩‍👧🏼‍👦🏼+👪two-family nanny share as well! This win/win saves families money and provides the added benefit of socialization with another 1-2 children.

➕🧸 I also have an opening for a baby age 10 - 16 months to join with an amazing already active nanny family in Crozet on Wednesdays.

Feel free to read through the attached slides for more information, and feel free to reach out directly to me by email at 📧[email protected] or text at📱540.416-2128 to chat!

🌟Full references, portfolio, and background check available.

Cool opportunity happening Blue Ridge Children's Museum for nature loving or curious kiddos taught by a nationally-known...
10/19/2025

Cool opportunity happening Blue Ridge Children's Museum for nature loving or curious kiddos taught by a nationally-known author, forager and nature guru!!!

10/18/2025

🔥Nature 🍄 Nanny 👶Hot Take🔥

You will never see your young child’s strange choices again after learning about BEHAVIORAL SCHEMA!

❓Does your baby keep dropping their cup on the floor and over and over? 😤

❓Does your preschooler insist on mixing different colors of play dough together only to make an ugly muddled mystery color? 🙄

❓Is your toddler constantly hiding toys under or in things where they can’t be found? 😠

If so, congratulations, you have a child!!! 😆 All of these behaviors, while perhaps frustrating or perplexing for us, are how your child learns about their world, how it works, and how they can participate in it. You pay bills and drive your car, they throw things!

10/09/2025

Hello! Looking for 🌳 TREE CLIMBING RECOMMENDATIONS! 🌳

❓I live in Augusta County and work in Crozet — what are the best public places for tree climbing in the Crozet/ Waynesboro area —- trees with strong, low hanging branches for sitting and hanging.

I have a preschooler really itching for some tree climbing on this gorgeous fall afternoon!!

*Side note —- Tree climbing is on my mind so much right now that I even made a video all about tree climbing for kiddos! Feel free to check it out!

🍁OCTOBER NATURE NANNY BABYSITTING AVAILABILITY CALENDAR🍁🤞Wishing for a date night / mommy’s day out / dinner with friend...
10/08/2025

🍁OCTOBER NATURE NANNY BABYSITTING AVAILABILITY CALENDAR🍁

🤞Wishing for a date night / mommy’s day out / dinner with friends / errand day but in need of childcare?

👆Check out my October Babysitting Availability AND available nature play activity add-ons!

🍎All activities include a picture book reading, sensory activity, and a child-led play invitation

Interested in a booking? DM or email [email protected] to chat.
❗️UPDATE: Oct 16 evening no longer available

☮️ Your nature nanny is a former children’s librarian turned Advanced Childcare Privider. 🫶🏻 She holds certifications in CPR, Pediatric First Aid, Positive Discipline, Play-based Learning, and Eco-Therapy.

10/06/2025

Nature Nanny Hot Take!!!🔥🗣️

Tree Climbing and Risky Play - A Risk / Benefit Analysis!

Lately I have been thinking a lot about risky play and the timeless nature of childhood interactions with natural features and elements. From throwing rocks to swinging sticks to swimming in rivers to ice skating on ponds and yes, hanging like monkeys in trees, all have dangers, and all have rewards.

In this 🔥Hot Take 🔥, I shed light on considerations of tree climbing - how dangerous is it, how can children and parents mitigate the risks, and what exactly are the benefits for children’s brains, bodies and spirits.

🪾🌳🧗‍♀️🐒🌳🪾

In other words, why should you not only allow, but encourage your children climb trees, starting low and slow, and with both trust and observation.

I encourage parents to remember that they, too, take risks all the time in their daily tasks, from riding in automobiles to cleaning the gutters to woodworking to cooking on gas stoves, and the list goes on. We do it anyway, because in many cases, we deem the task important, and believe the benefits outweigh the risks. Don’t forget that the same applies to children. Their daily work is play, exploration, and testing their limits, all for the sake of learning and health. Take risks away, and you take away a vital part of childhood.






learners

TWO DAYS TIL WE ROCK (and roll…if the rocks are kinda round…🤣)Featherfin Family Services, the Blue Ridge Children’s Muse...
09/27/2025

TWO DAYS TIL WE ROCK (and roll…if the rocks are kinda round…🤣)

Featherfin Family Services, the Blue Ridge Children’s Museum, and Danny Rose, “Dr Rock Balancer,” invite families to a casually cute, hands-on playdate all about rocks and rock play!🤩

As one of nature‘s most accessible “toys,”rocks have played a part in childhood play and development since the beginning of humankind! From rock stacking to rock collecting to rock lifting and climbing, rocks simply rock!!!🤘

The target age range for this program is 2 to 8, but all ages are welcome!

💰FREE
⏰3-5pm
in Waynesboro
❌No registration necessary

🪨For extra fun, bring a rock with you to contribute to our rock swap table! 🪨

🆓This is a FREE, drop-in program.

Address

Staunton, VA
24401

Telephone

+15404162128

Website

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