Play Together

When's the last time you played with your kids? I'm not talking about driving them to practice, coaching them or training them. I mean, simply played, as in, no end goal other than enjoying each other's company, getting some exercise perhaps, doing something together.

I recently took a tennis lesson with Will, our youngest. Will takes tennis lessons once a week not so he can grow up to compete at Wimbledon--or even compete right now. He takes tennis lessons from a local guy at the public community courts simply because he likes to play tennis. What a concept! I took a lesson with him a couple weeks ago and it was a blast. I learned as much from him as from the coach. Afterwards, Will and I hit the play together and played a few matches. We laughed and encouraged each other and generally had a fun afternoon together.

I appreciate the value of team sports, of playing competitively. What I don't understand is the parental obsession with training our little athletes as if they are going to be professional some day. How about kids playing a sport for the fun of it?

I know. I'm so old fashioned and square. It's why I moved to Costa Rica, so I could be old fashioned and square to my heart's content. And content it is!

More About the Jacobus Family Adventure!

Lots of new folks are finding the Super Natural Adventures site and then finding me via e-mail to ask questions like, "Why did you move?" "Was it scary?" "How did you do it?" "How can I do it?" I recommend you start by going to my personal blog which chronicles our first years here. Read it backwards, starting in the archives, to feel like you're on the adventure with us. You can also read about the process I went through to MAKE the decision to move in an article I wrote for Athleta Chi.

Many people want to talk with me directly about their own desire to have such an adventure, especially with their family. Many want to discuss their dream and vision of raising citizens of the world or even talk about how they can bring SNA into their children's schools. I invite any and all visitors to e-mail me directly at junglemama@snamail.com

Finally, many people say, "We'd like to experience a life like yours...but only for about a week." I say, "Come on down!" Our travel partners at Activated Life Experiences can plan an amazing family travel experience for you unlike any trip you've ever had before.

Another thing you could do is a family service project. Do a fund-raiser--garage sale, bake sale, lemonade stand, you name it--to raise funds to save the rain forest. Contact me and I'll put you in touch with Tirimbina Rainforest Center. The rain forest is here in Costa Rica (and we filmed many SNA segments there, including "bats", "chocolate" and "ants") but there's also a non-profit 501c3 Tirimbina Foundation in the U.S. Your family's raised funds will go directly there, in a fund specific to preserving the rain forest.

There are many ways to parent, to raise citizens of the world, to teach our kids what we feel is important. I invite you to share in the comment section of this blog what YOU are doing.

Getting Greener

This weekend our family is planting a fruit and vegetable garden in our yard. I'm slightly nervous, only because we haven't attempted to grow anything in the San Jose climate. In Nosara, we have fruit trees and wild cilantro. The plan here (based on what the kids want to grow) is to plant carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, watermelon and lots of herbs. Stay tuned to see what sticks! We' also starting a compost pile. These are two more "resolutions" we made as a family at the start of the school year.

Another resolution was to be sure we take advantage of every free moment to get outside and enjoy Costa Rica's incredible nature. Wednesday was a half day at school, so the boys and I took advantage of the open week-day afternoon and planned to head up the mountains behind our house to take a hike. The hike idea morphed into, "sledding" or "card boarding." Before leaving, the kids ran madly around the house searching for unused boxes to craft into "sleds."

After a precarious drive up the mountain to an ideal spot, the kids jumped eagerly out of the car, slipped under the barbed wire of the sloping cow pasture and hopped onto their boards. Weeeee! Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, but it sure was hilarious either way. The scenery was so gorgeous, I felt like I was on the set of the movie, "Heidi."

In Super Natural Adventures news:

--Check out the latest SNA segment on paper (www.supernaturaladventures.com). In a variation on our SNA theme, this segment features several of Michael's classmates presenting the topic. They do an awesome job!

--Upcoming SNA segments include the interview Michael conducted with Animal Planet's Jeff Corwin and several other segments I shot with Michael and Will's classmates.

--The Jacobus brothers are currently featured in Kids LA Magazine and the tween magazine, Pixie. Boys' Life will feature an article on them in September.

Back to School!

It's the first day of the new school year for us here in Costa Rica. Given the fresh slate of things, it feels more like the time to make new resolutions than December 31st does.

So we had a family discussion about our goals and resolutions for the coming year and, as a whole, decided we'd like to go a darker shade of green in our lifestyle this year. That includes challenging ourselves to re-use everything.

It started today, with Steve packing the kids lunches in...the clear plastic zipper cases that their new sheets came in yesterday. Michael, starting middle school, decided that "re-use" to him meant sticking with his old beat-up lunch box rather than potentially enduring quizzical stares from his new classmates about his see-through lunch tote. Will climbed out on the limb with Ryan and opted for the sheet packaging.

Sandwiches were wrapped in these nifty napkin-like contraptions that Steve and I picked up at the Go Green Expo in Atlanta this past June. It reminded me of when I lived in Japan nearly 20 years ago and people--women AND men--would bring their bento lunch box to work wrapped in what looked like a woman's hanky. They also wrapped presents with the same type of cloth. It gave me an idea of what to do with the kids' old sheets...

What are YOUR resolutions for the new school year?

Travel Creates Strong Family Ties

Anyone who has read this blog or my personal account of our Costa Rican escapades at www.gypsyjournalist.com knows that this whole adventure is all about us being together as a family--traveling together, learning together, growing together.

Nature For Kids, a great website, recently interviewed me about the impact of our lifestyle on our family. Here's a link to the article. Check it out!

"The Best Earth Day Ever!"

Earth Day 2009 in the Jacobus household was declared "the best Earth Day ever" by the kids.

The day kicked off with Steve and I heading off into the rain forest with an additional cameraman and Will's 4th grade class to shoot video for an upcoming Super Natural Adventures segment on the eco-system of the rain forest. What a fulfilling way to recognize Earth Day!

Late in the afternoon, Michael called from school to say his teacher was offering extra credit to kids who went to see Earth, the "new" movie from DisneyNature (who knew Disney had a nature division?? Everyone's getting in on the act!). The movie in fact is the massive documentary Planet Earth re-edited into a kid-friendly, movie-length feature. Those Disney people are SMART.

Normally, a movie on a school night wouldn't be remotely in the cards. But the kids had little homework and we all decided it would indeed be a great way to cap off Earth Day together (after playing outside for while first, of course!). The movie, like the original documentary, was gorgeous, concerning and inspiring. As we watched, each of us was thinking of our own Super Natural Adventures filming and the role we are trying to play to, like Planet Earth/Earth, get kids concerned about the state of the environment but also encourage them to positive action, not despair.

As we walked out of the theater, a massive lighting storm was lighting up the mountains. "Who wants to head up the mountain to check it out?" Steve asked. We were all in!

We drove and drove and drove--higher, darker night, brighter lightning--until we were at an amazing look out point, where we felt closer to the sky than the city far below. The lightning show was a spectacular, wondrous display by Mother Earth of her natural beauty and power. The fact that this was happening on Earth Day wasn't lost on any of us.

As we got back in the car, one of the kids starting singing, "Happy Earth Day to you..." to the tune of happy birthday. We all joined in and the lyrics sounded most poignant as we added the "...and many more!' line at the end of the first verse. We all then had a big laugh as Will started in on Verse 2: "How old are you?"

As we wound our way in the darkness back down the mountain, the conversation turned melancholy, with the kids stating they felt human beings had really messed things up for nature. "Would you be willing to radically--radically!--change your lives to make a difference?" I asked them. Without hesitation, they all chimed, "Yes."

This is how these seeds get planted with the Jacobus Family. Don't be surprised if in a year or so we REALLY have fallen off the grid...

Earth Day 2009!

One way to celebrate Earth Day is to gather the family together to watch The Story of Stuff.

Your life will never be the same!