Waiting to bloom… Hollyhocks come in many different colours, and the buds towering above the wilderness in my garden are showing no clue as to which colour they will be. Like a child waiting waiting to unwrap a present, I’ll

Lessons from a Dog Rose The dog rose flowers (and thorns) are meandering their way through my garden; simultaneously providing homes and food to small birds and insects, whilst spiking bigger creatures, that might otherwise eat them. Human or plant, we

Stag Beetle Pondering We love a stag beetle! These incredible little creatures spend most of their lives underground, only coming up to surface for a few weeks to mate and reproduce. The big and beautiful antlers on these tiny beetles

Helping Professionals 1st May 2024: Growing Me is for everyone in the team around a child, but this post wants to highlight how we make life that little bit easier (and a bit more fun!) for children’s social workers. Social

Umwelt 29th April 2024: This week’s blog starts with a book recommendation: ‘An Immense World’ by Ed Yong (https://edyong.me/an-immense-world). The book starts by imagining a room full of different creatures, thinking how each in turn would experience the situation –

Sustainable Destruction! 15th April 2024: Hail on the first morning of the summer term! Gahhhh! Don’t know about you, but hailstones down the back of the neck on the school run is not something I want to celebrate. Growing Me

Bubbles are brilliant! April 13th 2024: Blowing bubbles encourages slow, deep breaths, calming our sensory systems… Popping bubbles is a good wake up activity, and bubble pass is a good game to connect and have fun… So, each Growing Me

Sustainability at Growing Me 5th April 2024. Sustainability is at the heart of Growing Me, and we want to support organisations that are on the same page. These beautiful books from VENT will be included in our toolkit as a

Egg-cellent Springtime! Today’s post had to be an eggy one really! Containing a jelly of information and fuel to create a new life, all wrapped in a hard shell, and kept warm and safe from harm by a feathery parent,

Funding News! 29th March 2024: Some good Good Friday news for us at Growing Me… The Gerard Pearse awarded us funding to help us get up and running Thanks so much toFoundation Derbyshire for all your expertise and help with the

Frogspawn is in the Pond March 18th 2024. There’s always a rush of excitement at the arrival of these tiny black dots in their balls of jelly. They go through such incredible growth it’s no wonder that adults and children

The Long Tailed Tit with No Tail March 11th 2024. Some of my favourite visitors to our garden are the Long-tailed Tits. To me they are like little flying, fluffy chattering lollipops! Last month, one of them lost its tail,

Winter vs Spring Feb 29th 2024. Wintery days keep interrupting the emergence of spring, and there’s a similar feeling at Growing Me! The days are getting longer and the birds are singing but it’s certainly not springtime yet. Our designs

Animation Celebration Last week, @sheffhallamuni Void Cinema, showcased the work of 5 talented graduate animators, Caitlin MacBeath, Samuela Levinson, Liv Berry, Louis Veevers, and Will Anderson They were fresh from their BA’s in Animation when they took on the task

Wagtail Wonderings… Many birds fly away from our cold winters to find warmth and sunshine – but not the Grey Wagtail! It cheered me up this week to see the wagtails dipping their tails as they walked, even as the

Wouldn’t it be good to be an owl? January is the best time of year for owl spotting – With incredible vision, stealth mode flying, and super speedy reflexes – I often think some owl superpowers could be really helpful!

Off to the printers we go! As we send the final designs to the printers, we are taking a moment to celebrate So much time, thought, and love has gone into our resources that we are confident – and super

Sharing… Really excited to be back to work today… To celebrate, I’ve opened a chocolate bar, safe in the knowledge that I can have it all to myself. As I’m sat really really enjoying my chocolate, I’m feeling ever so

DNA… The festive season seems to shine a bright light on ‘family’. Massive meals, sparkly parties, foodie gatherings of every kind, and a fabulous Christmas dinner. Traditions become important, and for many, memories of childhood Christmas hold a kind of

Jelly Bombs… In the lead up to Christmas, I can certainly relate to this feeling of overwhelm! …. like lots of jelly bombs fired at me and I go all wobbly!  How amazing that a child could describe how they

Let it Flow Yesterday, I decided that I needed to play… so, I got my oil paints and let the process flow.  I didn’t know what I would make, or what it would look like, and this stormy mixture arrived

A Christmas gift from The Pears Foundation… We are super grateful for our early Christmas present from The Pears Foundation! What a boost to know that we are among the 19 fantastic organisations supporting care-experienced children they have chosen to

Let’s keep it simple… There is beauty in the simplicity of these bare branches. When external things fall away, we can more easily see what needs attention, and what truly matters. When we can let go of expectation, we can

Reach out for the good bits! This is from a series of early sketches that explore different ways of interacting with the world around us. Here, an imaginary tree sends its roots out to find nourishment, illustrating how we push

The turning of the year… In the Celtic calendar, November is considered both an end and a beginning; the turning of the year. The Autumn leaves create a fertile bed for the seeds and nuts they fall with and, as

Rooting down for Winter In winter, trees look like they’re not doing much! No leaves, no berries, just still! All the action is on the inside, getting ready to launch into action in the Spring! Similarly, Growing Me is rooting

Autumn Sunshine Sunshine is important to us at Growing Me, whatever the season, And, we find wisdom in welcoming its transformative light to the more challenging aspects of our lives… This week, it’s Parenting that needs a little ray of

Reflections This is one of my favourite spots in the woods near my home. I love the way the water reflects layer upon layer upon layer of trees, and leaves, and sky. I love a sudden drop and ripple on

Spikes and Thorns Last weekend was devoted to taming the brambles, teasels and nettles that have rendered my garden a spiky, stingy wilderness! So today, with my fingers cut and my garden still looking a mess, I am consoling myself

Resourcefulness Emptying the nest boxes out over the weekend, we found this little gem.  What an incredible structure, built by a tiny little bird, with a tiny little beak, using just a few scraps of found hay and moss, stuck

Great to see you It was great to meet parents, teachers and other professionals at Umbrella Derby & Derbyshire SEN Marketplace event on Friday. We had some great conversations about the needs of young people, particularly those who have experienced

Windswept trees… All living things are shaped by their past. The events in our lives dictate which parts of us grow, and how. For this tree, when it felt the strong winds, it knew it needed to grow stronger branches,

Come and say hello… Come and say hello! On Friday, we’ll be at the SEN Provider Marketplace, at Moorways Sports Centre in Derby. It’s a public event, and there’s a lovely cafe, so do pop in and find out more!

Rusty Monkey and Lichen One of my favourite books is Ben Hoare’s beautifully illustrated ‘Wonder’s of Nature’. It’s where my new appreciation of lichen has come from… And today, Growing Me is liking the lichen! The delicate structure is made

The National Lottery Community Fund are funding our making days Excitingly, The NLCF are going to fund a series of making days, allowing us to build our first 100 toolkits!  Taking place in Derbyshire in the New Year, our making

Children and Young People’s Festival 2023 It’s been a very exciting few days for Growing Me… We had a stand at the Children’s and Young People’s Festival on Friday and met some incredible individuals who share our passion for making

Let the sunshine in! When we discussed the core values of Growing Me, they were, and continue to be, our guiding principles. We found the words “Let the Sunshine In” as we spoke about the need to notice and celebrate

Going inside for a little bit of transformation There are lots of butterflies around at the moment which remind me of my childhood… of summer, sunshine and the beach, walks with my family and a butterfly-obsessed dad photographing and documenting

Ripples of Wonder Last spring time, I dug a pond.   I was feeling sad about the damage humans have done to our planet and decided to do something good in a corner of my garden.  And in the process I

Was it worth it? Little seeds planted in little pots… Watered… Placed on sunny window-sills… Repotted as the sprouts grew… A bigger pot… A sunny garden… A frame for vines to climb and for pumpkins to hang from… Flowers grow… Flowers wither…  It doesn’t

Therapeutic Life Story Work… We’ve been told Growing Me needs a tagline… This has sparked all kinds of interesting discussions about how we best communicate what we are… Our toolkit does the job of Therapeutic Life Story Work, and this

Better Together… Humans are social creatures: we’ve evolved to live in tribes.  Even if some of us like company, and others prefer to be alone, we all need to feel we belong! Modern life has changed the way we connect

Funding News! This week, we are really pleased to announce that we have been awarded funding from the Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner.  This fund was set up to support projects that reduce Anti-Social Behaviour.  Sadly, half the under 25’s

Order! Ellie has been drawing the river… Nicky has been drawing cells… I’m sat in my wild, slightly overgrown garden, marvelling at the incredible patterns hidden amongst the chaos! The structure and organisation found in nature fascinates me – Each

Holidays and celebrations… Growing Me slows down in school holidays.  As with many care-experienced children, the academic and social demands of school are massive for my little one.  School holidays provide a much needed opportunity for us to connect and

May Round-up! This month has been really busy for Growing Me.  Our social media has been up and running for a month now, and we’re slowly but surely getting the hang of it!!  So much so, we’ve set up a

Hello! Spring has sprung and we’re delighted to share that Growing Me is growing! We have new volunteers and something very exciting is happening in October – read on till the end to find out what.  Welcome to Louise, Maanya

Workshop Success We have absolutely loved supporting families over the last 3 months at our Growing Me workshops (funded by National Lottery Community Fund and Derbyshire Dales) Our wonderful families have engaged in weekly therapeutic workshops with Ellie, Nicky, and

Thank you! Testing Resources Fantastic Feedback Getting ready! Thank you so much to everybody who could make it to our showcase at Cromford Mill.  Hope you enjoyed your Growing Me chocolate!  We had a fantastic day showcasing our journey so far, listening to