Snail Life
A Slow Parenting Blog
Mindful Parenting...balancing theory & chaotic reality!
There is a feeling of smug satisfaction that I got most things done without me cracking (ie screaming like a crazed cornered animal). Mindful Parenting is mentally exhausting, don't get me wrong. At the end of the day I'm DONE with validating everyone else, but coach Shirley says it gets easier as green brain state becomes your everyday, and I'm looking forward to that reality!
+About Us
We're Karen and Rebecca, friends and mums with similar ideals. We are on a mission to teach children to learn and play in a sustainable way and connect with the world around them.
We decided to create an educational subscription for kids, something that would foster a love of literature, nature and good, old-fashioned play. As we were trying to figure out the best way to do this we noticed how excited our kids got when they received something in the post - the idea behind Snail Mail Stories was born.
We launched our small Kiwi business in 2017. We are now using traditional post to deliver exciting, personalised and educational envelopes to kids all over New Zealand.
We draw upon our skills, experience and values to provide you with a unique subscription service designed with Kiwi kids in mind.
Karen
I grew up in the North of England but have called Auckland home for the past 10 years. I have two wonderful daughters aged 8 and 4.
I have been on the coal front of education for over 15 years and passionately believe kids learn best when they are having fun.
Our world is changing rapidly - helping our kids to make connections and encouraging individuality, innovation, creativity and critical thinking is now more important than ever.
My aim is to make our subscriptions a simple, affordable and fun way to help our kids develop these skills.
Rebecca
I attended both Steiner and public schools in Auckland, New Zealand. I specialise in Communicating and Marketing. I have a 6 year old daughter and a 4 year old son.
As a mother I am looking for my children to escape our modern day culture of single-use plastic toys, increasing screen-time, fast food culture and annoying advertisement jingles.
Our children face a complex world and will need to be astute problem solvers, eco-warriors and skilled negotiators. I believe our company takes a small curious step in the right direction to educating and broadening the minds of our future leaders.
Our Values
Inspiring - little readers and future leaders one letter at a time
We use simple methods and materials to inspire a love of learning.
We personalise your subscription to make our Snail Mail Stories exciting and relevant for your child.
We foster an appreciation of literature, nature, New Zealand culture and tradition.
We help to develop skills in literacy, critical thinking, creativity and innovation, and social and emotional intelligence.
Connecting - with our whanau, our communities and the world around us
Snail Mail Stories encourages kids to unplug and connect with the world around them through our NZ themed culture and nature envelopes.
Receiving a letter by traditional post each month gives whanau the opportunity to slow down and spend sometime together.
Via our monthly newsletter to parents and our blog our Snail Mail community can frequently connect and communicate with each other.
Via our newletter and blog we promote interesting information, events and opportunities relevant to our values, the age of your child and the area you live in.
Including - by being accessible, personalised and actively seeking to support and collaborate with others
At Snail Mail Stories our ultimate goal is to make our subscriptions accessible to as many kids as we can. We hope to do this by:
- keeping our prices reasonable
- using NZ post to deliver your mail no matter where you live in New Zealand
- personalising and differentiating our program for each kid as much as it is reasonably possible to do so
At Snail Mail Stories we believe strength comes from supporting each other and working together. Therefore
- we encourage people to contact us with possible collaboration opportunities, whether you are an organisation looking to grow our Kiwi kids into happy, healthy and capable adults or a talented creative looking to showcase your work, we would love to hear from you
- we are mums supporting mums and the local economy. Where possible we honour these values in our purchasing and hiring.
Respecting - our environment, one another and ourselves.
We strongly believe in being environmentally conscious. We encourage play in nature, using items you have around the house and most of the treasures we send can be recycled.
We believe the principle of respecting others fosters humanity. This belief is reflected in some of the themes of our envelopes which teach social and emotional intelligence and explore the variety of rich cultures within New Zealand.
Equipping our children with a healthy self esteem and emotional resilience seems more important than ever in our modern, busy world. Some of the themes of our envelopes look to help our children develop these important skills in life.
