Hi there. Welcome to episode 214. Today I'm answering the question, how do you create a play space for kids of different ages?

Hi, this is Denay. I'm the founder of Simple Families. Simple Families is an online community for parents who are seeking a simpler, more intentional life.

In this show, we focus on minimalism with kids, positive parenting, family wellness, and decreasing the mental

load. My perspectives are based in my firsthand experience raising kids, but also rooted in

my PhD in child development. So you're going to

hear conversations that are based in research but more importantly real life.

Thanks for joining us. Hi there, thanks for tuning into simple families today.

This is Deney and I want to start things off with a quick announcement.

So starting in January I added a second show to

the podcast each week so on Tuesdays a new episode with a Q&A format launches and on Wednesday I do a longer form topical or

interview type of episode. But starting next week I'm going to be combining and

streamlining both of these things into one.

So instead of having two separate episodes I'm going to have one episode with two

different segments. So I'm just trying this out to see how it goes. You all can let me know what you think and give me feedback. I would love to hear from you.

All right, I'll start us off this week by sharing something simple that I'm loving.

Now, those of you who follow me on Instagram know that we have a

rather sizable garden at our house. I want to add the disclaimer that the

garden was already existing when we moved in. And in many ways I have bit off more than I can chew with

this garden because I know nothing about gardening and when we first moved in three years ago,

I felt like I should plant all 10 raised beds and maybe a few blueberry bushes and really embrace gardening to its

fullest. This lasted at least four days before I realized that it just wasn't happening for me.

There's something really romantic about the idea of growing your own food.

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