Guelph parents Luke Hill, John Jantunen and Anne Gajerski-Cauley discuss Families in Nature and specifically about their experiences and family adventures in the natural world and what they’ve found.

We also discuss:

• how to connect with the natural world while living in the city
• the difference between wild, domesticated, and cultivated
• examples of interacting with our natural world
• how teen years may be a key time for imaginative play and creativity
• how connecting with the natural world can help adult relationships too

This show was inspired by the book “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv who coins the term “nature deficit disorder” to describe the human cost of alienation from nature. Teaching or avoiding direct, intimate contact with nature narrows our senses, contributes to weight gain and emotional and social mental health problems, and means we have less leisure time.

Richard Louv claims that the Baby Boomers, folks born between 1946 and 1964, may be the last generation of Americans to share an intimate, familial connection to land and water while the research suggests that contact with nature is needed for healthy child and adult development.

Some ideas to get started exploring nature:

• take a hike
• walk in your neighbourhood
• make rubbings
• nature games
• walk at night and/or at the full moon
• create a nature journal
• have nature collections
• dig a hole
• saw a log or chop wood
• listen with blindfolds on
• lie on the grass and watch the clouds
• take digital photography of the world around us
• build a house, fort, or hut with sticks, boards, blankets, boxes, ropes, nails, snow

The Wilderness Awareness School

National Wildlife Federation – Garden for wildlife in your backyard

The Cloud Appreciation Society

The Kids’ Book of Weather Forcasting

Earthsong: Children’s Special Places by David Sobel

David Sobel on “Play Motifs”

Aired live: Sunday, May 13th, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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Grief shows up in many ways during separation and divorce for the one leaving, the one being left, the children, and the extended family and friends. Divorce is a community affair. And while you’re grieving, you’re also expected to navigate the uncertain terrain of co-creating a parenting plan and separation agreement. How the heck do you do that, you ask?!

Cat Zavis is a collaborative divorce lawyer, mediator, skilled coach and trainer in Compassionate Communication from Bellingham, Washington State. She has a passion for helping individuals, families, businesses, and nonprofit organizations transform crisis and find real solutions that satisfy everyone’s needs. Heartfelt understanding, standing up for everyone’s needs, advocating for both parents and children, empowering people to make choices in alignment with their values and needs are guiding principles in Cat’s work. You can reach her at www.catjzavis.com and www.parentingwithyourex.com

Cat Zavis talks with Wendy McDonnell about navigating grief and the ways it shows up during divorce while you’re co-parenting with your soon-to-be or ex-spouse.

Other Resources:

Collaborative Law Practice – International Academy of Collaborative Professionals with informative videos and information for divorcing couples

Community Justice Initiatives in Kitchener, Ontario is a non-profit organization providing services in conflict resolution, group support for persons impacted by sexual trauma, and reintegration support for women returning to the community from prison (Stride Night) and reintegration support circles. Programs and services are made possible through trained community volunteers, donations, individual and public support. Services are available free or for a nominal fee.

Family Mediation Canada in Kitchener-Waterloo Area is an interdisciplinary association of professionals, working together, creating a better way to provide for co-operative conflict resolution relating to families. FMC was established in 1985 as a charitable, not-for-profit association.

Aired live: Sunday, May 6th, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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This show provides general information for anyone who is experiencing a relationship breakdown. While the guests will provide options on how you can work with your former partner to resolve conflicts  and general information about the law, they will not provide specific advice about your family’s situation. Every family situation is different. Please consult with your lawyer to obtain legal advice that applies in your case.

The Ministry of the Attorney General provides a variety of family justice services to Ontario families facing separation and/or divorce. These include: Family Law Information Centres, Family Court Information and Referral Co-ordination Services, Family Mediation Services, and Mandatory Information Programs.

Tonya Brock is the Information and Referral Coordinator (IRC) at the Family Law Information Centre (FLIC) at the Woolwich Street Court in Guelph, Ontario.  The Woolwich Street Court is the courthouse that hears all family law matters in Guelph.  It has both an Ontario Court of Justice and Superior Court of Justice. Tonya acts as a bridge between family court and their staff, community agencies, Advice Lawyers along with other relevant service providers.  Tonya provides divorcing couples with information and referrals related to separation, divorce and child protection matters, alternative dispute resolution, mediation, and community resources.

Tamara Bodnaruk-Wide is the Director of AXIS Family Mediation Incorporated and oversees all the services it provides. AXIS currently holds the contract with the Ministry of the Attorney General to provide court-connected on and off-site family mediation and information services as well as Mandatory Information Programs in Guelph.  In addition to Guelph, AXIS also provides these services in Hamilton, Kitchener and Cambridge. 

Aired live: Sunday, April 29th, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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OTHER RESOURCES

VIDEO: Children: The Experts on Divorce

Children need reassurance that they are not the cause of the relationship breakdown, they will be cared for, and each parent loves them.

How to divorce and Not Wreck the Kids

CBC Documentary, article, and quick tips for parents.

Ministry of the Attorney General

Glossary of Legal Terms, Information, Articles, Forms, Programs and Services, Family Court and Child Support guidelines

AXIS Family Mediation

Family Mediation Canada

Legal Aid Ontario

Contact Information:

Tamara Bodnaruk-Wide, B.A., M.J.A., Acc.F.M.

Director, AXIS Family Mediation Inc.

Personal Office (905) 523-1118

172 Main Street East, Third Floor

Hamilton, ON L8N 1G9

Head office (905) 308-8152

Fax (905) 523-0117

Hamilton Court office (905) 645-5252 x2515

Kitchener Superior Court Office (519) 741-3281

Kitchener Ontario Court Office (519) 741-3300 x3613

Guelph Court Office (519) 824-4100 x218

Cambridge Court Office (519) 496-6457

Toll Free 1-888-988 AXIS (2947)

www.axisfamilymediation.com

Tonya is available at her office in FLIC at the courthouse at 74 Woolwich Street on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m., or can be reached by telephone at 519-824-4100 x218 or by e-mail at .

Contact Tamara via e-mail at , or via telephone at the AXIS office (905-308-8152) or via any of the Hamilton, Kitchener, Cambridge or Guelph IRC/Mediation offices.

For example, one couple contacted them because the kids were about to leave the nest; they were scared and trying to decide whether they wanted to continue in their relationship or not. Another time their team worked with a stepparent trying to renegotiate a relationship with stepchildren who were grieving the loss of their parent.

If you’re looking for a resource in the Guelph Area, visit Community Justice Initiatives in Kitchener, Ontario.

Family Matters discusses how the process of Family Mediation sheds light on what’s important to everyone involved with the help of a person who brings curiosity, questions, and listening skills. Folks respond to conflict differently but in somewhat predictable ways.  Find out how each family member shifts their story to incorporate new information shared by others, as a family explores conflict and the meaning it holds for each person.

We also discuss what parents can do to create an environment to foster the skills of conflict exploration, listening, curiosity, and problem solving in themselves, their children, and their family.

Aired live: Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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Linette M. Daniels, also known as the “Youth Success Doctor” has a passion to reach 1 million youth with her “Success is a decision” message because she believes that given the right space, tools, and training, ALL youth can succeed. She seems well on her way as an award winning success strategist, speaker, and author who has empowered parents, youth, and leaders in public schools, day cares, juvenile courts, and social services.

Also, as a single parent, Linette Daniels raised 12 therapeutic foster care and 2 biological children using her vision to see infants’ progress into developmentally strong toddlers, academically prepared preschoolers, empowered youth and successful adults. You can find out more when you visit www.empoweringyouthforsuccess.com

Aired live: Sunday, April 15th, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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Aired live: Sunday, April 8th, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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With counseling and ceremony, Stephen Jenkinson guides individuals, couples, families and communities through all the human sufferings, sorrows and confusions in life. He’s been doing this for a quarter century.

We begin our conversation with a quote from Stephen’s website www.OrphanWisdom.com.

“A culture addicted to security, comfort and ‘be all you want to be’ makes no time in its public or private life for sorrow or uncertainty or the end of things. To a culture like our own, grief is mostly medicated or resolved, and our hearts elbow our lives out of the way in their headlong search for safe landings and getting their needs met. But what would our culture look like and how would our children think of us fifty years from now, if we began to honour and teach grief as a skill, as vital to our personal and cultural and spiritual life as the skill of loving?”

Stephen tells us about teaching grief as a skill, softening our hearts, having reverence for life, and loving as if it not going to last.

Listen to Podcast (click to listen or save the MP3 on your computer)

A collaborative approach, whether it’s Collaborative Family Law, mediation, or coaching, is significantly less expensive in time and money than litigation. Also, no one knows your family and your children better than you. Who better then to decide how to take care of the ones you love than you? Especially while parents are deciding to live in separate homes, children need reassurance that they are cared for, safe, and secure.

As Nadia points out, a collaborative approach works better when you have the attitude to support it. Conflict will happen. It works when you’re willing to listen, consider each person’s suggestions and values, go back and forth with ideas, and be willing to find a plan that includes all those ideas, even while you’re grieving the changes in your family.

Local resources for mediation are Community Justice Initiatives in Kitchener, Ontario and Family Mediation Canada.

Aired live: Sunday, March 25, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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Sonny Melendrez

What happens when you share your wonder, curiosity, imagination, and enthusiasm with your kids.

What you’ll notice in your kids when you live your dreams and share that with your kids.

Why spending time with your kids is important, especially in the early years. Kids want your love and attention.

Aired live: Sunday, March 18, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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Andrea Warnick, RN, BScN, MA joins Wendy McDonnell on Family Matters Radio to help parents and teachers support children when a family member is dying.

Andrea Warnick is a grief counsellor and registered nurse. Through her clinical nursing work in oncology and palliative care, Andrea developed a passion for working with ill, dying, and bereaved children and adults. As a result she obtained a Masters of Arts degree in Thanatology, the psychology and sociology of dying and death, from Hood College in Maryland. Her international work has taken her to Saudi Arabia, Africa, and in the survivor camps of post-tsunami Sri Lanka. As a grief counsellor at the Max and Beatrice Wolfe Children’s Centre at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Andrea provides support and education to families in which a child or teenager is experiencing the death of a family member. She is also the director of Camp Erin Toronto, a weekend bereavement camp for 6-17 year olds.

Resources:

Attending funerals

Talking about illness and death

Hospice support in Guelph

Resources for Adults:

Eaton Russell, C. (2007). Living Dying: A Guide for Adults Supporting Grieving

Children and Teenagers. (Available through the Max & Beatrice Wolfe Centre 416.586.4800 x6664 email: max&)

Hamilton, Joan. (2001). When a Parent is Sick. Helping Parents Explain Serious Illness to Children.

Silverman, P. R. (1999). Never Too Young to Know: Death in Children’s Lives.

Stokes, J. (2001). As Big as it Gets: Supporting Children when a Parent is Seriously Ill.

Resources for Youth:

Brown, L. K. (1996). When Dinosaurs Die: A Guide to Understanding Death.

Goldman, L. (2005). Children Also Grieve: Talking about Death and Healing.

Mellonie, B. (1983). Lifetimes: A Beautiful Way to Explain Death to Children.

Schweibert, P., & DeKlyen, C. (1999). Tear Soup: A Recipe for Healing After Loss.

Aired live: Sunday, March 11, 2012 0800-0900 Eastern Standard Time on CFRU 93.3 FM, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

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