Welcome! I’m so glad you are here, but if you are doing your part it means you are staying at home. Keep doing what you are supposed to be doing for the good of public health! Always adhere to official guidelines.
If you are looking for a group of moms to meet online now and then go out to parks after this is all over, then please send me an email and I will try to match you up with others who are looking for the same. I am seeing a lot of interest in this post during this stay-at-home time and I want to make sure I can be a resource for you. My contact info is here.
How to Create a Mom Group or Family Group
Here are some models you can use if you want to start something like a “family nature club” or a “family camping club” or just a casual Meetup.com group.
- Download the Family Nature Club Toolkit from the Children and Nature Network
6 Models of How You Could Set Up Your Own Nature Play Group
Lazy & Local Every Couple Months Model
- Here’s a little guide of how I set up my old Nature Play Club which I ran for two years when my kids were 5-7 years old and 10-12 years old as a way to keep nature in our lives even though the kids were school-aged. My model was super casual – I didn’t want it to feel overly-organized. I feel like ALL my readers are part of my nature club! However, I only wanted 4-5 families in my “real life” group so we could be more flexible and still have a “quiet” group when we were out exploring with a max of 20 people (usually around 12).
Big Community Group Model
- Family Adventures in Nature – big 1500 member San Diego based group with a bunch of mini clubs organized through Meetup.com. You could attend a few events to find some friends and then split off to form your own?
Pay Your Dues & Get More Model
- Austin Families in Nature – 3 different membership levels from $100-$500 annual dues organized on a private WordPress website through MemberFindMe.
Family Travel Model
- Make it a Nature Vacation Club and pick 2 or 3 families to rent houses or camp with in different outdoors-oriented spots.
Join the Club Model
- Finally, you might want to join a stay-at-home moms group which plans play dates at parks. That way you can get to know the moms that already enjoy the outdoors and propose something that takes you to nature centers or beyond the playground. I know there are existing MOMS Club, local mom Meetup groups, and ParentingOC has a full listing.