My favorite contacts in blogging seem to be the ones that happen providentially – someone knows someone who knows me and puts me into contact with that first someone.  That’s not accidental – or even coincidental – that’s networking at its best!  I have in my circle a master networker, who happens to be a beautiful cousin of mine as well, and she has networked another fun connection for me.  Shennandoah Diaz introduced me to Emiliano Villarreal of Aesop’s Garden, and I’m really glad she did!

About Aesop’s Garden

Aesop’s Garden is more than a colouring book company – they are about keeping families in touch, especially those who are far apart.

From their website, Aesop’s Garden:

Our goal is to use the power of stories, sprinkled with some creativity, to make hugs between family, friends, and little seedlings more meaningful. 

The spark of inspiration for Aesop’s Garden grew from a personal problem of mine – how to connect with my niece who lives really far apart from me!  My niece Caty & I have lived in different cities, different countries since the day she was born making it difficult for us to visit each other regularly.  I realized one day that given the little time we had spent together (only two/three days every six months) I should be a stranger to her. 

Yet thanks to the effort of her parents showing her pictures of me and explaining the context of our relationship, she knew me as part of her family.  Which means the world to me as our relationship makes me incredibly happy. This first-hand exposure to the problem is where the idea began to grow in my mind – how to build a fun solution that would help adults and kids strengthen their relationships in a way that was meaningful, fun, and hassle free! (~Emiliano)

How it works:

1. Choose one of our coloring stories
2. Tell us the stars of your story
3. We personalize the story for you
4. Email it direct to you
5. Print it out & give it to your child to enjoy!
6. Share with family & friends!

My Review

Where were these stories when my kiddos were smaller!?  We moved 2500 miles away from family when we got married, and Sweetie and I always intended to ‘come home’ to the States when we were done studying in Canada.  But, we’re still here!  And so I’ve raised my kiddos a LONG way away from all of our family members.  We’ve done creative things to try to stay connected, but I can tell you first hand that it’s TOUGH!

Enter Aesop’s Garden!  These little stories are so much fun, and they don’t tip-toe around the fact that you’re far apart – they embrace it.  Beyond just being super cute colouring books, these stories make suggestions that families really can put into practice to stay connected across the miles. They would have been great for me to have 4 – 8 years ago with my little people!

I’ll give an example of how this might work.  Gram finds these stories, orders “Far Apart, Close Together” and has it personalized to include herself and MrCutie.  When she gets the story directly by e-mail she can send it off that way to MrCutie or she can print it off, colour a few pages herself, and send it via mail to MrCutie.  Either way would be fun – kids LOVE getting mail of their own.

MrCutie coloring!

In our case, we ordered “Far Apart, Close Together” and we DID have it personalized for Gram and MrCutie – but we printed it off and started colouring it so MrCutie can send it to Gram.

It works both ways!

“Far Apart, Close Together” is a great story with fun and silly ideas of things for the separated family members to do together. It includes things like wearing the same mismatching socks, making Tuesday crazy hat day, and looking at the same stars. One suggestion is to play knights together at 12 o’clock and shows Gram at the table on her laptop with a webcam.  Isn’t that PERFECT?!

The stories are clear and easy to read even for younger children. The pictures to color are very full of life and character, with enough detail to be really nice pictures and not so much detail as to be hard for little people to color.

Another small detail but an important value is that Aesop’s Garden doesn’t put any “branding” on the stories.  Emiliano says,

“We don’t do any form of advertising (which is a different story to itself) and as so having our logo or website address on the story would be very helpful in spreading the word about AG.  However, because they don’t add any value to the kid’s development I don’t include them in the story.  Sure most every book has it these days, but I prefer to keep the stories strictly focused on the developing the child in every detail.”  

Now that’s classy!

There are 2 stories available now (“Far Apart, Close Together” and “Easter Eggsplained“), with more titles scheduled to be added in the next little while, including one for Father’s Day coming VERY soon. (Stay tuned for more details!) As the storyline expands, so do the ideas for how to share the stories.  Recently Aesop’s Garden has added a crafty twist to things, with instructions on how to bind the stories in a fun and easy way.  “Easter Eggsplained” also includes fun crafts along with the colouring story.

Aesop’s Garden is truly a fun way to stay connected with your family if you live far apart.  It’s a hassle-free option that provides personalization and a sweet story to share.  My kiddos are just a bit big for this, though they all like to color still.  I’d say it’s probably best for kiddos under 7.

MrCutie and I are still working on Gram’s story, and he is enjoying it in little snippets at a time (he’s 9).  I know she’ll be excited when she gets it – almost as excited as MrCutie will be when he gets to send it! 🙂

MrCutie colored the page “…share dreams together!” He and Gram are on a pirate ship in their dreams!

I received a copy of “Far Apart, Close Together” to review and share with my readers.  As always, my opinions are my own.