our roots
Children blossom when they play, spend time with their parents, bath, get dressed, brush their teeth, help around the home, do art and craft, sing and make noise, dance, read and learn. We aim to support loving and caring parents and other caregivers by providing ideas for enriching everyday life activities and baby massage.
This approach uses the daily “occupations” of children - the daily activities that hold meaning to each unique family - as the basis for creating habits routines and rituals that can promote health and support child development. This project uses everyday activities as a way of promoting health and development rather than explicitly teaching health knowledge and health behaviour to children.
It is different to the many health promotion strategies that teach children language for labeling their emotions, skills for deep breathing and relaxation or healthy eating and exercise habits. These approaches are very important for skill development and health literacy. However, Fig & Vine takes a unique approach to health promotion by guiding caring adults to overlay a considered level of awareness to their children’s everyday activities so that they might be done in ways that can enrich childhood development and promote health and happiness.
Fig & Vine ideas are evidence-based and activities that we have done with our own children.
our Name
Fig & Vine is derived from our daughters’ names. They are the inspiration for our business. Many of the ideas that we are cultivating have sprung from precious moments with our beautiful girls. Fig & Vine is our way of growing our passion for child wellbeing, creative content development, health promotion, and a venture that is conducive to the lifestyle we hope to achieve for our own family.
After naming our newborn baby Ivy, our two year old daughter became fond of a beautiful old Ivy vine in the back yard. She would become concerned if anyone pruned the vine and enjoyed playing under it on a cast iron seat. The vine, known as “ivy’s tree”, is loved dearly. We then decided to see if there was an Audrey tree, and discovered that the Ficus Audrey, also known as the banyan tree, is a type of fig tree of outstanding size and beauty with incredible aereal roots. We were very pleased to find out that such a magnificent tree shared a name with our Audrey. When finding a name for our business, the name Fig & Vine felt like a natural fit because it reflects the inspiration we have found in our own children.
A vine is a stem whose growth requires support. The Ficus Audrey fig tree also requires another tree to grow. These interdependent characteristics of figs and vines reflect the role of parents in the growth and wellbeing of their children, and our hope to support parents to find what works for them - their own unique ways of loving and caring for their children.