Tag: parents

Parent Sharing, the Best Parenting Education

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Parenting Struggles

When I parented my first-born, I didn’t know about the power of parent sharing. Instead, I often struggled on my own. This created a growing frustration with not always knowing what to do when, as a toddler, she misbehaved.

One time, I asked my mother for help. Her reply, “Oh, I never had that problem. You were so good.” Obviously, my mother didn’t remember her “yardstick” parenting strategy. As a tiny tot when I disobeyed, she came after me – stick in hand. Though, more often than not, she used it to threaten me, not hit me. Even so, this was not a strategy I wanted to use with my children. Poor memory or not, my mother was no help.

A humorous illustration of the "old woman and the shoe" depicting parenting a lot of children.

Parenting Classes

One day, I mentioned my frustration to my health care provider. She suggested I enroll in a parenting class provided by our health maintenance/insurance organization. 

Who me?! A parenting class?!

With an air of superiority, I thought, “Who me? A parenting class? Weren’t they for parents involved with child protective services? Weren’t they for parents who abused their kids and had them taken away?” That wasn’t me! Plus, I was a college graduate! I had a degree! I shouldn’t need parenting education! But, actually, I did.

Too good for class. From Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fear picture book

So, begrudgingly, I attended the classes.

Yes, a Parenting Class

Taught by a nurse and a nurse practitioner from the HMO, the class introduced 15 parent participants (of which only one was a social service mandate) to the “Systematic Training for Effective Parenting (STEP)” program. The course consisted of strategies found to be effective in raising socially and emotionally healthy children. 

Parent Sharing, the Best Parenting Education

What I particularly liked in the classes was “parent sharing.” This happened when one parent asked about how to deal with an issue, and another would say something like, “Oh, that? I don’t have an issue with that because this is what I have done when that happens….”  I learned some of the best  parenting “strategies” from parent sharing. 

Over time, I came to embrace the class – strategies, parent sharing, and all. The program provided me with information to direct my child’s behavior with less stress and more consistent love and understanding. I prospered. And, excited about the things I learned, I wanted to spread the word. I set out to share them with others. This ignited my journey as a mental health and parenting educator.

A Free guide to parenting adolescents

Other Parenting Programs

Conflict Resolution

Soon after I completed the STEP program, a course on conflict resolution came to town. Conflict resolution  or conflict management interested me. Even though I had been having a challenging time with my toddler, my husband and I had some communication challenges too. Again, the classes delivered. They  provided me with an arsenal of additional skills and strategies to implement whenever I needed them.

EPIC

Then, after this, I became a trainer of the EPIC parenting education program.  EPIC stands for “Every Person Influences Children” developed by Bob Wilson from Buffalo, NY. Frustrated by the high rate of local unintended teen pregnancies, a  concerned parent in our town wanted to do something about the problem. Her pregnancy prevention strategy included providing parents of teens in the community with a parenting program. Along with some other moms, I traveled to Buffalo and received the EPIC training. We then came back home and started facilitating parent groups. 

A Combination of Courses

After training the EPIC program for a while, I thought parents could benefit from combining it with both the STEP and conflict resolution classes. Taking  a little bit from EPIC and STEP and most of the information from the conflict management course, I developed a new parenting education program. 

I then taught the course at the NY State Education Dept. Board of Cooperative Education Services (BOCES) Adult Education Program in Syracuse, NY. I enjoyed teaching the new curriculum. But, again, more importantly, what was best was the parent sharing.

Parent-to-Parent – Head of the Class

As a facilitator of the classes, I both supported and reveled in the participants’ sharing of their parenting ideas, tips, and strategies. A parent may have had an issue in one area but in others they provided well tested ideas or techniques for someone else. This became a constant and welcome cycle within our learning community.

Through my years as an educator, my colleagues and I always agreed that one of the most important teaching strategies is facilitating the sharing of ideas from one student or participant to another. This is particularly true when parents share parenting strategies with each other.

What about you? 

Have you particpated in parenting education? If you did, was it in-person or virtual?   Did you like it?  Why or why not?  Do you have a child rearing tip or strategy that works/worked well for you that you’d like to share?Tell us about it in the Comments.

Looking for resources?

Check out the National Parenting Education Network (NPEN), a national organization that promotes the field of parenting education and encourages information sharing, professional development and networking opportunities for individuals who educate and support parents.

The Best Way to Introduce phearnik!® to Kids

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Helping Kids Overcome Anxiety

If you’ve been following the phearnik!® Campaign, you know it’s about helping fearful children overcome their fears. You’re intrigued by the little plush. You’ve seen the “How To” steps and know how it works. You’d like to introduce phearnik!® to your child. But you’d like to have some help. You want something like a book that helps kids with anxiety.

A picture of the phearnik! plush, a small rag doll with a lavender body, a navy blue jumpsuit and a wild head of yarn for hair. It has big black eyes and a squiggly mouth. Funny, cute and a little bit ugly. The toy helps reduce child anxiety.

A Picture Book to Help Kids Overcome Fears

A picture of the "Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears" a picture book that helps kids reduce their fear and anxiety.
Click to see a trailer of the book

Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears is just the thing! It’s a children’s book that helps kids with anxiety. In it, a little girl, Phoebe, experiences a lot of irrational fears. In particular, she’s afraid of the dark and going in the water as well as other similar kid fears. These fears keep her from doing things she really wants to do like playing with other kids and having fun.

In the book, Phoebe’s mom tells her,

“It’s okay to have a little fear. It helps you pay attention and keeps you safe. But your fear is too big. It keeps you from doing what you want to do. You need to make your fear small.”

A Toy that Helps with Anxiety

After this, Phoebe takes the reader on an amusing journey. Trying to “make her big fears small,” she finds nothing works. That is until she creates a “phearnik!®,” her “Little Fear.”  The toy helps Phoebe reduce her anxiety. She takes  phearnik!® with her everywhere to remind her to keep her fears small. In this way, Phoebe shows fearful kids it’s okay to have a little fear. Like her mother says, it helps her to pay attention to being safe. And, when you don’t let it get big, you have more fun playing with others.

A picture of a little girl holding her phearnik!

An Easy Way to Help Kids with Anxiety

A picture of an adult most likely a parent reading reading a book to a child. The picture helps illustrate how the "Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears" children’s book provides parents, teachers and counselors with an easy way to help a kid with their fear.

The Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears children’s book provides parents, teachers and counselors with an easy way to help a kid with fear and anxiety. The colorful paper collage illustrations readily engage both boys and girls in Phoebe’s story.  Additionally, the even reading pace clearly tells the story of how a kid solves the problem of making their “big” irrational fears small.

An illustration from the The "Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears"children’s book that helps kids overcome their fears.
Illustrations from “Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears.” See a trailer of the book here.
An illustration from the "Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears"children’s book that helps kids overcome their fears.
A picture of a collage from the aws Studios.art picture book when Phoebe gives a phearnik! to her dad.

A Children’s Book About Mental Health

At the end of Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears, there’s a letter for adult readers. The letter explains  how Phoebe teaches herself a mental health skill. It explains the type of skill Phoebe learns and how it works to reduce a child’s anxiety. Furthermore, the letter says, even though Phoebe’s too young to understand the brain science, she’s learned a way to calm her fear or “keep it small.” This helps her do the things she really wants to do.

A picture showing the letter to readers at the end of Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears providing adults with more information about how the book helps children with anxiety.

One Of The Best Anxiety Books For Kids

Here’s what people are saying about phearnik!® and the book:

Alis Wintle Sefick has freshly written and illustrated a lovely children’s storybook which highlights strategies to combat anxiety in children. This interesting story, told from the voice of a school-age child, offers a tool to address current emotional stresses, which are affecting kids, in higher numbers these days.  I highly recommend this gem of a book. Laura Dolan Jacobsen FNP-BC, Child Development

My now grown daughter could definitely have used a phearnik doll. She was very fearful of new things to the point that it affected her social connections with other kids her age. At the time there was no product like phearnik on  the market. We relied on tiny “worry dolls“ to help her manage her fears. I definitely would have invested in phearnik had  it been available at the time. I think it would’ve been a big help to her then. Rebecca Passanante, Retired Pre-school Educator

5 easy steps to use phearnik! to teach kids to be less scared of everything!

How to Get the Book

The Phoebe and phearnik!® Fight BIG Fears picture book will be available through the phearnik!® Campaign. Sign up and be the first to know when you can get the book!

Join the phearnik!® Campaign!

What about you? What books have you used with kids to help them with their anxiety? Let us know in the Comments.

Give this post a “Like” if you’re inclined. Share this post with others. You never know when you could be helping a parent with a child in need.

phearnik!® is No Stella Al Fresco

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Who is Stella Al Fresco

I made a doll and it is not like Stella Al Fresco.

Sunday morning in the NYTimes, I saw an article about how Megan, The Dutchess of Sussex, promoted a doll on her new show “With Love, Megan.” Commonly known Stella Al Fresco, Megan’s daughter’s doll is sold with “a little baguette and a little cheese.” The dolls’ creators claim the dolls and their accessories help kids mimic adult behavior. Says  Acorn Store owner  Heather Hamilton where the dolls are sold, “Kids really like imitating life, and if this is what they’re seeing on their parents’ patio, then they just pretend play.”

A picture of the doll commonly called Stella Al Fresco. It helps to show the difference between it and the aws Studios.art phearnik! plush and how it is different , has a different purpose and is not like Stella Al Fresco.
The doll commonly known as Stella Al Fresco
A picture of the phearnik! plush, a small rag doll with a lavender body, a navy blue jumpsuit and a wild head of yarn for hair. It has big black eyes and a squiggly mouth. Funny, cute and a little bit scary.
The phearnik! plush

Which makes me think that my little phearnik!® has a long, uphill slog to the market. How does my slightly scary looking doll/plush that is not like Stella Al Fresco compete with the sweet, cute and Cabbage Patch-like doll? And how does my aws Studios.art doll stack up against a doll promoted by Megan?

phearnik!® is no Stella Al Fresco

phearnik!® is 180° from Stella. But that’s okay. phearnik!® is not meant to mimic adult/parent behavior. phearnik!® stands for something else.

A Little Scary Looking

Yes, phearnik!® is not a sweet looking doll like Stella. phearnik!® actually looks a little scary. It’s supposed to look scary. I made phearnik!® to look a little scary because the plush represents a “little fear.”

The idea behind the phearnik!® doll was to make an object that represents fear.  I would take the “little fear” with me to remind me to keep my fears small. When I keep my fears small, they don’t get big and take control of things I want or need to do. More about where I got this idea here (hint: it’s from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book, Big Magic: Creative living beyond fear).

A picture of one of the original versions of the phearnik! plush prototype. A small rag doll with a lavender body, a navy-blue jumpsuit, googlie eyes, a crooked mouth and wild hair kids love.
One of the original versions of the phearnik! plush

Sharing the phearnik!® Idea

Initially, I created phearnik!® to help me with my fear of the blank canvas. Then one day my granddaughter spied the doll on my dresser. She wanted one too. (How couldn’t she? With its quirky face and wild hair, I thought!)

A picture of the cover of the original book about phearnik! titled "Adventures with phearnik!." The book has been revised and is now "Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears"
The original picture book about phearnik!. Now revised as “Phoebe and phearnik! Fight Big Fears”

While making my granddaughter a phearnik!®, I came up with the idea to tell her its story in a book. Hence, I created the picture book Adventures with phearnik!® and gave her both the book and plush as a birthday present.

A picture of a little girl holding her phearnik! The plush helps her overcome her fears so she can join in and have fun.
Guess who with her phearnik!

The phearnik!® Campaign

Since then, I wanted to share the book and the plush with others. phearnik!® definitely helped me. Every day it’s there to remind me not to be fearful of things that are new to me like a blank canvas. More importantly, it helps me with becoming an entrepreneur to promote the phearnik!® idea to others. I believe phearnik!® can help others who, like me, are held back by irrational and debilitating fears.

phearnik!® has helped me do everything I have needed to do to get to this point of launching the phearnik!® Campaign. The campaign seeks to raise funds to support mental health making the plush available to others, both kids and adults, dealing with irrational fears.

A picture of a bookmark that says "Support Mental Health, Join the phearnik! Campaign" with a QR code to sign up.

Yes, phearnik!® is no Stella Al Fresco but That’s Okay

A picture of the doll Stella Al Fresco holding a phearnik! plush symbolizing how the plush reminds kids to keep their fears small.
Stella and phearnik! as friends

phearnik!® is not like Stella Al Fresco. But I like to think that even Stella would like to have a phearnik!® It would remind her to keep her fears small so she can live a more fearless life. Ah, yes, what a vision. Instead  of competing with each other, Stella and phearnik!® could be  friends!

Do you agree? What do you think? Have you ever had a doll like Stella? Or phearnik!®? Tell us about it in the Comments.

Find out more about phearnik!® and get a free “How to Use phearnik!®” pdf here.

Support mental health and sign up for the phearnik!® Campaign

Coming soon: the many faces of phearnik!®

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A picture of the phearnik! the Courage Buddy plush, a small mental health plush with a lavender body, a navy blue jumpsuit and a wild head of yarn for hair. It has big black eyes and a squiggly mouth. Funny, cute and a little bit scary. The plush helped me overcome blank canvas syndrome or overcoming writer's block.

How the phearnik!® Toy Helps Kids Manage Fear

Published on by awsstudiosart9 Comments

*In my last post I announced my campaign to make phearnik!® available to kids, scared of everything, manage their fear. In this post, I aim to explain how it works. And, how, for children, their loved ones, and caregivers, life is better with the little plush.

The phearnik!® Journey

phearnik!®, a plush toy, used to prompt a mindfulness skill, helps children manage fear

Even before the pandemic, mental health issues were on the rise for children. Unfortunately, the pandemic increased the number of kids dealing with overwhelming fear and anxiety. This often points to a lack of mental health skills.

“So,” you ask, “how does a toy help kids build a skill to make them less scared of everything?” I’ll tell you!

What is this phearnik!® you are talking about?!

The phearnik!® [pronounced: fear-nick] toy or “plush” is a prompt. phearnik!® means “Little Fear” and prompts kids to remember to keep their fears “small.” Importantly, having a “little fear” when faced with non-life-threatening anxieties helps keep kids safe. A little fear helps us to pay attention. Whereas, too much or letting it “get “big” stops kids from doing what they want or need to do. This could be things like joining in and having fun with other kids.

A Prompt to Reduce Fear and Anxiety

Used in many disciplines including education, therapy, and Applied Behavioral Analysis, a prompt is a tool or aid. It works to achieve a desired behavioral response. Prompts can be verbal, gestural, physical, or visual. Also, pictures, videos, or toys such as dolls and plush are types of visual prompts.

A picture of a bulletin board with reminder notes pinned to it.
Yes, A toy as A Prompt!
The image shows a little girl who used to be scared of everything is holding her phearnik! plush. She is smiling and looks like she likes her quirky looking toy.
A little girl holding her phearnik!®

The small phearnik!® or “Little Fear” prompts children dealing with fear and anxiety to keep their fears small. They do this by calming themselves. First they take a breath, let it out, and take the first small “step” of trying a new experience. These can be things like putting a toe into the “scary” water. As well as, stepping just inside the doorway of the dark bedroom holding their stuffie, of course.

5 easy steps to use phearnik! to teach kids to be less scared of everything!

By providing a clear signal or reminder about what is expected, prompts guide the teaching of concepts or skill. This helps to increase the chances of a desired behavior. 

Some examples of Prompts you might recognize…

Teachers might use verbal prompts to guide students through a challenging math problem. Or they may use visual prompts like pictures to help with learning vocabulary. Therapists use prompts to assist clients with many activities. These include visual prompts to guide them through a sequence of steps in a task. And, in the research-based practice, Applied Behavioral Analysis, prompts help to improve problematic behavior.

Manage Fear and Anxiety with Skills

wait! this isn’t life or death!

Many do not experience overwhelming fear in the face of non-life-threatening situations. They are skilled in  transferring these thoughts.

Fearful thoughts begin in the primal limbic area of the brain. Those with the skill transfer these thoughts to the prefrontal cortex. This is where our modern, logical, and practical responses reside.

It’s as though they are saying, “Wait! My brain thinks this is a life-or-death situation but it’s not. I’m safe to give this a try.”  

Mental health made simple! A free skills checklist
Mindfulness with phearnik!®

phearnik!® prompts the practice of switching fearful thoughts from its initial primal reaction to modern and logical calm responses. This skill strengthens mental health. It is an intrapersonal communication skill, a type of mindfulness.

How to Use the phearnik!® Prompt

The phearnik!® prompt is easy to use
Here’s how:
  • Introduce phearnik!® to the child. Tell them its name, how it’s pronounced [fear-nik] and what the name means – “Little Fear.”
  • In addition, tell them to take the plush with them. It’s small to fit in a backpack or pocket. Wherever they are, when faced with a situation they’re afraid of, phearnik!® is there. Reminding them that a “little fear” is okay. It helps to keep them safe and aware.
  • Let the child know too much or letting their fear get “big” makes them freeze. This means they can’t do things they would like or need to do.
  • phearnik!® wants them to first slowly take a breath in and let it out. It’s okay to do this a few times.
  • Next phearnik!®, not only wants them to think about keeping their fear small but…
This is an image of the phearnik! plush. The plush is a prompt used to build a mindfulness skill to help kids scared of everything gain social and emotional health.
phearnik!®
  • …the plush wants them to think about not letting it get big.
  • phearnik!® reminds them they are safe to take the first step on giving a new experience a try.
  • Tell them phearnik!® is helping them learn an important skill to keep them strong and healthy.
5 Easy Steps to use phearnik! to teach kids to be less scared of everything!

From Fearful to Confident

get healthy with social and emotional skills
This image shows a little girl, who used to be scared of everything, enjoying swimming in the water with her dragon floatie. She used the phearnik! plush to remind her to keep her fear small and not let it get big.
phearnik! reminded Phoebe to practice her mindfulness skill to keep her fear of the water “small.” She had fun swimming with the other kids!

The more the toy is used, the more a child, scared of everything, practices the thinking skill. This skill builds their social and emotional health and becomes less fearful. As with all prompts, the more it’s used the less it’s needed.  The more a child takes the plush with them, the more they will remember to practice the skill. This includes taking a breath, letting it out, and calming themselves toward taking positive action with new experiences. Moreover, this can be done with or without the plush at their side.

Said one grandmother of a phearnik!® owner,

“After a while, all we had to do when she was afraid of doing something that didn’t warrant a lot of fear, like getting in the water, was to tell her to “remember” phearnik!®. And she got it! You could see her thinking about it. And, with a smile, she jumped in the pool with the rest of us!”

Support Kids’ Mental Health

The phearnik!® plush is an easy and fun way to help kids who need it. Building a social and emotional skill, the toy can be life changing.

Make skill building fun! Join the phearnik!® Campaign!

By joining the campaign, you will get:

  • Get more information about phearnik!®  like
  • How the quirky plush came to be
  • Receive campaign updates (like how it will be made available),
  • Get more info mental health skill building and
  • Support the larger mission of boosting children’s mental health!
Join the “phearnik!®” Campaign

Do you have a prompt you use to help you build a skill? Is there anything you don’t understand or are confused about with the phearnik!® plush? Let me know in the Comments or email me: alis@awsstudios.art

If you think someone you know should know about phearnik!®, feel free to share this post.

Next post: The best way to introduce kids to phearnik!® what it is and how it works!

Support Kids’ Mental Health with phearnik!®

Published on by awsstudiosart8 Comments

“My kid is scared of everything”

Parenting fearful kids is exhausting. Furthermore, it’s even more exasperating than just “plain old parenting” which is exhausting enough!  The fears I’m talking about are the non-life-threatening kind and are often about things other children have no issues with.  Importantly, you wonder, why your child is so anxious and scared of everything?

A picture of a little girl in bed in the dark looking very frightened.
From the picture book “Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears”

Longing for Curiosity and Courage

Indeed, you would love for your child, lest I say, “To be like other kids.” I’m talking about the ones who don’t seem to be scared of everything. Life would be easier and less stressful. Moreover, it would be great if your fearful child could approach new experiences with curiosity and courage.

Developing Skills

A close up of two kids having fun playing in the surf from an illustration from the picture book.
From the picture book “Phoebe and phearnik! Fight BIG Fears”

Clearly, all kids are different and deal with unfamiliar activities in various ways. This often depends on their skills. We develop physical and mental health over time, frequently without noticing we’re developing skills.  We more easily think about what’s needed for our children’s physical health. The ethereal skills of mental health are harder to pinpoint. In addition, you may ask, what exactly are those skills?

Assessing Skills

To help parents, caregivers, teachers and others assess a child’s mental health, I have put together an introductory skill checklist. The list begins with the basic skills of social and emotional health. Also, the list includes life skills and others for specific emotional needs.

Mental health made simple – A free skills checklist

Importantly, basic mental health begins with communication skills, both interpersonal and intrapersonal. Helping kids to be less ‘scared of everything’ begins with building their  intrapersonal communication skills.

Less Scared of Everything with phearnik!®

Meet phearnik!® –  a toy that helps kids build an essential intrapersonal communication skill!

Who  wouldn’t want a toy that relieves their kid’s fears and be less scared of everything? Well…  phearnik!® is that toy! When faced with non-life-threatening fears, the small quirky plush prompts children to practice mindfulness, an intrapersonal communication skill.

phearnik!® (pronounced: fear-nik) means “Little Fear.” It helps kids to mindfully keep their fears “small” and not let them get “big.” Having a little fear helps keep kids safe. But too much or letting it get “big” stops them from doing what they want or need to do.

“Too little fear and you don’t pay enough attention; too much and you freeze.”

Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land

Support Kids’ Mental Health

This post marks the beginning of my phearnik!® campaign. My goal is to make the cute little plush available to any kid who needs it. I want to bring its subtle powers to  help these kids be less scared of everything.

More about phearnik! here

Over the next few months, I will be talking about phearnik!®:

  • what it is;
  • what it does,
  • how it helps boost mental health and
  • how I am trying to bring it to kids who need it.

Then in October, I plan to launch my 30-day fund-raising campaign to help manufacture, package and ship phearnik!® and its accompanying picture book to kids who need it.

A picture of the phearnik! plush prototype. A small rag doll with a lavender body, a navy-blue jumpsuit, googlie eyes, a crooked mouth and wild hair kids love.
phearnik! prototype

Help Boost Children’s Mental Health –

Join the “phearnik!®” Campaign
  • Get more information about how phearnik!®  works,
    • Find out how the quirky little plush came to be,
      • Get campaign updates (like how phearnik!® will be made available),
          • Get more mental health skill building info and
            • Support the larger mission of boosting children’s mental health skill building!
    Sign up here – Boost Kids Mental Health Skills Today!

    Next blog post – details about how phearnik!® works. Sign up to stay tuned!

    New Picture Book Included in National Ag Curriculum

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    Lack of Rural Teaching Resources

    Parents, homeschoolers, and preschool teachers often struggle to find picture books about rural agricultural areas where their students live. Because of this, educators must change what is available or go without. This causes extra work and leaves children missing out on important information about their home.

    Efforts are being made to ensure citizens are agriculturally literate. This is necessary to have a society that values agriculture, makes informed decisions about the food they eat, and advocates for agriculture among other initiatives.

    Picking up apples from Apples for Cider

    More Resources About Agriculture Needed

    Parents and teachers want books for kids living in non-urban areas. They seek books related to local happenings. These educators want resources that speak specifically to the farming happening around their community. For example, kids living in rural areas see apple farming happening all around them. Their parents and teachers want picture books that cover life about orchards.

    A New Picture Book with an Ag Theme

    picture books about rural agricultural areas

    To tackle this issue, my picture book, Apples for Cider, is an agricultural resource for parents and teachers. It helps them bring their rural agriculture community into their homes. They can also integrate it into their classrooms. Apples… is one of many needed picture books about rural agricultural areas. Plus, the book is now part of the National Agriculture in the Classroom Curriculum Matrix. The Apples for Cider picture book is now a Companion Resource attached to three Matrix apple lessons:

    Additionally…

    The Apples for Cider Parent/Teacher Reading Guide will also be available for download. The Guide is another way to help educators when using a picture book to extend learning. The Reading Guide includes various prompts for discussion and activities including a:

    • Social-emotional learning activity
    • Collage-making activity
    • Apple cider guide and
    • Pastiche discussion and activity
    Get a free Apples for Cider Reading Guide here

    Find Out More!

    What has been your experience with finding picture books with agricultural themes? tell us in Comments below

    Supporting Stressed Parents: A Resource for Teachers

    Published on by awsstudiosartLeave a comment

    The US Surgeon General’s Concern for Stressed Parents

    You’ve heard the US Surgeon General’s recent public health concern regarding stressed parents and their need for support. Subsequently, many school administrations called for schools and communities to respond.

    For teachers, this can feel like adding more to an already overloaded plate of dealing with classrooms, getting through their annual curricula, and assisting individual students. And, if teachers do nothing, guilt could add to their own stress.

    A Desire to Help Stressed Parents

    Teachers know they have good access to students’ parents and would like to help. Plus, supporting students’ parents builds stronger relationships, not only with the parents but also with students and the broader community. To support stressed parents, teachers need something easy to implement, as well as worthwhile.

    A Simple and Supportive Parent Resource

    The Five Basics Pamphlet is a downloadable PDF that helps stressed parents of teenagers. The “…Pamphlet” contains the five actions parents can take to reduce the stress often felt when living with teens. It is based on evidence MIT researchers found that helps with parenting adolescents.

    The Five Basics have compressed parenting strategies into five areas – connecting, observing, modeling, guiding, and advocating – while offering many doable “how-to” examples for each.

    Do Your Duty…Check!

    The Five Basics is a way for teachers and others to step up, heed the Surgeon General’s call, and support stressed parents. By either emailing the user-friendly PDF to parents or downloading it and handing it out, the pamphlet does the work for teachers making it easy to help.  And, even if, parents don’t ‘read and heed’, teachers can practice the Five Basics on their own, using them in their classrooms and giving teen students the adult direction and support they need to succeed.

    Two-sided, foldable, user-friendly PDF

    With the Five Basics Pamphlet, teachers gain:

    • Respect and appreciation from parents
    • Respect from students who find they enjoy coming to class
    • Stronger classroom and school communities and
    • Confidence in knowing they answered the Surgeon General’s call to support stressed parents
    get the Five Basics user-friendly pamphlet here!

    As a teacher or homeschooler, I would love to hear more about what your needs are. Let me know in the Comments section or email me at alis@awsstudios.art

    Build Teen Social Emotional Skills

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    Click here for your free Mental Health / Life Skills list

    Teen Social Emotional Skills: A Comprehensive List

    As a mental health educator, I knew the skills to help teens build their mental health or social emotional learning. These include communication, goal setting and planning, decision making, problem solving, and stress and personal management.

    Furthermore, as a Training Specialist for the NYS Adolescent Services and Resource Network, I used a different list of social emotional learning skills. This list included “life skills,” the abilities teens need to gain their independence such as getting an education, budgeting, shopping, cooking, home management, etc.

    A picture of a mental health/social emotional learning skills checklist for kids, teens or adults from aws Studios.art

    Specific Teen Social Emotional Skills

    In addition to the life skills, the resource included a list of “Invisible Skills” for “emotional issues.” These included: establishing identity, dealing with separation and loss; making peace with the past; and resolving survivor guilt. The resource, originally created to guide foster care parents and Youth Workers, can be used with any teen dealing with trauma, isolation, and bullying, etc.

    Build Teen Mental Health

    Indeed, to build teen mental health – social emotional skills , I have recreated the all-inclusive training list for you. You can access this easy-to-read pdf here free! And, here are resources I have created that are geared to help young people learn these skills.

    Let’s All Build Teen Mental Health

    A picture of a mental health/social emotional learning skills checklist for kids, teens or adults from aws Studios.art

    With this free pdf, I hope to make it easier for any adult – parent, grandparent, relative, teacher, homeschooler, etc., – who is living or working with a teenager – to know and assess teen mental health skills. Let’s all help young people build these essential social and emotional skills!

    Do you have a favorite list of mental health skills? Let us know about it in the Comments section.

    Click here for your free pdf of my Mental Health / Life Skills list