Boosting mental health skill building
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 …
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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 …
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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 …
*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 …
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“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 …
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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 …
Continue reading “New Picture Book Included in National Ag Curriculum”
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 …
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Art and Mental Health. No Brainer! This new tagline I created from a Wendy MacNaughton quote should help readers (and Google!) better understand aws Studios. In her “Pencil Skills Part 1” post about drawing with healthcare professionals, MacNaughton declares, “Art and health. No. Brainer.” (Which I understand to mean how ones’ involvement in art or …
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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 …
Handmade Gifts and Cards I have always liked making Christmas gifts. Not only that, I have made my own Christmas cards to send to family and friends almost every year for over the past 40 years! When I worked as a mental health educator, I would use my handmade cards to give to staff at …
