Happy girl

Body Language and Feelings A standard lesson that I taught every year as an elementary school counselor was recognizing feelings. It was a fun lesson. I’d bring in large cut outs of children showing mad, sad, happy or scared feelings and ask kids to guess how the child was feeling. We’d talk about body language and how…

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kids inspire

Create an Intentional year January is the time of year for setting goals and planning for the future.  It’s also the time of year when it can be hard to drum up excitement for the learning opportunities ahead. Blustery weather, overcast days and the Covid pandemic which has disrupted schedules and kept everyone cooped up…

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thanksgiving

Debunking Myths about Gratitude Developing an attitude of gratitude is something that can be started early in small ways and then developed as a child grows. Even young children can learn to be thankful for the many daily experiences they encounter. Gratitude involves learning to be first aware and secondly to frame the situation in…

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sad girl

Kids and Rejection You don’t make the team Your friend doesn’t invite you to to the party Your essay, performance, or art work doesn’t win first place Rejection is a part of life, for kids a well as for adults.  I bet we all know adults who never learned to handle rejection or obstacles well.…

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How to help kids cope with failure I’ve written a lot of posts on how to handle failure.  There are several of reasons for this.   As a kid, I don’t know that anyone ever helped me understand the role that failure plays in growing, improving and becoming your best self. I just figured out…

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What is the key to managing stress for all of us? Recognizing and developing a sense of control. Kids especially live in world where they have little control. Just think about the many things in a typical day in the life of a child where they lack control: the school they attend, the class they…

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