We are excited to announce that at Hope 4 Hurting Kids we are hard at work on a new resource, and we are excited today to give you a sneak peek. Tentatively named “150 Emotion Words Every Child Should Know – By Age,” we hope to have this resource completed and ready for you by Spring or early Summary of 2018.
Step 2 of the Jump In! portion of our Comprehensive Emotional Management System here at Hope 4 Hurting Kids, is “Say It!” Say It! is all about helping kids to develop a robust emotional vocabulary, and we set out to create a resource to help parents and other adults to just that. While still in the developmental stage, “150 Emotion Words Every Child Should Know – By Age” will be a collection of 150 emotions, grouped by age, that every kid should know. Each entry will explore one emotion in-depth including a kid friendly definition, related emotion words, opposites and examples to help parents and other adults talk to kids about each emotion. Additionally, emotions are grouped by age to give parents and other adults a way of gauging a particular child’s progress in understanding and naming emotions.
If you are interested in receiving a link to this resource when it is available, please fill out the short form below. This is not a “give something away free – then inundate you with emails” scheme. We simply want to make sure that if you are interested in the resource now, we get it to you when it finally comes available.
Thanksgiving is now a memory and Christmas looms before us. For some kids Christmas is an exciting time of the year. For many kids Christmas may mean staying up late, no school, visits with relatives, presents and candy. As people who work with kids, we want them to find the true meaning of Christmas. The emotions of Christmas in a child of divorce may be very different than what you are used to.
Most of you will go overboard trying to relay the story of the baby Jesus and his humble birth with special lessons and activities. There will be special Christmas musicals; special holiday parties or celebrations; perhaps even caroling events also.
We want kids to come to church and enjoy the “specialness” of this time of year. That’s why I want to start early this year asking you to prepare yourself for the child of divorce. If it is a child’s first Christmas after the separation or divorce of their parents, you might want to be prepared for a variety of feelings to be exhibited. Depending on how recent the divorce was, the child may appear to be in shock, or the child may be confused not sure of what their feelings are.
If it has been several months, and the child has begun to process the divorce, you may find some anger feelings emerging in your classes. If the child feels safe with you, then don’t be surprised if a lot of anger comes out. Some children will hold their anger in when they are around their parents. They don’t want to upset their already stressed and/or angry parents. But, when they get to a safe place and if you have developed a relationship with them, then they will let their guard down and express themselves.
Many of the resources and articles you see here on Hope 4 Hurting Kids include ideas and activities for teaching kids to better understand and deal with the difficult emotions that they face in life. To accomplish that goal, we suggest five main strategies to help kids to better recognize, understand and process their emotions. These five skills are represented by the letters SSFMT and the mneumonic:
Here what each letter represents:
