So many kids today have a hard time sitting in class and working. There are as many reasons for this as there are students. Here is a fun story you may want to tell your kids to help them realize they can make choices and change.
4 Possibilities to Consider When we have a Problem to Solve: 1. You can wait for a visit from your fairy Godmother 2. You can wait for the problem to go away by itself. 3. You can continue to act the way you are now. 4. You can change. Tell the following Mexican Fable and ask your child which solution Pepe used to ultimately solve his problem. Once there lived a boy named Pepe who spent all his time resting in the shade of a big tree. After breakfast one morning, he settled down in his favorite spot, pulled his sombrero over his face and prepared to sleep away the day. By and by his mother called to him, "Pepe, please bring a bucket of water from the well." "Not right now," yawned Pepe. "I will do it later," and he went back to sleep. By this time his father was out of patience. "Lazy boy!" he cried. You will not bring water from the well. You do not work in the fields and now you will not even help in the house. This minute I say to you either do your share of the work or find another place to live. Pepe decided to leave home. Down the dusty road he walked until he came to a little grove of fig trees. This is a good place to rest, he decided, but no sooner had he settled down under the shadiest tree of all than--plop! A fat yellow fig tree fell into his hand. "What a piece of luck!" said Pepe. He promptly ate the yellow fig. At once his nose began to itch. Pepe put his hand up to rub it and hen he discovered that for some reason it had grown to twice its normal size. Moreover, it kept right on growing until at last it was so long it almost touched the ground. Poor Pepe hadn't the faintest idea what to do about such a nose. He was in despair when --plop! A blue fig fell into his hand. With nothing better to do, he ate that one also, and to his surprise his long, long nose began to shrink. And it kept on shrinking till it was back to normal again. Then and there Pepe thought of a way to use the two kinds of magic figs to make himself money. Quickly, he gathered a hatful of yellow figs and stuffed all his pockets with blue ones.. Then he hurried down the road to the village. "Have a fig, amigo, a golden ripe fig," he said to everybody he met. And soon he had given away all his yellow figs but one. Of course when they had eaten the figs the villagers noses began to grow and kept on growing till every one of the noses reached the ground. Then the people came running after Pepe, crying out in anger, "Look what has happened to our noses. We are ruined." "Not so," Pepe answered calmly. "Just watch the thing I will show you." Then he ate the last yellow fig he saved and soon his own nose was touching the ground. Then he took a blue fig from his pocket and was about to eat that one also when an old woman standing near by snatched it from his hand. No sooner had she eaten it than everyone saw her nose return to its normal size. Then all the people began to clamor at once for the blue figs. "I will sell them to you for a thousand dollar each," Pepe told them, smiling hard. The people did not smile back. Angrily they muttered among themselves. They knew they had been tricked. So they fell upon him and took every blue fig from his pockets and ate them. They did not leave even one for Pepe. Quickly, he hurried back to the grove but sad to say, every last fig had disappeared. Poor Pepe sat down and began to cry. Now look back at the 4 choices he could possible make when deciding to solve his problem. Which choice would help him the most? Just then along the road came his father, going toward the village. When he saw Pepe's long, long nose he was amazed. "What has happened?" he wanted to know, and soon he had heard the whole unhappy story. "Please let me go back home with you," Pepe begged. "I am sorry that I was lazy and brought all this trouble upon myself. From now on I promise to work harder than anyone has ever worked before." So Pepe's father took him home, and Pepe kept his word. Then a very unusual thing happened. The harder he worked, the shorter grew his nose until before long it was back to normal. Happily, by the time Pepe had made such a good habit of working that he enjoyed it. He never was a lazy boy again.
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Harry Potter: Transfiguration- changing our negative thoughts into positive ones. ANTS into HAWKS.1/6/2014 One of the things I do in friendship craze (my classes to help kids make and keep friends) in the summer is take a popular children's book and correlate it to the games and themes I have in friendship craze. This idea was the seed to my first book.. A.N.T.S. Annoying Nonsense Thoughts. A Guide to Positive Thinking. Anyway there are a lot of fun ideas, I've used from Harry Potter. Tell the child you are going to learn a transfiguration spell. You are going to change a ANT into a HAWK. Explain a thought that is an ANT (annoying nonsense thought) such as, "I'm bored. There is never anything to do." can be changed into a HAWK (happy, awesome wonderful knowledge). Have the child take the ANT (make a paper ant) and smash it and then say a HAWK and throw a paper hawk into the air. You may make a copy of any ant or hawk.For example they may say to change the ANT into a HAWK, (There are a lot of things to do I just need to figure out some ideas.) Then say the magic spell, "Positive Verto" and throw a paper Hawk into the air. Super fun activity for the kids especially if they are into Harry Potter. Have them keep practicing until changing their negative thoughts become easier for them. I changed my books name to "ANTS: Annoying Nonsense Thoughts. A Guide to Positive Thinking." Same book. You can still get the old title- There's a Big Ant on Me, Get it Off". I changed the name because I felt it let people know right off what it was about and why it is important. But I didn't want to delete the old title since some people have all ready bought the book. (Plus I got some great reviews-haha)
A lot of people actually buy it for adults to help them use the technique of changing their negative thoughts, but the younger we teach our kids to think positively the easier it will be in their lives. Here are the links to order the books, with either the old title or new title. http://www.amazon.com/A-N-T-Annoying-Nonsense-Thoughts-Friendship/dp/1494233428/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1386001531&sr=8-2-fkmr0 http://www.amazon.com/Theres-Big-Friendship-Craze-Volume/dp/061580859X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1386002859&sr=8-2 (This one has reviews on it.) Or if you live in the Fayeteville/Peachtree City area you can pay 9 dollars and pick it up at my house. (Only old titles) Kids love the book and parents love it because it helps teach their kids positive thinking in a fun way. FUN CHRISTMAS GIFT!!!!! |
AuthorI am a mother of 3. I have a passion for helping kids feel comfortable in their 'own skin'. Archives
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