Decision making
Imagine living in a place where construction is constant, and roads are frequently blocked. Over time, you might start to anticipate these roadblocks, changing your route without checking if there's really an obstruction or sometimes not even trying. This scenario mirrors life when we face challenges.
Suggestions:
- ​Chat about why it's good to not always expect problems.
- Using the sheet, talk about times when you thought something bad would happen and it didn't.
- Put it on a wall at home or in school so you can see and remember it.​
- Use this when talking about how it's good to take things one step at a time.
A FREE printable that we can use to have these conversations with our children when we need to remember that we get to choose the ANDs that matter to us.
Suggestions:
- Discuss together how we can have multiple feelings at one, just as we all have multiple sides to our personality.
- Use as an activity in the classroom to have the students share some of what they are feeling or how they perceive themselves as time.
- Talk about stereotypes and toxic gender roles.
- Use as part of therapy to discuss how we can be more than one thing.
- Use as a visual reminder to discuss about choices, consequences of limiting beliefs and the importance of acknowledging that we can be ourselves fully.
A reminder that we can always create a space for reflection, choice and possibilities by adding something to our current situation.
Suggestions:
- Discuss together the importance of adding this emotional space and share what this space feels like for each one of us.
- Discuss some of the suggestions of what can be added and add your own tools or strategies on the lines.
- Keep as a visual reminder in a classroom or at home.
- Use as part of therapy to discuss the importance of having an emotional space that gives us choices over our actions.
- Use as a visual reminder when something happens (fighting, saying words that we cannot take back...) to discuss about choices, consequences and the importance of having a space in between for reflection.
A visual tool to remind ourselves that our problems are always more manageable when we give ourselves a little bit of time to unravel them first. This allows us to separate the different strands and prioritize our focus.
Suggestions:
- Use to help with unraveling the complexity of certain problems
- Keep as a visual reminder at home or in the classroom to remind children that sometimes our problems can appear huge and overwhelming and unraveling them helps us see things differently.
- When children have a hard time making big decisions, have them cut the process into smaller steps by focusing on one strand at a time.
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A visual reminder that every goal consists of a series of smaller steps.
A visual aid to help children learn to cut down large goals into smaller steps. A tool to focus on the small successes and to remind ourselves that they all lead in one direction.
Suggestions:
- Use to help with cutting larger goal in smaller steps
- Keep as a visual reminder at home or in the classroom to remind children that every journey starts with a single step.
- When children have a hard time making big decisions, have them cut the process into smaller steps.
A conversation starter or activity to help children understand that we all carry emotional baggage as we go on different life journeys. An activity to help bring people back to the present by making conscious choices of what they decide to bring on different journeys.
Suggestions:
- Decide what attitude you wish to bring with you when going somewhere on doing something new.
- Can be use as part of therapy to signal a shift from the past luggage that has been handed down to the new luggage one chooses to bring.
- Use before an exam to help your students decide what feelings, emotions, qualities, state of mind or virtues they wish to bring with them as they prepare
A handy reminder tool sharing the attitude we should have when having to make decisions based on information shared by other people.
Suggestions:
- Use an elastic to show how when the elastic is loose, there is room for it to expand and change shape. Use the same elastic to show how it is inflexible when it is pulled tight. Explain how our attitude can affect how we take in information and make decisions.
- Use the blank versions to have the children come up with there own descriptions of what each side looks like.
When children feel pressured to get it all and do it all right away, we need to remind them that it is alright for them to think, breathe, and grow at their own pace. The gift of time is a gift of faith. It says: I trust you. I believe in you and I know you will get there in your own time.
Suggestions:
-Use as an encouragement tool to remind your child that they will overcome a challenge with time and effort.
- Use as visual reminder for children who have a tendency to pressure themselves in getting something right the first time.
- Use in school with students who require that extra time and the encouragement that you believe in them.
Our actions always have consequences, these can be positive or negative and can have an impact on others. Understanding this can help children make better choices and decisions. These tools can help start a conversation about actions and consequences
at home or in the classroom.
Suggestions:
- When a negative consequence is necessary because of a child's actions, take the time to discuss which actions resulted in these consequences and which alternate actions could have led to different consequences.
- Use the visual or example of a science experiment where different combinations can lead to different results.
- Talk about positive consequences and how they are just as important, even if they are often less obvious.
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Learning to make choices is one of those great skills for life that we sometimes take for granted. Choices can become less complicated and anxiety-provoking if we are guided by a simple system that allows both the mind and the heart to have their say.
Suggestions:
- Print a few copies and place them in areas where they will be seen. Let these steps become habits of decision-making and go through them initially with your children.
- Find ways to use these steps to encourage family consultation.
- Make your own list of added steps that work for you.
- Use the upper arrow part with younger kids to create a visual and simplify the steps.
- Use the bottom part with older kids to remind them of the steps when necessary.
A cool brain re-wiring exercise for all.
When we find ourselves uttering the words: "I can't," our mind automatically comes up with excuses. Learn to turn those excuses into solutions by changing our words into: "I CAN!"
Suggestions:
- Print a few copies to have handy. Go through the exercise together with your child the first time when you hear them say I can't.
- The idea is to practice it often enough that it can be done mentally over time.
