Anita Ness, EMBRACE Your Spark
Updated: Aug 27, 2020
By Anita Ness, Founder of EMBRACE Calmer Kids
With everything going on in the world today, something we could all do with more of is Compassion and Empathy. So I've pulled together a few awesome resources for you, including a thought provoking article and a list of helpful books.
I was inspired by a note from Renee Jain, someone I have long admired as a true leader in the field of Anxiety relief in Children. Renee is the founder of GoZen and has many different resources and online programs (on the topics of anxiety, anger, procrastination, well-being, resilience, mindfulness and more).
She recently shared her new beautiful Empathy Journal, which helps children explore and embrace empathy, connection, compassion and the art of listening. Sign up to receive loads of excellent GoZen resources straight to your inbox at https://gozen.com/printables.
And I just had to share this pic, it's one of my all-time favourite memes!
It's also an important and timely reminder that we all go through the same stuff differently.
How deep the mud is, depends on who you ask.
As an HSP, I'm the little one on the left.
The lovely and highly respected Karen Young from Hey Sigmund recently wrote a Great Article on Prejudice, and Protests – An Age-by-Age Guide.
In this article she explains how we can help our children understand and create More Inclusion and Less Judgment in the world.
A couple of snippets from Karen’s article that really touched my heart:
Everybody deserves to feel safe and important.
The healing of the trauma will never erase what happened, but it creates something more powerful and more beautiful than before. This is our opportunity to heal our humanity, and make the world stronger, safer, and kinder than before.
When explaining to a 5-10 year old: ‘You can help by being kind, and helping people around you feel safe and cared about, or noticing when kids aren’t being treated fairly and helping to put things right. I love that we’re talking about this.'
And...
The world will always be more beautiful for the
kindness, strength, and courage
each child puts into it,
than it would be without it.
And thanks to the wonderful Alexandra from Big Life Journal, here is a great List of Books and other Resources to help us educate ourselves and our children on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Children's Books
31 Children's books to support conversations on race, racism, and resistance
The 2020 Ultimate List of Diverse Children’s Books
Books with Characters of Color
Mixed - Diversity and Inclusion Story and Discussion Guide for Parents (children’s book + parent’s guide)
Articles for Parents and Teachers
How White Parents Can Talk To Their Kids About Race (NPR)
How silence can breed prejudice: A child development professor explains how and why to talk to kids about race (Washington Post)
Critical Conversations (The Conscious Kid)
Podcasts and Videos for Adults
Talking Race With Young Children (NPR) (audio)
How To Raise Anti-Racist Kids (with Dr. Nzinga Harrison) (audio)
1619 (New York Times) (audio)
Come Through With Rebecca Carroll (audio)
Color blind or color brave? (TED talk by Mellody Hobson) (video)
And finally...
This beautiful quote by Leslie Dwight really makes you think…
Let’s pay attention and learn from what 2020 is trying to teach us.
As always, I would love to hear from you, so feel free to reach out and say 'Hi' via email or the contact form.
Stay safe and well, with warmest wishes
Founder of EMBRACE Calmer Kids