January 2021

January 2021 1 - New Year’s Day 14 - Dress Up Your Pet Day 24 - Compliment Day 3 - Festival of Sleep Day 15 - National Hat Day Global Belly Laugh Day 4 - National Spaghetti Day 16 - Appreciate a Dragon Day 25 - Bubble Wrap 5 - National Bird Day 18 - Martin Luther King Jr. Appreciation Day 6 - Bean Day Birthday Opposite Day 7 - Old Rock Day Winnie the Pooh Day 26 - Australia Day 8 - Bubble Bath Day 19 - Ntl. Popcorn Day 27 - Chocolate Cake Day 10 - Bittersweet Chocolate 20 - Ntl. Cheese Lover Day 28 - Ntl. Kazoo Day Day Penguin Awareness Day 29 - Ntl. Puzzle Day 11 - Learn Your Name in 21 - National Hugging Day 30 - Ntl. Seed Swap Day Morse Code Day Squirrel Appreciation Day 31 - Backward Day 12 -National Hot Tea Day 22 - Ntl. Blonde Brownie Day Inspire Your Heart with 13 - Ntl. Rubber Duckie Day 23 - Ntl. Pie Day Art Day Ntl. Take the Stairs Day MLK 1 Resilience Skill of the Month: Activating Event, Thought, Consequences (ATC) or Shaking up my Responses Have you ever reacted to something in a way that wasn’t helpful? Let’s look at how people can have different reactions to the same situation: What happened: Got a B on a math test. Positive Pat thinks Critical Chris thinks “Yes! I did so well!” “No! I did badly. It should have been an A.” Now think about how these two people will feel and what they will do next. A bit different, huh? Maybe Pat will feel happy and study more to keep the good grades coming. Maybe Chris will feel disappointed and stop trying in math class. Have you figured out what ATC is? Activating event = What happened. (In the example above, the activating event is they got a B.) Thoughts = What you think in the heat of the moment. (In the example above. Pat thinks “I did so well!”) Consequences = How you feel and what you do. (In the example above, Pat is happy and will keep trying in class.) 2 Now that we understand what ATC is, let’s look at how it can help. ATC is a way that we can CONTROL our thoughts which will help us to feel better emotions and act in a more productive way. We can’t change what happened, but we CAN change how we think about it. Sooooo…. When we use ATC, we are mindful of our initial thoughts and know that we can change our thoughts to get a better outcome. For example, Activating Event Sports practice went badly Thoughts It’s my fault. I’m a terrible player. Consequences Emotion: Sad, disappointed Reaction: Quit the team NEW Thoughts I did my best and practice helps me improve. NEW Consequences Emotion: Optimistic Reaction: Try harder next time Use the next page to become more aware of how you respond. 3 Are you ready to shake it up? Use this grid to explore how think and react. 4 Create an Obstacle or Ninja Training Course Toss your couch pillows, bed pillows, sheets, mats, hula hoops, jump-ropes, blocks, or whatever else you have in your house into the middle of the room. Add some yarn or crepe paper to Have Outdoor Fun make a make-shift “laser” course -Indoors! to climb through. You can use chairs and small furniture too. You can have a snowball battle Time each other to see who is in the warmth of your house fastest, or try to improve your using rolled up socks! own time. Create a Scavenger Hunt Choose who will lead the scavenger hunt. They can have the other family members find a bunch of random things—something red, something small and square, a piece of string, money, and three puzzle pieces. Or, they could hide items and give everyone a list of hints, (Pro tip: scavenger hunts are more fun in the dark with a flashlight!) Ideas adapted from https://www.scarymommy.com/winter-boredom-busters/ Write, Choreograph, Tape Games! and Act Out a Play or Got painters’ tape or masking Musical. tape? You are in for a good time! Check out these ideas You can also make costumes, on whatmomslove.com for a apply stage makeup, design huge list of tape games, from your set, and record your creating a race car track on performance! your floor or carpet, to making a spider web across a Have parents or other family doorway and tossing objects members be your live at it to get “caught” in the audience, or video call for a web. larger crowd.. 5 Boredom Develops Problem-Solving Skills In a world where we are constantly stimulated, it can feel uncomfortable if we don’t have anything to do! But, this encourages Boredom Teaches Grit initiative and problem- Having free time to try things solving, because you have to out without the fear of failure is rely on yourself to tackle the essential to developing grit and ‘problem’ of being bored.’ resilience! Boredom Encourages Imagination and Creativity Research has found that people who are given a range of boring tasks to complete show more imagination when they’re then asked to take part in a creative thinking activity. When you are left to your own devices, you're forced to be more creative and imaginative in finding ways to amuse yourself. This builds a sense of discovery and curiosity and helps you explore what brings you joy, It’s a stimulus to imagination and creativity! Adapted from: https://www.theschoolrun.com/benefits-of-boredom-for-kids Boredom Can Improve Boredom Creates a Mental Health Sense of Belonging We are often so busy that Unstructured downtime can there’s little time to be still provide a greater sense of and let your mind wander. community. If you are always Having time to just “be” gives busy with some focused you the opportunity to think activity, you can take your your own thoughts and get to surroundings for granted. know yourself better. Research has shown that allowing the It’s important that you have mind time to wander, rather the chance to engage with your than being focused on environment so you feel a activities all the time, is very sense of belonging to where important for mental health. you live. 6 Shaking Up the New Year W I T H H E A L T H Y S H A K E S ! ! G R A B A N A D U L T T O H E L P O R S U P E R V I S E ! G E T Y O U R B L E N D E R O R M I X E R A N D S H A K E I T U P W I T H T H E S E D E L I C I O U S R E C I P E S . I F Y O U H A V E F O O D A L L E R G I E S O R S E N S I T I V I T I E S , Y O U C A N S U B S T I T U T E A N Y I N G R E D I E N T S F O R Y O U R O W N A W E S O M E S H A K E ! M A N G O P E A C H S H A K E 1 ½ C U P S A L M O N D M I L K 1 C U P D I C E D P E A C H E S , F R E S H O R F R O Z E N 1 C U P C H O P P E D M A N G O , F R E S H O R F R O Z E N ½ T E A S P O O N V A N I L L A E X T R A C T 1 C U P I C E C I N N A M O N R O L L S H A K E 1 C U P U N S W E E T E N E D A L M O N D M I L K 1 ½ F R O Z E N B A N A N A S , C U T I N T O C H U N K S ¼ T E A S P O O N C I N N A M O N , P L U S M O R E F O R D U S T I N G ½ T E A S P O O N V A N I L L A , O P T I O N A L 1 T E A S P O O N B R O W N S U G A R , O P T I O N A L ⅓ C U P O L D - F A S H I O N E D O A T S 1 C U P I C E C H O C O L A T E P E A N U T B U T T E R B A N A N A S H A K E 1 B A N A N A , F R O Z E N 1 C U P M I L K O F C H O I C E ¼ C U P O L D - F A S H I O N E D R O L L E D O A T S 3 T A B L E S P O O N S N A T U R A L P E A N U T B U T T E R ( O R A L T E R N A T I V E F O R A L L E R G Y C O N S I D E R A T I O N S ) 1 T A B L E S P O O N C O C O A P O W D E R C H O C O L A T E C H I P S , F O R S E R V I N G ( O P T I O N A L ) P E A C H C O B B L E R S H A K E 1 ½ C U P S U N S W E E T E N E D V A N I L L A A L M O N D M I L K ½ C U P Q U A K E R O L D F A S H I O N E D O A T S 1 T E A S P O O N C I N N A M O N ¾ C U P F R O Z E N P E A C H E S 3 I C E C U B E S S O U R C E : M O M A B L E S .

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