See what's new to the Hub this week - including our new toolkit to help children experiencing parent separation and divorce.
Did you know that nearly half (42%) of all marriages in the UK end in divorce? And that this report here states that half of children in the UK come from separated households?
Whilst every child's experience with their changing family will be unique, it can sometimes cause emotional distress. Studies also show that children whose parents have separated are more likely to develop emotional and behavioural problems, although, we know there can be lots of other factors too.
Why does divorce impact children's mental health?
Children can experience many emotions when parents and caregivers split up and can be faced with big changes ahead. They may have lots of questions and the future may seem uncertain - who will they live with? How will their time be split? Who will take them to school? Even if children feel relieved at a family break-up - for example, where violence or abuse is present - most children will still go through some loss and grief.
Take a look at our new toolkit the help children with Parent Separation
Our coping with divorce toolkit has over 15 activities to help children cope with change, manage their emotions and communicate their thoughts and feelings. We'll go through some of these activities with you below.
Resources to help children cope with change - Children thrive on routine and when families break up this can be a huge change to the routine they are used to. Some break ups may require a change of school or some family members may move further away. Children may also have to deal with not seeing either caregiver as much. It can be hard to cope with unknown change - our activities can help children to explore what is changing and how they feel about it.
Resources to help children manage unhelpful thoughts and worries - Studies show that children who experience parent separation can feel more insecure and have more self-critical thoughts. In our coping toolkit, we also have activities to help children explore what's on their mind and help them communicate their worries and unhelpful thoughts with an adult that they trust.
Resources to facilitate open communication and questions - As with all of our resources, our divorce resources for kids have a huge emphasis on helping your child communicate their emotions, thoughts and needs with you. You'll find resources to help them to explore their own thoughts and questions and write down things they want to ask/explore with you. We would always recommend finding time to sit with your child to go through any questions they have.
Children who are part of changing family dynamics will no doubt have lots and lots of questions. Some will have easy answers and some may not have answers at all. Particularly, children in emotional distress may have many 'why' questions - 'why is this happening to me?' for example. Even though we can't provide clear answers to these questions, we can help to alleviate some of the worry through discussion and coping tools.
Resources to explore emotions and coping tools - This moves us naturally on to the next part of our toolkit, where we explore the complex emotions of grief and change. Plus we have lots of activities to help your children learn vital coping skills that they can take with them throughout life's ups and downs, such as breathing exercises and more.
Encourage positive thinking and daily self care practises - Finally our toolkit finishes with helping children explore ways to look after themselves whilst your family finds a new routine. From introducing self care concepts to helping children to find the positives in each week.
What else is new to the Be Happy Hub?
Disney Princess Affirmation Colouring Sheets
These feel-good sheets combine some very well-known Disney characters with some much-needed positive vibes! We have 10 Disney colouring sheets to choose from - or you can use them all. From Belle to Moana - these are great for children of all ages!
Super Mario Affirmation Colouring Sheets
Not a fan of princesses or Disney? Then we have another gaming-themed option for you! Also new to the Hub this week are our Super Mario themed affirmation colouring sheets for kids - featuring popular characters such as Luigi, Toadette and Princess Peach! You can download these from the Be Happy Hub now.
My Doodle Hearts
My Heart Doodles is a fun, calming resource with a twist - you can keep your child’s doodles forever! We have collaborated with our friends over at Olive & Pip to bring you an inspiring and calming new activity. My Heart Doodles is all about doodling for calm - with fun prompts to help your children write feel-good messages and sketch inspiring illustrations.
Directions: Doodling is a great way to help us feel calm, express anger and process emotions - just by putting pen to paper. But it can be hard sometimes to know what to draw. Our poem of prompts will help your child express what's on their mind, helping them to draw things that make them happy and write inspiring messages to themselves and others. Simply print and doodle away!
If your child has written a message or drawn something you’d like to keep, you can then head over to www.oliveandpip.co.uk and use our template (provided you have used black felt tip!) to get it printed on a sew on or iron on patch
We know just how many children these heart patches have helped - from easing separation anxiety to providing fun daily reminders (or secret messages!), they also make great gifts for family, friends and teachers.
Barbie Emotions Worksheet
We're always trying to find new ways to help your children feel in tune with their emotions by creating fun resources around the things they love! With the news that Barbie has designed a new diverse range, including a doll with Down's Syndrome, and with the release of the movie on the horizon, we wanted to bring you some fun Barbie-themed emotional literacy resources to celebrate! This worksheet helps your children to explore three basic emotions - happy, sad and angry. Optional: Can your child act out some scenarios featuring these emotions with their dolls?
Design a Doll
How often do you ask your child how they’re feeling and they say ‘fine’ or ‘good’? Children find it hard to vocalise their thoughts and emotions, that’s why our activities are designed to support your child’s mental health and help them communicate what’s on their mind, including our new Design a Doll activity.
Design a Doll helps your child to engage their imagination - with the release of Barbie's new diverse doll range - we want your children to think of what Barbie they would design if they could. Would she be a scientist? An astronaut? Or perhaps she - or he - would be just like them! Then, our worksheet will ask core questions to help your child think about what makes their doll unique and how she feels.
This week's *FRIDAY FREEBIE!* - For Mailing List subscribers only
CHARGE YOUR BATTERY!
On our mailing list? Then you should have received our weekly freebie! This week we're looking at charging our batteries. How can we make sure we stay in the green level and feel fully charged?
Directions: Have your child think about the emotions in our battery levels. Can they think of and write down some things to do when they are in each level to help them move up? When they've filled in their battery, ask them which level best describes how they feel - what do they need to do to feel fully charged and ready to go? Place this resource where they can see it and use regularly to help with self regulation.
Join our mailing list to receive our future Friday Freebies - just scroll to the bottom of any page and input your email.
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