Luckily, we just got a lot of rain and some burst of random high winds. We lost a small branch in the front yard, but nothing major. We had prepared for the worst, and we’re blessed in the long run. We were even one of the lucky ones that didn’t loose power!
As the evening was coming to an end, I scrambled to find a quick lesson to work on with Hayden. She has really looked forward to these 1:1 moments together, and she has been really good about using her daily journal. I found three pretty neat activities off of Pinterest.
First we used a handout with a colorful monster on it. The monster was angry and there were a list of things that the monster was experiencing while angry including rapid breathing, racing heart, unclear mind, tightened fist. This was more of a visual than an actual activity.
Next, we had a coloring activity with several of the same monsters on it. It was called “Color Your Angry Monster”. There was a color chart- green for not angry, yellow for a little angry and red for angry. Each monster had an example of a situation for instance, one of them said, “when I loose at a game.” I was surprised to see that Hayden had colored this one yellow, as she has some pretty big issues with letting loosing ruin her fun.
The point of this activity is to help encourage Hayden to learn how to rate the severity of her problems. Every problem isn’t a big problem, and we must learn how to adjust our reaction accordingly. This also let me know what things were a “big problem” for Hayden so that I could also adjust how I handled these problems with Hayden. I might not think it’s a big deal when Taytum takes one of Hayden’s toys and plays with it but it might be a big deal for Hayden and I need to respect that.
We also had a “worried jar” that we added to our binder. Anytime Hayden has any worries, she is to write them down in her jar. She can worry about them as long as she holds the jar, but when she puts the jar away in her binder, she has to try and stop worrying about it and trust that Mom, Dad and God we’re going to help her through whatever is worrying her.
We also did a Cup O Feelings where, like the monster activity, each color represented a mood. You were to fill your cup up with various colors that represented your moods for the day. Hayden immediately used the purple which represented scared. She said the weather had her scared all day.
Last but not least, we finished our lesson up with a flower activity. The center of the flower said “I can cool off by..” and you had to fill the petals with ideas that could help you calm down. Hayden chose things like talk to an adult, pet Sadie, color, take a break, etc.
I wasn’t sure if any of this was really working. Of course she enjoys spending 1:1 time with me, but I wasn’t sure if it was truly working. It’s easy to say, “this is how I am going to react” but when she is faced with a true life situation, how often is she going to respond to her monster chart? Regardless, I knew I had to stick with it for her sake.
I flipped through the binder as I was about to climb into bed and I ran across her journal entry for the day. She said that her and Maya had an argument today and that it was a level 1 problem, so she knew it wasn’t a big deal and she didn’t need to tell Mom and Dad. She also said the storms were a level 5 problem so she knew it was okay to be scared.
It’s working. As simple as it may sound, it is working. 
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