Building Children’s Resilience eBook
In our ever-changing, uncertain world it is important to understand what resilience is and how to build that in our children. Building Children’s Resilience is a ‘pocket guide’ to helping you develop your child’s capacity for building coping and enabling abilities, as well as help-seeking strategies and tangible life skills to help them navigate the world ahead. It outlines 10 key building blocks for children birth-12.
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Taking the High Road eBook
This book is an essential guide for 12-25-year-olds to help them access the part of themselves that knows what’s right for us each as individuals. The book covers a range of topics including finding your spark, reading your personality map, breaking the circuit on negative self-talk, sleeping better, being a good friend, and thriving when things get really tough. The book also includes a link to the Relax and Escape audio relaxation track.
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I also have four free audio tracks that will be useful for anyone in your household…
Sleepytime & Safe ‘N Sound
These 2 free audio tracks may be useful to parents who are facing a sleepless night with their children, and in situations where children are particularly distressed, or in the wake of a disaster or crisis. In each, I use the image of a giant protector to help children create their own sense of safety. Music copyright Robert J Boyd.
Download Sleepytime Download safe'n'sound
Flight Fantasy
In Flight Fantasy I use breath, colour, music and the imagery of a bird in flight to take anyone over the age of 8 on a relaxing, contemplative journey. This track takes you to a place of quietness where you can connect with your fullest human potential and the way in which you are called to express that. It’s been very helpful for adolescents who are indecisive about their future or for people in transition like after a loss of job or a redundancy, which is why I am offering it right now as our world is in such flux.
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Moonlight Relaxation for Mums
This audio relaxation was created several years ago as a gift for mums and mother figures to celebrate Mother’s Day. In it we use deep breathing to release tension, stress, anxiety and frustration, and to calm the inner war that exists within many of our minds. In a way, giving yourself this time to relax is a way of nurturing and honouring yourself – giving yourself a gift instead of the ‘burnt chop’ we mums often end up with!
Download moonlight relaxationAdditional resources
I would encourage all parents to read my articles Honouring the human spirit in our homes and classrooms, Navigating These Crazy, Crappy, Uncertain Times as a Family, Coping With Corona Chaos, Gentle steps to Recovery , Why Boys can Find Isolation Particularly Difficult, Helping Kids to Cope with Lockdown 2nd Time Around, A New Normal: Back to School After Isolation… and please check out my regularly updated Top tips and links for families in isolation. (you might also enjoy this list of suggestions from my community of the best podcasts and audiobooks for kids). I also wrote for ABC Life about Parenting an Only Child Through the Pandemic and How to Help Stop Your Kids Fighting During Periods of High Stress.
Several episodes of the podcast I host for the ABC, Parental As Anything were devoted to parenting in this pandemic too. Check out the episodes we did on how to talk to kids about coronavirus, working from home, supporting kids to learn from home, going it alone in lockdown (whether a single parent or parenting an only child) and reducing conflict in your home during these trying times. I spoke with some wonderful people for these episodes including Dr Kristy Goodwin, Dr Prue Salter, Michelle Mitchell and Dr Justin Coulson. I also made this video with the ABC on Talking to Kids About Coronavirus.
If you look at nothing else, please check out my suite of “Maggie Soother” videos, which offer simple exercises, tips and strategies for kids and adults to ease the anxiety and stress that families may be experiencing during these uncertain times.
Also I did a couple of Facebook Live events with Kidspot and Babyology which both talked about coping in lockdown so please watch those.
