A Fun Way to Make Parenting Easier
Parenting is rewarding but can be challenging
I understand. We love our children and would do anything for them. Parenting is one of the most wonderful experiences we can have. It can also be incredibly challenging at times. Many people have high demands at work, may have older parents and young children to care for, and may even home-schooling responsibilities, and normal living duties. It can be a lot at times, which is ok. We all want to give our children our best and to prepare them for challenges that they may face. I will introduce you to a fun way to this.
In my opinion, regular chats with your child is a great way to check in on what they are experiencing. If you start this at a young age, even before they start school, they will feel comfortable sharing with you even when they are older. The investment you make in your child at an early age may make both of your lives easier when they reach their teen years.
Parents often ask me questions like I am on the go seven days a week with work and commitments, how can I have time to have important chats with my children? I also get asked where do I start? How can I explain behaviors to my young child so they can tell me if they see these behaviors?
The demand on parents is real and they are often sandwiched in their roles, of employees, parents, children responsible for their aging parents, friends, and community members. There is a lot asked of people these days. After all of this, it is important to look after your wellness (both mental and physical) and self-care. Therefore, any tool that can help is valuable. That is why I wrote the Lenny Super Book. A book with three stories with an important message and a question corner to help you start a chat.
Why a storybook?
This is a great question and part of the reason that a storybook is such a helpful tool is repetitive messaging and behavior recognition. For example, if a child likes a story, they will read it over many times, since these stories have positive messages the child is further absorbing the message each time. For behavior recognition it is easier to ask a child do you know someone who acts like Bailey, then describe the behavior and expect them to understand.
Unique and Different
I would like to introduce you to a storybook that is unique and different. The key difference is that there are three stories, each with a question corner related to that stories’ message. The question corners consist of five open-ended questions to help parents and children discuss important messages from that story. These questions may be an easy link to help you understand what behaviors they are observing or experiencing from others. Many storybooks do not have this important feature.
Each story has hand-drawn pictures with whimsical, and fun characters. The stories were written to focus on different life challenges that kids and adults will face, and the children find solutions.
How will this Book Help You?
This book was written for the age group of 4 to 7-year-olds. You can enjoy a wonderful opportunity to read together with your child then discuss the questions in the question corner. These are starter questions which you can ask follow-up questions depending on your child’s responses. Alternatively, if your child can read the book, tell you about the characters, and then you can discuss the questions together. I believe it will make it much easier for you to understand what experiences your child is having and teaches them that they can share anything with you. This will be important as your child gets older. These books have a diversity of gender and race within them. The main theme is that there is always someone to speak with if you have a problem. For example parents, family members, teachers, coaches, Kids Help Phone, etc.
Lenny Meets Bully Bailey
The first story is Lenny Meets Bully Bailey. Bailey is a sweet girl that is a classmate of Lenny. At the beginning of the school year, Bailey begins to act differently by saying mean things, laughing at others, and not telling the truth. Her friends were concerned about her, so they asked an adult they could trust to help Bailey. Bailey reveals what is bothering her. The story ends with a beautiful moment for Bailey and her family.
Lenny Meets Patty Put Down
Patty is a good girl that gets along with her friends. She became overly competitive in sports and felt the pressure to take shortcuts to win. She was sad and alone. She did not feel she could tell her parents and friends because she saw them as her fans. She did not want to disappoint her fans. Her teacher gave a presentation about Kids Help Phone. This is an organization that has counselors that talk to kids when they call in and all calls are confidential. The story takes you through a fictitious call between Patty and a Kids Help Phone counselor named Roger. I sent the story to Kids Help Phone before publishing to get feedback to make the story more realistic. They gave me some great ideas. This is a great story to learn about these phone services and that there is always some to speak to if they have a problem.
Lenny Meets Donnie Dare Ya
Donnie is new to Egg Elementary school and trying to fit in. He convinces Lenny to do some mean practical jokes to be cool. Lenny regrets his decision and tries a find a way to make it right. Lenny finds the courage to talk to each of the people he pranked and learned a valuable lesson. In the end, Lenny’s friends forgive him, and Donnie and they all feel better. You may enjoy the humour that is in this book.
These stories are tools to save hard working parents time by helping to encourage discussion or helping the child to reflect if they read them by themselves. The books are written at a grade 1- 2 reading level.
Imagine the impact on these kids' lives to learn these valuable lessons at such a young age. As they read the books they not only get a positive message but also the benefit of your discussion from the question corners. The more they read the stories the more the story is retained. This should help them easily recall the information as they get older and in their teen years.
For more parenting ideas and resources you can follow my website at autographofheroes.com and like my Facebook page Ken Hubley, Author, Speaker and Mentor for Parents.
Autograph of Heroes is another book by Ken Hubley. This book teaches children that First Responders are Heroes and also our friends. It includes a fun ice breaker activity autograph page that kids can use to meet first responders and ask them for their autograph.
