Luvin' Blogging

So I have decided I love blogging, it is a great creative outlet.  I tend to go through spurts though.  I write when I have a little break (or take a break because I need one even if I don't have time).  Then I get super super busy and no blogging for a while.  But, I am back.
This has been quite the crazy last 2 weeks, I found out all at the same time that I have ADHD, and my IQ is in the 99th percentile.  So I have intelligence but at times it feels like the answers are written on a bouncy ball jumping around in my skull so fast that my brain can't quite keep up, or make any sense of it all.  But at least I guess one kinda makes up for the other.
Well back to activities to do with your kids!!  OK science and reading and math are awesome but lets start with social emotional today.  Kids need to strengthen this as much as any other area!  Maybe even more.
I love to talk about emotions with my students.  I found these beautiful pictures on google that I will share so you can use them if you want.  In my class we look at the pictures and make faces like we are feeling those emotions, we talk about why we feel that way sometimes and what the name of the emotion is, for group activities I usually just go over the basics- Angry, Happy, Sad, Shy, Scared, Excited, etc.  But many of the individual students are ready to go further.
I took classes to be a foster parent and one of the social workers who taught us said that a huge problem for some kids is that no one has taught them how to express emotions and they have no way to understand what they are feeling.  One young boy, who had been through hell, went out for an activity with his foster parents one day and he told his foster parents that he was feeling funny.  They were worried, they thought he was sick, or there was a problem.  After he was with them for a while he finally could explain what he was feeling that day when he was "feeling funny."   He had been feeling happy, he had felt so little happiness in his life that first of all it was a weird feeling to him.  Second of all when most of us talk to even a baby we say things like Oh look at you, you are so happy.  Or oh you are sad, look at those crocodile tears.  These infants who cant even talk yet are exposed to things this young boy had never been exposed to.  This goes to show that we do so many things naturally that are good and right and helping our children and we didn't even know it.  This also shows that expressing emotions, something that also seems like it should be natural, is in many ways a thing that is learned through life. 
The better your child is at expressing them self, the better they will be understood.  They will have better skills with making friends, with writing and reading, and with speaking.  They will understand them self better, and be able to communicate their wants and needs more easily to others.  They will be able to relate to others more easily, it can help them have more empathy and even to be a better listener.  So don't just teach them the basics teach them as many emotion words as you can think of (you will be amazed at what they can learn!).  You will also be amazed at how hard it is to explain an emotion with words.  This is something that you need to always be able to do when you have a teaching moment, have the correct word for an emotion that you think your child may be feeling and give them that word.  Instead of them always feeling angry, maybe they are really feeling lonely, impatient or jealous and it would be helpful for them to know the difference.  Here are some lists of positive and negative emotions I found at http://www.self-improvement-mentor.com/list-of-human-emotions.html

Adequate	Awe	Assured	Able
Capable	Certain	Charmed	Cheerful
Comfortable	Compassion	Courageous	Confidence
Determined	Delighted	Eager	Energetic
Enthusiastic	Excited	Exhilarated	Expectant
Elation	Empathy	Excellent	Fascinated
Glad	Good	Great	Grateful
Glorious	Glamorous	Graceful	Happy
Hopeful	Humorous	Inspired	Interested
Joyful	Magnificent	Lust	Love
Pleasure	Playfulness	Peaceful	Pleasant
Powerful	Pride	Positive	Relaxed
Relieved	Satisfied	Surprised	Sympathy
Stable	Sublime	Superior	Thrilled

Annoyed	Anxious	Apprehensive	Agonize
Anger	Anxiety	Apathy	Bored
Burdened	Cautious	Competitive	Concerned
Confused	Contempt	Depressed	Destructive
Disgusted	Distracted	Doubtful	Disappointed
Exasperated	Exhausted	Embarrassment	Envy
Frustrated	Fear	Guilty	Greed
Grief	Harassed	Hesitant	Hostile
Ignored	Impatient	Indifferent	Intimidated
Isolated	Irritated	Jealous	Jumpy
Lonely	Mad	Manipulated	Miserable
Obnoxious	Overwhelmed	Panic	Pressured
Remorse	Revenge	Shame	Sad
Scared	Shocked	Suspicious	Stress
Tired	Uncomfortable	Uneasy	Used
Wary	Weary	Wasteful

Always take the time to explain to your child in words what is going on around them or what might be going on inside.  They will always be so much the better for it.  You could turn the emotions into a fun memory game where you match them.   You can make faces and have them guess what they are.  I have these cool things called emotion cubes.  Two are positive and Two are Negative.  One set has a picture of faces with different emotions, the other has pictures of different situations (like someone giving a gift, someone giving a hug, one with a child sitting there and their parents fighting, one with someone helping someone in a wheelchair, one with 2 kids fighting, one with someone breaking another kids toy)  Things they can understand. The cubes look like big dice.  You pick one and throw it then talk about whatever it lands on.  Easy to make and a great teaching tool.  You could do it once a day, for instance right before bed time when they want to stay up and will do anything to keep you in their room, you can have a lot of teaching moments right then!

All Right Toodles and See you all Later!!