LatinaLista — The unemployment rate is at a 25-year high.
Every single day, stories emerge of companies laying off hundreds of people. The odds that a good number of these laid off people are family breadwinners is staggering” which makes the fact that children, as the unseen victims of this economic downturn, all the more poignant.
We all know, but often forget, that children are the most sensitive to what happens to their parents. They worry, along with, their parents but unlike parents who can actively do something to try to fix the situation, kids can’t do anything but worry.
It was that realization that brought together family and parenting expert Denise Daniels with the children’s book publisher Scholastic to create a new online resource for children whose families are caught in these bad economic times.
What Can I Do? My Journal for Caring and Sharing in Tough Times is an online site where parents can download and print out a journal for their children to write and express their fears and feelings about what they are going through.
What Can I Do? My Journal for Caring and Sharing in Tough Times prompts children to identify, express, and manage feelings of loss and change through a series of guided lessons and exercises.
The journal also helps children identify their support systems while reinforcing self-esteem and open communication, strengthening their perception of themselves and their families with an emphasis on self-worth.
In sharing this journal with children, parents reassure them that the future remains bright, encourage them to celebrate change, growth, and family, and remind them that with every ending comes a new beginning!
The site also has resources available in Spanish and for very young children who are picking up that something is wrong in the family, there’s a link to the Moodsters website where a variety of monsters show how to cope with different emotions.
