Tips to Parents/Carers
What are they??
These cards are designed in a fun way to encourage your child (or children) to foster a positive mind-set in early childhood. Creating a feeling of self-worth, confidence and gratitude in children can encourage a healthy mental attitude in adulthood and so I hope these cards will have a lasting effect on your child.
My children (age 7 & 9) were instrumental in helping create these cards. From the colours and the graphics to the actual statements used. So you could say these are cards for kids, made by kids (with a little help from Mum!).
The Sciencey bit!
Affirmations work on a particular area of our brain known as the Reticular Activating System (RAS). This area keeps us from feeling overwhelmed and allows us to notice what we are interested in or things that are connected with our beliefs and values. The RAS obtains this information from what is stored in the sub-conscious. Humans are wired
to think negatively unfortunately and so much of our ‘self-talk’ will be negative too (I am not good enough, I can’t do this, I can’t do that). Affirmations, when practised regularly, will create neuro-pathways in the brain which in turn will pave the way for a new way of thinking. The more we repeat these statements, the more we believe them. The more we believe them the more the RAS will show us things in our lives to confirm and back up these statements. This, therefore, creates a sense of positivity and good well-being in your child.
These cards are also designed to encourage children to think about the world around them and to take notice of the things that are already great and positive in their lives.
How to use them!
When you first receive the cards, you might want to explore them with your child by spreading them out on a table and talking about the colours and designs etc. Or you might wish to keep the cards as a surprise each day.
When you have a moment, each morning, ask your child to pick a card at random out of the box. I ask my children to do it when they are eating breakfast. I leave the box on the table each morning and it soon becomes a habit to pick one out.
Ask your child to read the card aloud (or if your child isn’t a confident reader feel free to read it with them). Affirmations become powerful the more that you use them. You could ask them to repeat it 3 times each morning. Encourage them to say it louder and with more emphasis each time and have fun with it! You can then ask them what they think the Affirmation means (most of them will mean something different to everyone), how it makes them feel etc. If your child doesn’t want to talk about it or can’t find the words to describe what it means or how it makes them feel, or even if they don’t want to repeat it, that’s fine too. It will all come with practice!
Most of all, I hope your child enjoys using these cards and that they become part of their daily routine.
It would be great to hear how you getting on with them!
Liz x