Beat the Back to School Blues

This post includes affiliate links or sponsored content. Read our full Disclosure here.

Communities across the world have been slowly opening back up and we are seeing schools offer a variety of options ranging from in person to virtual learning. Most of these options are offering education that has changed in someway as we begin to create a new normal. 

As our children deal with these big changes, we as parents have an opportunity to demonstrate resilience, gratitude and generosity. These are pretty tough subjects to explain to young kids, but we found some resources that have made these rather abstract topics more relatable for our little ones.

Resources:

New Kid’s “Bailey Bloom and the Battle of the Bug” by Jill Rosensweig

I recently had a chance to chat with Jill Rosensweig about her new book, “Bailey Bloom and the Battle of the Bug”. She shared how she created this book as a way to help her own kids deal with what has been going on and shift their perspectives towards what they can control.

Bailey Bloom and her friends love pretending to be super heroes. Through the pandemic these young heroes discover that you don’t have to wear a cape and have super powers to be a hero. Bailey and her friends realize that being a community helper is also being a super hero. Bailey and her friends remind us that we can all be heroes in our own communities. Learning to think of others and understanding our role in our community is a valuable life lesson for our littles.

“Bailey Bloom and the Battle of the Bug” offers messages of hope and generosity that will transcend this time of the coronavirus. It is easy to get stuck in our heads, feel helpless, get stressed or be fearful, but focusing on how we are part of the solution offer us a sense of accomplishment and pride. Learning these lessons so young is shaping the people our children will become and also the world they will create.

There is also a focus on how important it is for us to stay healthy, how we can boost our immune systems by lowering our stress levels. Bailey and her friends bring beauty and happiness to themselves and their community through very simple, yet meaningful acts of kindness.

While it might seem best to shield our children from the scary or bad things happening in the world, no one can ignore this global health pandemic. Jill Rosensweig presents facts about the virus without panic. She offers ways for everyone in your family to feel productive instead of waiting for “someday” to come.

My girls loved this book and decided we should make our own kindness rocks to put around our community. If you perform acts of kindness in your community, don’t forget to add #battleofthebug and post pictures to social media. We would love to share and spread the joy!

You can purchase a copy of “Bailey Bloom and the Battle of the Bug” for your home or school on Amazon. Jill Rosensweig is donating a portion of proceeds to Save The Children which provides food to kids in communities who are at high risk for food insecurity.

Big Life Journal

We are big fans of a growth mindset and no one makes it easier to teach kids about a growth mindset than the team at Big Life Journal. They sent us the original Big Life Journal to check out and we got hooked. Having a growth mindset helps kids to take risks, have a positive attitude and become resilient. With so much uncertainty in our world right now, we have never needed these skills more.

Just for back to school the BLJ team released a back to school care kit. It includes resources for parents, kids and awesome printables for success this school this year no matter what that will look like. We have been using the printables and resources from BLJ to focus on what we can control, set and achieve goals and approach our homeschool experience with a growth mindset.

If you haven’t signed up for their free printables every Friday go do it now! The printables are great resources for learning and maintaining a growth mindset. The Big Life Journal also promotes gratitude. It is so important to remember to count our blessings and remind our kids about all we have to be grateful for. You can order your own Big Life Journal on Amazon.

Rebel Girls

The Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls series is not only for girls. These stories, about some of the most inspirational women in history, are fun for everyone. These stories are a poignant reminder that hardships and obstacles are universal. We can only control how we respond to difficulties and hardships.

One thing all the extraordinary women in the Rebel Girls books have in common is their determination. When faced with challenges and obstacles, these strong women did not give up. These stories remind us all that being brave looks different for different people and that everyone has hardships to overcome. We love talking about the circumstances of these stories and thinking about how we would handle those situations.

For young ones who don’t read yet or for busy families, Rebel Girl stories are also available on their podcast. In the car or during a snack break we are inspired by tales of extraordinary women.

The Rebel Girls also offer a bunch of free resources that make great follow up activities to the books or journaling exercises. The drawing and writing activities help kids build confidence and gratitude when they need it most. You can find out more about the free resources on the Rebel Girl website.

The Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls is available on Amazon. You can also pre-order your copy of Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls 100 Immigrant Women Who Have Changed the World, to ship out October 13, 2020.

Don’t forget about yourself

When we are in crisis mode as parents it can be really easy to go into overdrive focused on the kids. The reality is that parents can just as easily find themselves struggling with the start of this school year. If you are overwhelmed by the virtual classrooms, struggling to work from home, worried about the quality of education or feeling unprepared to homeschool, remember that resilience, gratitude and generosity are also important for us as parents.

Times are tough, but everyone’s situations are different. Don’t waste your time comparing you or your family to anyone else. We all struggle, but how we deal with it shows our resilience. We can find ways to make school at home fun or make wearing masks a silly game instead of a chore.

It is also important to model gratitude as much as we can. Appreciate what you do have, whether it is extra time with your kids, a healthy family, working from home or spending more time outdoors. If you are in need of help, please reach out to us!

In so many ways we set the tone for how our kids respond to difficult situations. Let’s show them that there are a thousand different ways to make the best of this bad situation!