Gratitude Journal

Start a gratitude journal listing 5 things you’re thankful for daily or weekly.

 "Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."
- Marcel Proust
“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.”
 -Eckhart Tolle
“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”
-Anthony Robbins
“Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.”
-Lionel Hampton

Conversation Starters & Hypothetical Situations for Adolescents and Teens

Kick Start: Should violent video games be banned for children under a certain age?  If so, what age?  If not, why not?

Kick Start: Is fairness the same as treating everyone equally?  Can a teacher be fair while treating different students differently?

Kick Start: Consider the following situation: Jared is a very good student who gets good grades and does not usually get in trouble.  William has been suspended three times already this semester and has Cs and Ds in most of his classes.  Both Jared and William get caught while vandalizing the boys’ bathroom.  The assistant principal decides to give Jared five days of in-school suspension while William is suspended for 10 days out of school.  What do you think about the difference in these punishments? Is this fair?

Kick Start: Jennifer knows her parents won't let her go to a party if they find out the host's parents are out of town. Should she lie about it?

Kick Start: What do you do when your friend's dad comes to drive you home from the movie theater, and you can tell that he's drunk?

Magical Glasses: Activities Using Healing Play

Issues: Distrust of environments and adults.

Purpose: To provide opportunities to build security and trust.

Materials: Children’s plastic sunglasses and several pieces of different colored cellophane.

Procedure: Give a child different colored cellophane and encourage them to look through different colors. Discuss how items in the room, such as classmates, look through different colors but stay the same without the colored cellophane. Introduce and explain the statement “looking at the world through rose-colored glasses” means everything looks bright and hopeful. Consider these questions for discussion: How might someone use their imagination to change the way a place looked and how they felt about it? Looking through what colors might make a place look safe? Comforting? Peaceful? Relaxing?

Encourage the child to wear their sunglasses if they need or want to change their view of the room so it is more comfortable for them.

Source: Making it Better: Activities for Children living in a Stressful  World, Barbara Oehlberg, Redleaf Press, 1996

My Town

If an out-of-town visitor was coming to visit, where would you take your visitor? Describe the best places around your town and why they are so interesting. Write about parks, museums, lakes, stores, restaurants and other places you enjoy.