Hello there,

I’ve received a few emails recently from parents asking how to support their kids emotionally as they return to school. I’ve got a really cool tool to share with you from the book The Whole Brain Child by Dan Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson.

This tool, the “Wheel of Awareness”, not only works with children worried about school, it also works in a lot of other situations.

In fact I used it a couple of weeks ago in a totally different circumstance.

Over the summer our children (age 9 and 11) went on vacation without us. As a gift, my sister and brother-in-law took our kids…

for 10 days…

to Germany!

This was an unprecedented trip. And a huge milestone for everyone. It was the longest time our kids had ever been away from us and the furthest that they’d ever gone without us.

The night before the trip, Alana, the 11 year old, kinda lost it.

Here’s the video that explains what happened, how I coached Alana through her feelings using Dan Siegel's “Wheel of Awareness” tool.

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I’m happy to report that it all worked out. They both got on the plane without a hitch. Our girls had many wonderful experiences together. They came home a little more grown up, really tired, full of memories and with a crazy sugar high (Thanks, Sis!).

Do you see how this “Wheel of Awareness” thing can work in your family for a child who is having feelings about going to school or for something else? What situation are you going to use it in? We’d love to know.

Let’s keep the “wheel of awareness” rolling.

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ keep that doggie rolling,
Cecilia (and Jason)

P.S. We discovered that when some of you left comments in the past we didn’t “see” them due to a glitch in our system. We’ve got it fixed and you’ll notice that now that we can see who is commenting we can respond to you even better.

“See” you in the comments!
photo credit: HelloImNik via photopin cc