Full Education Resources coming soon but as a taster here is a few of my techniques for parents and teachers to use:

The Focus Discussion

Ask the kids what a sad person could be focusing on, write up their answers on chart around the Person l drawing of a sad person. Get everyone to give an example if possible. This brings out what might bother them or make them sad. Now ask the kids what a happy person might be thinking about and focusing on, write the answers up around the happy person. Ask them if both people had the choice of what to focus on. Ask them what they would prefer to think about themselves. This shows them the impact of the choices we all make everyday and that they have the power to choose.

Navigational System

Ask them for show of hands if they have seen someone using a Sat Nav in their car. Ask if they’ve ever heard it say”please perform a U turn”. Explain why the system would say that then use comparison to show that their feelings are their own Sat Nav. Throughout a day if they are feeling sad more than they are feeling happy it means something is generally wrong. Use personal values list as road map and when it veers of track you start feeling bad (perform u turn warning). Draw example of values road and going off track.

Group Boosting

Break the class up into small groups, 3 or 4 people. Explain that through the day / week you will call the group’s together and they have to ask each other to rate their current mood out of 10 and explain why it’s high or why it’s low.

Do this throughout the agreed time frame, each person gets chance to say their rating and tell the the group briefly why. This creates support as they try to help boost each other up. It gives them an opportunity to flag up a dipping mood with the likelihood that the others will be compelled to try to help improve this. If whatever is bothering them continues they can even choose someone from the group they feel comfortable confiding further in and have a quiet chat with them.

This method let’s the kids identify when they are feeling low themselves and more importantly why so they can fix it. It let’s them know that it is OK to not feel amazing every minute of the day, it shows them letting others know can help, that support is always available somewhere and that there are plenty of things they can do to improve how they feel.

Life in Pictures

Ask the kids to draw 2 pictures (can just be stick men) that sum up their life so far. Highlight quality of drawing is not important. Then get them to draw 4 pictures of great things they think they could do in their life. Tell them to aim high. Now if the group’s small enough get each child to talk you through each of their drawings. If it’s a full class split into smaller groups of 5 or 6.