Parenting in the Chaos

Teens are under more pressure than ever before. The teen years have always been a time of rapid change. They carry with them the pressures of sports, part-time jobs, keeping up with family obligations, chores, and school while adulthood and the decision of what to “do with their life” looms ever closer. But teens are now also dealing with the challenges of social media and having every choice, outfit, and word live on forever online. The stresses are real. Teens often struggle with negative self-talk which can be a contributing factor towards low self-esteem and even depression. 

Affirmations can be centering and help encourage and inspire. 

They are not an automatic fix, but they can help change their mindset over time, especially when positive self-talk becomes a habit and begins to drown out the negative internal voices.

Speaking positivity into your child and teaching them to speak positivity into themselves can lead to more confidence and improved self-esteem.

Why use positive affirmations with teens?

Positive affirmations can also help to reframe negative self-talk into positive self-talk. For example the card, “I forgive myself for my mistakes,” can help someone who devolves into self-loathing and negative self-talk when confronted with a mistake. It can also help your perfectionist child work on opening themselves up to learning from their mistakes instead of working triple hard to avoid every mistake.

Affirmations can also help your child build their self-confidence. As they practice speaking these affirmations to themselves, they are reminding themselves that there is room for growth and that they are always changing, growing, and improving.

If your child is reluctant to use the affirmation cards, try modelling using the affirmations yourself. Let them hear you speaking them to yourself. You can also tape them up on bathroom mirrors, inside of kitchen cabinets, bedroom walls, and anywhere else your child can’t help but see them.Affirmations work with continuous practice over time, so the sooner they can get on board, the quicker they will see the changes in themselves.

You’ll find that these cards also help foster a growth mindset. 

Affirmations can help your child rework their negative self-talk and help them to build self-confidence to conquer all the challenges that they face in their walk through adolescence.

Today, I’m sharing these downloadable affirmations cards. They can be used with teens or for older children or even adults.

Get your free affirmation cards for teens. Simply enter your email in the box below. 

You may also be interested in reading:

Unicorn Affirmation Colouring Pages for Kids (free!)Why Kids Need Positive Affirmations

When you’re headed on a road trip with your family, finding ways to keep your kids entertained in the car is essential. And one of our favourite ways to pass the time as we’re driving is by playing games. Car games are fun and educational because they keep your kids thinking on their toes, allowing them to use their critical thinking skills while having fun.

As you’re planning your next road trip and finding activities for the car ride, don’t forget to grab this free printable road trip scavenger hunt for your kids to play while you drive.

Road Trip Scavenger Hunt Ideas

With this road trip scavenger hunt, you can create a fun game to keep your kids entertained during a car ride. In addition to providing your little ones with a fun way to pass the time, they’ll be learning as they play!

Since it features both words and pictures, this cute printable is great for kids of any age. Young children can check the boxes next to the pictures when they see something along the road. And older kids can practice reading as they look for items on their scavenger hunt list.

The list includes a variety of different things your kids will see as you travel. Whether you’re on a long road trip or just taking a drive to the grocery store, your little ones will love looking for different things along the road as they’re riding in the car.

This printed scavenger hunt is also great for including in a road trip gift basket. My brother and his family gave us a special gift basket before we went on our 22 day road trip across part of Canada and the United States with 6 of our kids in two. After that adventure, I would say that we are definitely road trip veterans!

The scavenger hunt printable includes 16 different common roadside elements for your kids to search for, including:

• Road sign
• License plates from three places
• Cow
• Bumper sticker
• Bus
• Billboard with a phone number
• Barn
• Tunnel
• Bridge
• Construction
• Train
• Fast Food Sign
• Gas Station
• Rest stop
• Roof rack
• Park

On top of keeping your kids off their screens for a little while, the best part about this fun car ride activity is that you can easily turn the game into a learning experience. Using the road trip scavenger hunt printable, you can help your kids practice their:

• Observation skills. As your kids play, they’ll each be forced to look more closely at the world around them to find exactly what they’re looking for on their list. That can give your kids a chance to be more observant and aware of the things around them as you’re driving along the road.
• Teamwork. Instead of playing individually, why not ask your kids to play together to find each item on the list? When your kids work together to find the items on the hunt, they can practice working as a team to accomplish a goal.
• Memory skills. To quickly finish the game, your kids will need to remember a list of things to look for. As they mark items off their list, they will use their memory to recall other items they need to look for as you’re driving.
• Reading and matching. Young readers will get a chance to practice their reading skills as they read through the clues on the list. But even if your kids aren’t old enough to read, they can practice their matching skills by matching the pictures on the list to the things they see out in the real world.

How Do You Do a Driving Scavenger Hunt?

A scavenger hunt is a fun adventure wherever you are. But if you’re driving in a car, you may be wondering how a scavenger hunt would work. When on a traditional scavenger hunt, you typically look around in different areas to find the items on your list. But when you’re doing a driving scavenger hunt, you simply stay in your car and mark things off your list as you see them.

One great way to play this fun game with your kids while you’re on a road trip is to print out a list of things to find, then let your kids check each item off as you’re driving. The game can be a competition among everyone playing to see who fills out all their check boxes first. Or it could be a group effort, allowing all your kids to work together to find everything on the list.

Road Trip Scavenger Hunt

Supplies Needed:

• Printable scavenger hunt for each child (download here)
• Laminator or page protector
• Dry erase markers

Instructions:

1. Print out one scavenger hunt sheet for each child that will be riding in the car.
2. Laminate each page or put each piece of paper in a plastic page protector so it can be used more than once.
3. Pass out dry erase markers to each child in the car.
4. As you’re driving, let the kids search for items on the list. When someone finds something on their page, they can place an X or checkmark in the box next to it.
5. The first person to mark off everything on their list wins.
6. If no one is able to finish their list by the time you reach your destination, the person with the most checkmarks on their page is the winner.

Enter your email below to get your free printable road trip scavenger hunt. 

You might also be interested in:

Road Trip Gift Basket

Minute to Win It Build Edition (LEGO Challenge)

Opposite Day Ideas

Thanksgiving is a time for family and friends. It’s about getting together, eating great food, and making memories. But for some kids, any holiday or change in routine can bring with it a variety of feelings. These November Emotions Printables invite kids to explore their emotions about Thanksgiving, visiting relatives, and the day to day.

November Copywork Emotions Sentences:

I firmly believe that teaching emotions is even more important than teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Children need to develop a real understanding of emotions and know how to express their own. These November emotions printing practise worksheets allow kids to work on their printing while learning about emotions.

These copywork pages allow students to explore emotion words and associate the images with the corresponding feeling. This expands their emotional vocabulary.

Supplies needed:

• November Emotions printables
• pen or pencil OR
• plastic sleeve AND dry erase marker

Download the printable pages. If you want to make them reusable, laminate the pages or slip them into a plastic page protector. Students can then use a dry erase marker to complete the tracing and writing.

If these are for a one time use, give the student a pencil, crayons, coloured pencils, or markers and the printed papers.

Instructions for the student:

1. Read the sentence.
2. Fill in the outline.
3. Trace the dotted words.
4. Write the sentence on the lines provided.
5. Discuss the various emotions.

These worksheets can be the jumping off point for a class discussion or one-on-one talk about different emotions.

November Feelings Log:

Keeping a daily log of feelings helps kids to examine their emotions. It also allows them and their teacher or parents to analyze any patterns they see emerging when looking back through the log.

Doing this quick daily exercise is also a great jumping off point to help kids to talk about their emotions and most importantly, get to the root of why they are feeling the way they are.

I believe in teaching emotions with as much zeal and intention as we teach reading, writing, and math. It is with that belief that I create opportunities for children to learn about emotions and to put that into practise.

I’ve put together a special Feelings Log for November (please note that it does contain two questions about Thanksgiving, so if you’re Canadian, this may be more appropriate to use with your child or student in October). It includes a writing prompt, a drawing prompt, and weekly tracking sheet of “Today I feel” along with adorable pumpkin faces to use to help them express their emotions.

Supplies needed:

• printed Feelings Log pages (download here)
• scissors
• markers, pencil crayons, or crayons
• pencil or pen

Simply enter your email below to download these November Emotions Printables. You can use this with your child at home or print it off to use with your students in the classroom.

You may also be interested in these resources for helping kids with their emotions:

Spider Emotions Matching Game

Make Your Own Emoji Squishies

Pirate Emotions Playdough Mats