Tear Soup Activity

For an activity to compliment the book, here is an idea which may help in individual or group settings. Parents may want to try this at home as a family who has lost something significant or someone significant.

Tear Soup

By Pat Schwiebert and Chuck Deklyen, this is a "... recipe for healing after loss".  A wonderful way to explain the process of grief.   Grief is work, it is painful and it is necessary.  The ability to grieve doe snot come naturally for many, and this story illustrates what diversity is required in making one's own "tear soup".  An excellent resource for those who are in grief or supporting those who are grieving.  The suggestions at the end address many issues for those in relationship with the bereaved.  Here is a clip from the first few pages, which is also on a DVD.

The Five Love Languages Of Children - Gary Smalley

Do you ever wonder why each child in your home or under your care is so different in their responses to your efforts to chow them love and care?  Perhaps each speaks their own language.  A wise caregiver is aware and attentive to these languages.  The book "The 5 Love Languages of Children" is very helpful in understanding the ways in which our children receive love the most powerfully.  There is an online test that can be done which helps a caregiver identify this language.  Once the "code" has been broken to access your child's heart, a caregiver can set themselves on a mission to meet the needs of their child.  I have used this in counselling to help children understand themselves better and gain personal insight as they are able to.  Worth a read, the original is also quite helpful geared more around adults.

Safety and Connection = Attachment

What is the best gift to give your child?  A sense of being protected and free from harm and a sense of being attended to.  You cannot go wrong when other agendas or needs are put aside for the sake of these important relational foundations.
Attachment theorists describe a well-adjusted child as one who is in relationship with the parent and can turn to him or her for "... safety and support"  (Hughes, p. 15).  This shows a child that it is ok to turn to the parent for safety and support.  He further explains that the child's experience of their parent greatly influences the experience they have of themselves.  In other words, how a child experiences his of her relationship with their primary caregiver makes big impacts on the way they perceive themselves.  This being said, it is important to pay attention to how one is doing as a person, as a parent, experiencing life, so one might enable a child to become the self they ideally can be!
Hughes, Daniel.  2009.  Attachment Focussed Parenting.  Norton:NY.