Hi, friends. If you’re struggling right now, know that we see you. Sometimes giving voice to our struggles can ease the burden of carrying them. We want to open our inbox to you: drop your worries, your challenges, and your frustrations in an email to us. We’re here to listen and hold space for you. (Please do not include confidential information like names of students or colleagues.)
SEL skills can be hard for children to learn in the best of times. In these stressful times, it’s even tougher. To encourage patience and to help children work through frustration and sadness,
we’ve compiled our most relevant book excerpts
. We share a tool for helping kids handle frustration, advice for helping siblings work through conflict, and tips for helping children understand and cope with sadness.
Click here to read the book excerpts.
Below, we’re also spotlighting the paperback version of
Waiting Is Not Forever
, the go-to book for helping children ages 4 to 7 learn how to be patient. And for this month’s download, we’re sharing
the Frustration Triangle worksheet
, a three-step tool to name, tame, and reframe frustration.
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Get free shipping sitewide* on purchases over $50. Sale ends June 30, 2020. Use code
FS4YOU
at checkout.
Shop now.
*Excludes already discounted sets, clearance items, and eBooks.
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In the latest addition to the Best Behavior series,
Waiting Is Not Forever
has activities and ideas to make waiting easier for children—like observing the world around them, inventing new games, and anticipating what’s to come—that can be adapted for any situation. Children will learn how to avoid boredom and replace whining words with waiting words: “This will be worth the wait!”
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Tips & Tools from the Free Spirit Blog
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School counselor Stephanie Filio shares strategies for taking care of yourself in the midst of the pandemic.
Read now.
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Author Elizabeth Verdick offers tips to foster patience in children.
Read now.
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Educational grants available for your school or community:
The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Head Start, invites applications to operate a National Center on Parent, Family, and Community Engagement. Expectations are to provide evidence-based and research-informed resources, training, and technical assistance to strengthen staff professional development and improve learning and development outcomes for children and families enrolled in Head Start and Early Head Start programs. Collaboration is required with professionals in the fields of early childhood, family economic mobility, human services, leadership, mental health, parenting, and social work.
Eligible applicants are public, state-controlled, and private institutions of higher education; city, county, township, state, and special district governments; independent school districts; nonprofit and for-profit organizations, including small businesses; Native American tribal governments and organizations; and public housing and Indian housing authorities. Applicants may apply individually or as the lead applicant for a consortium. This is a forecasted funding opportunity. Interested applicants are encouraged to check for updated information. Applications must be submitted online.
Eligibility: Public, Other (including homeschool, 501(c)(3) organizations)
Prize: One cooperative agreement of up to $5.7 million is awarded.
Application Deadline: June 22, 2020
The Administration for Children and Families invites proposals to establish and maintain the Child Care and Early Education Research Connections website, a comprehensive database of resources relevant to child care and early education policy and practice. Areas of focus are after-school programs; community-based child care programs serving children birth through 13 years; early care and education programs; family child care; Head Start; home-based child care; and public prekindergarten.
The scope of work includes the following components:
- Curate an interactive database of evidence-based child care and early education research and policy resources that address national, state, and local priorities.
- Increase awareness, accessibility, and utilization of the website by national, state, and local child care and early care and education researchers, policy-makers, and other stakeholders.
- Collaborate with the research field and the child care and early education policy communities.
Eligible applicants are public, private, and state-controlled institutions of higher education; state, county, city or township, and special district governments; independent school districts; nonprofit and for-profit organizations; Native American tribal governments and organizations; and public and Indian housing authorities. Cost sharing and matching are not required. Applications must be submitted online.
Eligibility: Public, Private
Prize: One cooperative agreement ranging from $750,000 to $1 million is awarded for the first year, with potential for five years of funding.
Application Deadline: June 8, 2020
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“Understanding our feelings is a complex challenge for any of us—and especially for children, who can be overwhelmed by the unruly emotions they sometimes experience.
1-2-3 My Feelings and Me
is a valuable tool for any parent or teacher trying to help children accept, understand, and manage their own emotions.”—
Paul Tough,
Canadian-American writer, broadcaster, and author of
Whatever It Takes
and
How Children Succeed
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The Frustration Triangle worksheet from
Zach Gets Frustrated helps kids work through their frustration by naming, taming, and reframing it.
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Upcoming Events and Conferences
Many in-person conferences and events that Free Spirit planned to attend have been cancelled due to COVID-19. But you can always meet up with us online and continue your professional learning with our edWeb community at
edWeb.net/studentachievement
! By joining, you gain access to webinar recordings with continuing education credit opportunities, a resource library with printable forms and worksheets, and our community forum and blog. Join us now!
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“You cannot prevent the birds of sorrow from flying over your head, but you can prevent them from building a nest in your hair.”
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SHARE WITH YOUR COLLEAGUES
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