Off the press late October...

Wonderful You

An alphabet of ways to say, ‘well done!’

Self-esteem and confidence are built on receiving the recognition, praise and encouragement of significant others. Such positive feedback is crucial for the healthy development of all children. However, as adults it is easy to assume that children are receiving these messages. But they may not be!

Welcome to Wonderful You! A set of 26 cards or stickers that is a wonderland of words:

• of praise
  
• of hopes
  
• of strengths
  
• of compliments
  
• of acknowledgment
  
• of encouragement
  
• … and of affection.
  
  

Wonderful You is a conversation-building tool that can be used by:

• adults with children
  
• children with each other
  
• … and between adults too!
  
  

Wonderful You has fun with words. It celebrates the joyousness of language and the pleasures of reading and being read to. These cards and stickers have a whacky sense of humour but a serious intent as well. Believing that children need praise in order to build healthy self esteem, confidence and identity, Wonderful You offers rich possibilities for building optimism in very young children right through to adolescents. It also promotes reading, spelling and story-telling by using:

• an alphabetical model that introduces children to each letter
  
• alliteration or words that begin with a similar sound for the enjoyment of the spoken word
  
• a mix of simple and complex language for the sheer pleasure of words, even when they are unfamiliar
  
• a card-based medium to encourage storytelling and tactile learning
  
• quirky illustrations to build imagination and subtly challenge stereotypes.
  
  

Most importantly, Wonderful You is a strengths-based tool with a very important message for every child–that they are loved and appreciated. We hope these cards make you want to smile and say ‘Well done!’ to someone in your life.

Publisher: St Luke’s Innovative Resources

Original concept and text on cards: Mundy Fox

Booklet: Russell Deal

Illustration and design: Katie Jardine

Cards Cat No. 4000; AU $44.50

Stickers Cat No. 4050; AU $16.95

The stories keep arriving about how Innovative Resources’ tools are being used in far flung corners of the world. Sue Moorwood is a social worker with Women’s Humanitarian Organization (WHO), working with children and families in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon. Sue has been using many of Innovative Resources’ materials including The Bears cards & stickers, Strength Cards & stickers, Reflexions, Strength Cards for Kids, I Can Monsters and the book, Communities of Hope.

It is challenging, often heartbreaking work. Here she shares one family's story:

Ali's Story

A child, four-years-old, sits on a mat with 24 of his classmates. The teacher works at the black board with another child. In a moment of boredom the child on the mat prods the girl next to him until he provokes both a response from the girl and inevitably also from the teacher. Ali is in trouble again. For a moment the life in his eyes acknowledges he is in the room and then the light leaves. Ali sinks into the classroom wall and his head slumps to his chest.

Later, Ali’s teacher shows me a picture he drew when she asked the class to draw their family. He has drawn poorly formed circles, scattered across the page. There are two large circles and seven or so smaller ones. Ali’s teacher enquires about what he has drawn – he identifies a few of the circles. Ali points to a circle in the top right hand corner and says this is him. Next to him is his older sister. The two largest circles remain unnamed and separate Ali from the circles representing his younger sisters, four years and 11 months. He has drawn his parents as circles on the other side of the paper, his siblings are placed between his parents, with the baby closest to her mother.

Ali’s teachers are worried about his development because he is not drawing more complex depictions of people. ‘Where are their faces, their arms, legs and bodies?’ they ask. ‘Where is he?’ I ask. ‘What has happened to this child’s inner development? Where does he disappear to and what does he disappear from?’

From his picture it is easy to hypothesise about the gulf between Ali and his parents; to read into the picture a closeness between Ali and his older sister; to imagine the jealousy that Ali may harbour toward his younger siblings, which he depicted as close to his parents. It is not so easy to journey further with my thoughts; to wonder when this child possibly stopped feeling, and about the grief, anger and sadness that may overwhelm him should he start to feel again.

From Ali’s teachers I learn that his parents are in their early twenties and Ali’s mother is in the last month of her fourth pregnancy. Ali’s six-year-old sister takes care of the children when her mother goes out. The six-year-old assures Ali’s teachers that she is competent in her skills to make a bottle and feed the baby. Ali’s parents’ marriage is difficult and his mother is known for her tendency to talk about the difficulties she endures to anyone, whether they listen or not. No one seems to be able to help her, and her endurance goes hand in hand with her stories of the impossibilities of her life.

In Australia, the obvious first step would be to ensure this child’s safety and to hope that our welfare system would intervene to improve the situation. But this child is not in Australia. He lives in a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. His teachers are worried about him. As a social worker on an Australian Volunteers International two-year placement, I am also worried about him. I am equally worried about the capacity of this community to address the basic right of each child to a safe life and about my capacity to work with them to provide emotional space, understanding and skills to begin to think about finding safety for Ali.

Safety is a luxury I have grown up with and one that I simply expected that the world would provide - one of ‘the rules of the world - according to me’. I have been in the camp for three months and can see the distance I will need to travel, personally and professionally, to support people to do more than just endure the hardships of being Palestinians in these camps.

While this journey is just starting for me, I meet Ali well into his life story. His family and his community are more familiar with the twists and turns similar histories have taken. The Women’s Humanitarian Organization are questioning the inevitability of the ending for Ali and families like his. Together we will try to find other possibilities for Ali, his family and the community.

The name of this child has been changed to respect his privacy.

I read the book Seven Dying Australians published by your organisation and am deeply touched by the seven accounts that the dying Australians have revealed. I'm a third year psychology student and am making some plans on my Honours project for next year. I have a deep interest in end-of-life care and especially looking at the psychosocial needs of dying patients, their caregivers, as well as health professionals. Hence, I find this book most enlightening and inspiring.

Best regards,
Soak Mun
Murdoch University

Dear Katharina,

(Rapp – Creator of paintings for Everyday Goddess cards),

Just thought I would let you know that the Everyday Goddess cards I have been using at work have been a great success. I am using them with a group of women plagued by depression and eating disorders, and the cards are gorgeous, and very evocative for them. I'm going to suggest that they (Innovative Resources) make stickers out of them, because sometimes I ask the women to pick a card that represents something they will take with them from the group session, or that they will draw on during the next month, and it would be great to have a sticker version of the cards for them to actually take with them. Anyway, just thought I'd tell you how fabulous they are.

Mim Weber
Therapist

Hello to the Innovative Resources team,

I have been meaning to share a story with you about a creative use of The Bears stickers by an eight-year-old girl, Jess. During our last school holiday program in Eaglehawk, we ran an afternoon of activities with about 40 local kids. One of the activities involved drawing pictures of ourselves and decorating them, including the use of The Bears stickers. Another activity was making fridge magnets using pegs.

Jess quite independently decided to make her own magnet design, stuck the stickers on the magnets, then cut the magnets to match the size of the stickers. She then proceeded to give a magnet to every person in the group, asking them to select the one they most liked.

So, it’s quite possible that there are a lot of fridges in the Eaglehawk neighbourhood adorned with bear sticker magnets.

I thought this was quite beautiful, demonstrating her creativity and generosity. So, if you ever decide to produce Bear Magnets, royalties to Jess from Eaglehawk!!!

Julie Cairns
Program Manager
Community Capacity Building Team

Micro-story of the month

Normality

People exchange poignant glances around him. They bite back their tears with trembling lips, and they speak softly to him. Their tones are as if they are speaking to a child, catering to him, patronizing him. They are creating a carpet of eggshells.

He sits in his sofa; his hands atrophied and curled up against his chest, his large, ungainly feet motionless. His unassuming brown eyes take it all in with incredible tolerance. His muscles may be dying, but his brain is as sharp as it was before the sickness took hold of him.

He makes a crack at my braids, calling me ‘Heidi’, yodelling badly. I threaten to shave curse words into his hair if he doesn't knock it off. I take advantage of his immobility to give him a good poke in the ribs. He grins clumsily, eyes glistening. I've never seen anyone happy to be bullied before.

© Stephanie Roka 2002

If you enjoy our monthly micro-stories and would like to explore the many ways that creative writing can enrich your personal and professional lives, then My Friend the Pen could be the workshop for you. …

My Friend the Pen

- the transformational power of poetry, short story writing and journalling

Thursday October 20 and Friday October 21

9.30am to 4.45pm

Cost (two days): $220

Presenters: John Holton, Karen Masman and Russell Deal

Uncover the transformational possibilities of creative writing and write like you have never written before! Poetry, letters to clients, journalling, micro-stories and narratives of all sorts are explored with soulfulness, humour and creativity. If all you have written for years is essays and reports, this workshop will have you bubbling with excitement and help you rediscover the possibilities of the written word. Teachers, social workers and counsellors: discover an array of ideas to use with students and clients while experiencing the sheer gut-level pleasure of your own creativity.

In this workshop we:

• Turn ideas, real-life situations and journal entries into poems and stories
  
• Try out a range of creative writing techniques and original hands-on tools
  
• Explore the therapeutic power of writing to ‘digest’ and transform our life experiences
  
• Explore how to use creative writing in professional and therapeutic settings e.g. with students and clients
  
• Discover quirky and magical ways that you can publish or ‘gift’ your writing—don’t wait for someone else to declare you ‘published’!
  
• Identify the essential elements of a story that will help it to resonate with readers
  
• Create situations, characters and metaphors to tell your unique stories and assist your clients to tell theirs.
  

Book Now! Places are limited.

See the RENEW website for more details.