My new illustration for Illustration Friday,
an illustration challenge at www.illustrationfriday.com. This week's theme is Sweet!
This kid looks so happy! He loves this super-sized ice cream cone!
Loving something like an ice cream, a new toy, a fun experience, or family and friends is easy for a child and it's easy of course for a child to express, but how do you help a child through other emotions? Every emotion is part of who we are. But it's so easy to get stuck in an emotion and feel like it's never going to end! I pulled these character sketches showing different emotions, out of one of my old portfolios.
Here's a different girl with some of the same emotions.
After working with young children for well over twenty years, raising my own three children and now, spending a lot of time with my two wonderful grand girls, I've learned that one of the best ways that works for me in helping a child move through a negative emotion is to support them right where they're at.
I try to let them know that it's ok to feel sad, scared, mad or what ever it is, and when they're ready I try to encourage them to focus on chosing something they could to do next to help them feel better.
Of course it's not always easy or that simple but it's worked for me, especially when I take care of my own needs and emotions too.
The following quotes from the Baha'i writings have always been helpful to me in my life with or without kids.
"When the heart is filled with love everything seems beautiful & delightful to us."- Abdu'-Baha.
"It is good to laugh. Laughter is spiritual relaxation." -Abdu'l-Baha
"We must not only be patient with others, infinitely patient, but also with our own poor selves." -Shoghi Effendi
"When our thoughts are filled with the bitterness of this world, let us turn our eyes to the sweetness of God’s compassion."-Abdu’l-Baha
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