Our Approach
We designed both our Seeds of Faith and Stepping Stones editions to be tools that will help you topically address and maneuver through current daily struggles in your child’s life. Different from many of their counterparts, these books do not have narrative stories, but rather are meant to be platforms for conversation between you and your child. Each of these books can be used both retrospectively and proactively to help your child prepare for and learn how to handle their emotions. Additionally, because of the non-narrative style, you can skip around the topics within the books in any order as your child needs...you don’t need to read cover to cover! Pick a scenario as the need arises and discuss them one at a time.
The pictures are the driving force of your conversation--feel free to examine every inch of them! Each image also comes with a series of questions which serve as a starting guide to help you and your child talk about what you see in each image, the difference in the characters’ reactions, and how your child reacts similarly or differently. As you both get comfortable with this inviting learning and sharing style, you will find it easy to eventually think of your own questions to emphasize other characteristics you’d like to work on. Start with these questions to begin conversations around emotions and responses, and then move to the practicals section to finish-up your discussion.
Start with the guiding questions to begin conversations around emotions and responses, and then move to the practical section (the big paragraph on the right page) to enhance your discussion. Each practical section includes various combinations of validation (acknowledging that your child is feeling emotions and that it's okay to feel the way that they do), normalization (reminding your child that everyone feels the way they do sometimes), and coping strategies (calming strategies like taking breaths, walking away, or looking for objects of a certain color) to help you as caregivers open the lines of communication with your child and set them up for success. Our Seeds of Faith edition also incorporates scripture and guided prayer to lay a faithful foundation. While our Stepping Stones edition employs powerful guiding principals (e.g., "What matters most is what you believe about yourself") to anchor your child. These practical sections can also serve as models for you to create your own discussions. Revisiting these scenarios often can help your child grasp these concepts and apply them as life happens.
We wish you all the best in your journey! Remember, life isn't always smooth sailing, but changing tides make for skilled sailors.