 Hendersonville Has Confidence! Self-Esteem Elephant is one of nine Characters developed by Joni Downey, founder of Characters of Character NFP, Inc. The biggest message that Self-Esteem Elephant shares is, "I like ME!" -- the perfect message for children to internalize at an early age. Why is building confidence in children important? Building confidence at an early age has the ability to make children feel better about themselves. Think about yourself - when you lack confidence how do you feel? You can be depressed, lazy, and settle for mediocre. Now, think about how you feel when your confidence is high - how do you feel? You probably feel motivated and fearless - even eager to ask for help if you need it because you're excited about your life and want to continue advancing forward. Confidence goes hand in hand with making good decisions. When a child has confidence they are able to maintain a growth mindset, finding solutions rather than seeing the problems. They are also more likely to take responsibility for their actions - the good and the bad. That's why Characters of Character NFP, Inc. developed the Mindfulness Affirmation Character Building Kit featuring Self-Esteem Elephant. Our Mindfulness Kit is filled with activities, positive visual reminders, and allows children an outlet to express their true feelings and emotions while developing confidence.  What does the kit include? Incorporating the arts with our social and emotional learning is extremely important to Characters of Character NFP, Inc. We believe that allowing children a safe outlet to express themselves is key to developing coping skills that will follow the child into their adult life. That's why we developed our Mindfulness Affirmation Confidence Building Kit to not only encourage a positive mindset, but also encourage the child to explore their creative side! Each kit includes: • Colorful packaging that doubles as positive visual reminders • Watercolor painting activity (includes a 4x4 pre-designed canvas, watercolors, paintbrush, and a mini easel) • Set of 9 affirmation cards; 1 for each character trait we focus on • 8.5x11 colored poster to be used as a visual reinforcement long after the activities inside the kit have been completed • "I am!" name tag activity • Self-Esteem Elephant themed folder; great to bring to school, keep positive messages in, or to be used at home • Bookmark • Crayons • Characters of Character's affirmation coloring book • An introductory letter to the child to explain who Self-Esteem Elephant is and the message we want to share • Self-Esteem Elephant stickers  If you would like additional information to become involved and make a difference in the life of a child, please visit us online and reach out at anytime. We can't donate these resources without your support. There are children who need us, you, and us to make a difference in their life, to build confidence and self-esteem and a stronger community. Please consider a donation or a sponsorship for the Hendersonvilel has Confidence project! Thank you, together we will make a difference.
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 Behavior Bear Downloadable Mask Tip from Behavior Bear This is an important message from Behavior Bear! I just want to let you know, I wear my mask wherever I go. Wearing a mask is important today, to wear it at home, at work, at school and play. If you're not sure you can always ask, if you're not sure when to wear your mask . Be sure to wash your hands and stay your distance, too because these now are good behaviors made just for you! Love, Behavior Bear Have you met Behavior Bear? This is one of the Characters who cares, visit us online to learn more, cause teaching children good behavior is what's in store! Please pass me along to help others know, wearing a mask is a good way to go! Tip from Behavior Bear When you encourage your child the behaviors improve, teach them that a mask is to be worn in their classroom or at home or in the community, depending where you live and what you're teaching them to do during the Pandemic. Color me in and then let me know, that your behavior will surely grow! I'm a good listener and follow the rules, at home, at school and in the community, too! Having good behavior is the right thing to do!   Times they are a changing, this is just a fact, and today as a parent, you now wear many hats! Depending upon where you live, your children may be at home learning online. If this is the case, as a parent and educator I couldn't help but wonder, how to make this an easy transition or some helpful ideas for now turning your home into a classroom. My first thought is that a child is with their teacher for the better part of a day when they're in school. I've been in the classroom and can attest that I've been called 'mom' quite a few times during the school hours! A few weeks ago my daughters friend came over and we began talking about how e-learning is now a way of life and how she hoped she could be there for her girls on a teacher level. Then it came to me! How as a parent, we need our children to see us during the school day as the Teacher, not the Parent. And, as parents, we need to see our children as the student. When we can make this a smooth transition for both parent and child will be a beneficial process for everyone. Here is what I came up with..... Explain to your child that as the school year begins, we are learning from our home this year and I will do the best I can to be your teacher and you will do the best you can to be the student because we want to learn and grow and be the best person we can be. What I came up with is pretty simple, make it fun and try it out! Put on your teacher hat! Or, your teacher badge and let your child put on their student hat or student badge! Here is a template get you started! The first thing I suggest is to make a space in your home that your child will be and attend their e-learning classroom lessons. Help them design it, make it comfortable and have their materials and resources readily available for the day. Design a space where you can start the day, transitions from home to school. Put on your TEACHER hat or badge and allow your child to put on their STUDENT hat or badge and transition into the school day. Just like you hang your keys on a hanger, hang these hats or badges on a hook to put on to begin your day and then be sure to take it off when the school day is complete and you transition into parent and your student transitions into child. Let the home life now begin! I truly believe that you'll have less meltdowns if you set boundaries, if you haven't, it's not to late. Continue building a schedule with your child, use plenty of visual clues and display these so that they understand the day ahead. There will be breaks, there will be engagement and there will be lessons, help display and discuss these activities so your child understands. They need to understand that we may be home, but, we are also at school, we are borrowing our home to learn until the classrooms are ready to go back into. Help them to own this new school year! You know how you had to adjust during the Pandemic, your child needs to adjust during this time to learn. Hopefully, during this Pandemic you still got up, brushed your teeth, made your bed, had breakfast and jumped into your day. This is no different. Keeping as much of a routine and normalcy in your home is a good thing, there are a few things that need to be adjusted. Adjust, transition and embrace what is now the new norm, being flexible and going with the flow is a better mindset than arguing, fighting and getting yourself sick over the issues at hand.   I myself love the hat idea! During the Pandemic, Characters of Character has had to adjust as well. Still, we wanted to get our character messages into the mix so we made videos making character headbands! You can find these on our website under Character Corner. If your child is having an off day with behaviors, take the time to make a Behavior Bear headband. If your child is lacking respect, take the time out to make a Respectful Rabbit headband. If you child is fighting you with being a responsible child, take the time to make a Responsible Rabbit headband. If your child wants to give up, take the time out and make a Do'er Duck headband. If your child needs a friend, take the time out to make a Friendship Frog headband. If your child needs to be reminded about having healthy habits, take time out to make a Healthy Hippo headband. If your child is lacking confidence, take time out to make a Self-Esteem Elephant headband. If you child is forgetting their manners, take time out to make a Manners Monkey headband. Warm-Hearted Walrus headband is coming soon!
Encourage your child to write to their favorite character! Provide a S.A.S.E. and the characters will write back, great Pen Pal idea building communication, fine motor and literacy skills, too. Hang these on a hook in the classroom or a designated space in your home to use as reinforcements to remind your child about this trait. I always said to my kids when their frowns were upside down, gosh, take that smile out of your pocket and put it on your face! They laughed, and it changed their mood. We all need reminders now and again and personally, when a task has a bit of fun involved in it, I understand and embrace it with more passion! Your child will, too! To help sum this all up, let's make it simple: First, create a designated area for your children to own as theirs for the class day, then, explain the separation between parent and teacher, student and child, each situation is different, these are just some suggestions, have visuals, create a schedule and calendar for the day/week/month. Next, put on your hat! Have your badges or hats readily available and hanging to be used! Finally, breathe, be patient with yourself and your children, this is a lot to handle, and I for one believe that there are lessons in every situation, so, be patient and be kind with yourself, as the ol' cliche goes, 'this to shall pass' and we'll look back at it with different views. For now, be safe, stay well and just do your best. Follow us on Twitter Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Pinterest Follow us on Facebook Follow us Alignable Youtube Channel Learn how to Donate here and show your support Learn more about us online at Characters of Character We are a small nonprofit making a big difference in the life of a child. Please share our information with others and contact me at anytime. I'd love to hear how this is going in your home! Joni  Characters of Character is donating 100 of our Supehero Activity Boxes to Children's Hospitals in Chicago this month. WE are now focusing on Texas and Tennessee. After speaking with a few of the hospital representatives, they expressed concern to the fact that Winter is coming and the amount of children which will stay in the hospitals will most likely rise. Some children are not allowed to leave their hospital rooms due to the Covid, and some may not have visitors. This naturally saddens us and while there is nothing like an actual person to spend time with while you're healing in the hospital, it is 2020 and things are different this year. Last year we were able to bring our character Self-Esteem Elephant to Shriner's in Chicago to visit with families and do confidence building activities with the children. We painted Self-Esteem Elephant on canvas with the important message of I LIKE ME on the canvas for each child to be reminded of this and to take home and display in their own home as a daily reminder to like who you are. Another character of ours is Warm-Hearted Walrus and this character got to visit the Huntley Hospital in Huntley, Illinois. Today, our characters are not allowed in the hospitals, due to Covid, none the less, we are working tirelessly to donate to children and bring them as much hope, love and joy that we can with our Superhero Activity Boxes!   Each box is colorful, sturdy and includes a Superhero Activity Book, 24 pack of crayons, a watercolor pallet, paint brush, a canvas to paint that says, I AM SUPER, a canvas to display the canvas, a superhero sticker, a superhero mask, a black and white poster to paint or color, a character lanyard with one of our 'agent's as shown above and a hand written letter from one of the Characters of Character. There is a lot of good stuff for the child to occupy their mind and keep positive while staying in the hospital. This information is on our website and we encourage you to visit us, to share us and if you can, to donate to us and become a sponsor if you are able to! Our goal is to donate 250 Superhero Boxes to the Texas Children's Hospital and another 250 to various Children's Hospitals in Texas. Below are the details concerning this year’s sponsorship levels:
 Just imagine if your child or a child you know was in the hospital. These Superhero Boxes bring the boys and girls such much needed joy as they stay in the hospital. We hope you will consider a donation and bring these boxes to the hospitals sooner rather than later! Due to Covid, I myself, Joni Downey, the founder of Characters of Character is packaging each and every box with tender loving care. Normally we have volunteers and our Board of Directors help with this, however, it is 2020 and we are taking precautions at our end to try to ensure the health and safety of the children. Please, feel free to reach out to me with any questions, ideas or concerns you might have. We've created Character Corner on our website during this Pandemic because we can't be in any physical locations at this time. Again, enjoy the character building lessons to do with your own children, share them with your family and friends and even your children's teachers as an engaging character building activity to do, too. Wishing you well and looking forward to bringing these donations to the great state of Texas soon! Kindly, Joni #texas #texaschildrenshospitals #children #childrenshospital #superhero #charity  |
Joni DowneyMarried with children since 1981. Love working with children and sharing the Characters of Character. Archives
April 2021
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PO Box 391 McHenry, IL 60050 This website contains material which is owned by or licensed to us. ALL Reproduction is prohibited other than in accordance with the copyright notice, this includes the characters of character GRAPHIC, VISUAL AND PRINTED MESSAGES AND MATERIALS.
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