Seven years ago, I created a book to help the kids in my classroom…they struggle with school and have a tendency to avoid and resist work. I use this book each year and the kids really like it and gain lots of benefit from it…and so do I.
So….how did I come up with all those “excuses” and avoidance strategies??? Was it from watching the kids or watching myself? 🙄
I intended this to be a “children’s” book…
but I think it’s amusing and applicable for adults, too.
( it’s short…just 2 minutes…and is more enjoyable viewed full screen)
There are lots of really wonderful bears in this book!
(click forward arrow to view book)
8
8As I was creating the book, I realized that I have several “specialty” avoidance strategies of my own…and chuckle each time I look at the bears on those particular pages. And so, although I created this book for the kids in my class, I find it equally helpful for myself…and amusing to recognize a few of my own favorite avoidance strategies…..Even more important, I find the positive strategies and steps are helpful too.. “Bearable,” indeed….
Any favorite bears from the pages?
Here’s one of my favorites….
little bit, little bit…little bit at a time….
The next day after this was posted: Oh No!! I forgot a page!
I went to school (work) today and was showing the kids the video presentation of the book…and seeing who preferred reading the book as the 8 1/2 x 11 hard copy of the book, and who preferred seeing on the laptop screen (which wasn’t very big). Well, as we were going through the hard copy of the book… I came to a page that I had actually FORGOTTEN to put into the slide show…and…
it’s one of the avoidance strategies that I have a real “challenge” with…
that tendency to just put off doing something I don’t know how to do,
or that I find confusing,
and then to put it right out of my mind….
whooosh!…simply disappears!…as did this page! 🙄
Updated: Several people have come to this post who mentioned they might be using the ideas with children. There are a few games that can help to reinforce the positive strategies. One is a gameboard. The other game is like “concentration.” The boards, pieces and cards can be printed and cut out. The kids I teach really enjoy both games…and remember both the strategies, and what to avoid, far better, too. (click on images to enlarge)
Pocket Perspectives 
Congrats on your book! I always reckon a kids book can be an adults book. I think we can each see it, years apart, and understand it. Love those bear pictures when they’re in the water.
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Thanks, the kids in my classroom really like it. And I agree…the bears in that beautiful water are wonderful!
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Oooh, I needed to read the bearable book, a perfect reminder to not procrastinate! I loved this, the photos of the bears match the words, very creative and charming book. 🙂
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Aren’t those bears wonderful? And….did you notice…I added to the end of the post…I completely forgot to include a page that has my biggest challenge… out of sight, out of mind… 🙄
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The best books for kids speak to the child in all of us . . . especially the inner child throwing a tantrum or stomping his/her feet in frustration at having too much too do. 😉
Great idea for a book, Kathy. I’m not surprised the kids enjoy it.
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I’m going to reblog this post . . . I know lots of “procrastinators” who would enjoy this booklet.
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There tends to be that little smile or chuckle of recognition as I go through those pages…at least for me. And “reblog”…is that linking it in another spot?
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WP has a “reblog” button connected with the like button at the top of the page.
This is what a reblog looks like:
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Spoke too soon . . . the “reblog this post” feature is busted at the moment.
Sometimes that’s a sign to make a detour.
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When WP changed the features today . . . they took the reblog button away.
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Well…that’s too bad…it looks like it (reblogging) was a nice feature to have…a good way of alerting others to ideas in others people’s blogs….I think other people might be more apt to click on a partial post than on a link…too bad it’s……gone…
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I just checked my stats for the week . . . the “top click” for the week was to Maggie’s blog to read the rest of her article ~ so the reblogged post had MORE than twice as many clicks as any other link.
WP may put it back. It was a nice feature to have.
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I guess a way around that might be to do a screen capture (I use something called “snipping tool” ) of the first part of another person’s blog entry, that gets saved as a jpeg….then insert that jpeg in one’s own post and add the link to the rest of that blog selection at the bottom, calling it “read more” or something like that….That would be a manual way to do it…at least I think that might be equivalent.
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WP does plan to put it back:
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I did share it with Team Oyeniyi:
http://teamoyeniyi.com/2011/09/22/about-my-school-project/
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The kids are always surprised that I am aware of so many of their “strategies” to get out of things….of course, that’s because I have more than a few of my own!…yes that toddler stomping feet! 🙄
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As a chronic procrastinator working on reforming (or is that recovery? lol!), I can relate to almost all of the bears. Wonderful book with wonderful bears. 🙂
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Thanks…I find looking at those “reluctant” bears really helpful….each one helps me to see my own patterns with a bit more awareness/amusement and puts me into a cheerful mood for getting going. Aren’t some of those bears wonderful?
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Pingback: Procrastinators Anonymous « Spirit Lights The Way
What a great book! Such beautiful bears. I’ll show this to my grandson, he could sure use the motivation!
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Thanks, I hope it helps him. I’ve found that gentle, encouraging support over time can be helpful. It’s also important for someone to help/encourage him be aware of the benefits of doing or persisting whatever might be being resisted: short term benefits, mid-term benefits and long term benefits… that isn’t in the book, but I’ve found that it’s important. Happy you stopped by….
By the way…I was just wrestling with my own reluctance and resistance earlier this morning….whew…that’s hard…and came up with this sequence of ideas to try to help myself be less “resistant” and to focus on the positive benefits of doing something that I don’t want to do. https://pocketperspectives.wordpress.com/other/avoiding-sigh/
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Pingback: “Bearable” reminder cards and games…. | Pocket Perspectives
This is truly impressive! You did a terrific job and used engaging examples to keep the kids interested. Excellent book! I think you should have it published. Kudos! 🙂
Eliz
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Thanks….
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Finally catching up again… where did the time go? Phew! 🙂
Eliz
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I know the feeling… my accent says it …. “whew!”
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This is just great! What a fun [but effective] way to get motivated and encouraged…My Best, joni
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My kids would LOVE playing these games! Thanks!
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You’re very welcome. I added pdf’s of the games to the very bottom of the other post…they may print more easily from a pdf and you can control the size too. https://pocketperspectives.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/bearable-reminder-cards-and-games/ Let me know what they think of them…. 😉
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