4 Valuable Skills Taught Through Willow’s First Adventure
Children constantly learn from their environment, experiences, and interactions. Stories play a crucial role in this process, offering psychological and educational advantages while boosting imagination and skills. Through observation and connection, children grasp concepts best. The mission of The Adventures of Willow series is to provide children, parents, educators, and teachers with resources to help build their imagination, foster connection, and cultivate valuable life skills through storytelling.
The first book in the series, The Adventures of Willow: Finding Furr-Ever, readers embark on a heartwarming journey with a foster puppy as she quests to find her furever home. This story lays a foundation for Willow’s future adventures, where she learns and teaches valuable life lessons along the way. Here are four valuable skills taught through Willow’s first adventure: Finding Furr-Ever.
1.Emotions are valid and can shift frequently
Throughout the first book, Finding Furr-Ever, Willow experiences a wide array of emotions. She experiences fatigue, disappointment, anxiety, fear, excitement, sadness, and affection, among many more. At the onset, Roxy (aka Willow) enters her journey by waking up alongside her other foster brother and sister, reminiscing about her brother Tanner’s adoption at a previous event. Willow encounters further negative emotions, such as sadness and a sense of exclusion, as community members interact with her foster brother and sister while she remains curled up on her blanket, hesitant to engage and find her furever family.
Guided Question: Is it Willow’s hesitancy to interact or the families’ lack of awareness to initiating with Willow that contributes to her emotional turmoil?
Eventually, Willow captures interest in a young girl, Lily, who is accompanied by her mother in search of a puppy. Willow shows excitement and attempts to catch the young girl’s attention. Willow connects with Lily, yearning to go home with her, only to feel scared and confused as Lily briefly puts her aside to go purchase food and toys. Upon Lily’s return, Willow experiences relief and renewed excitement as she embarks on her new adventures with her furever family.
As Willow navigates through different emotions, she serves as a model for children, showcasing various emotional responses in different situations. Parents can utilize these demonstrations to help children explore their own emotions. Validating a child’s emotions is a crucial aspect of the process in managing their own emotions.
Validating a child’s emotions allows them to gain deeper understanding of their emotions in the moment, fostering acceptance and effective emotional regulation.
Example in the book: “It’s okay, Roxy. I see you’re upset that I’m putting you down, but I promise I will come right back!”
2.Connection between Parent and Child
Establishing connections are crucial to nurturing valuable skill building. When a child feels connected to their parent, they experience a sense of safety and stability, fostering an environment for positive growth. Willow’s journey captures the experience of without connection she is feeling isolation and uncertainty. However, once she finds her person she feels loved, safety. Lily’s reassurance to Willow highlights the power of connection by explaining her actions and promising return. Willow learns to conquer her fears and cultivates trust with Lily’s actions.
Another example in the book that models parent and child connection is Ryan’s interaction with his mother. When faced with disappointment over not being able to adopt a puppy, Ryan begins to melt down and his mother responds empathetically.
‘‘I understand you’re upset,’’ his mother said, rubbing his back. ‘‘The puppy looks really sweet, but we do not have the space for a puppy right now. Would you like to look for a kitten with me, or would you like to go home?’’
Ryan’s mother is equipping him with coping skills and fostering meaningful connections for his developing mind. These interactions lay the groundwork for future positive behaviors and emotional regulation. By prioritizing connection, caregivers play a vital role in shaping young minds in emotional intelligence, which affects their behavior responses. Through explanation, empathy, and regulation, caregivers can empower children to navigate complex emotions and build strong internal connections to help them succeed.
Here are some tips to increase connection:
Get on the child’s level.
Play. Play without demands (and remember, questions are a demand).
Follow their lead at times.
Offer choices.
Expand on your language and explanation.
Be curious about your child and their interactions.
3. Waiting does not mean “no”
Exercising patience is often challenging for both children and adults. It is a skill that builds daily with experiences. Willow serves as an example of patience in actions as she navigates the journey of finding her furever home, full of eagerness, but encounters obstacles and durations of waiting, especially when Lily sets Willow aside. Lily provides reassurance and eventually returns, providing a pivotal understanding for Willow on delayed gratification. Delayed gratification (i.e. waiting) does not mean you never receive that gratification. It is an essential skill for everyone to build, as in life it is not always feasible to get immediate access to that gratification but can yield greater fulfillment in the long run.
Here are some strategies to teaching children patience and coping with waiting:
Utilizing a timer to signal when delayed gratification is received.
Offer alternative choices during the waiting period.
Explain the “why” and “when”. This helps children understand the reasoning.
Reinforce and draw attention to natural times of waiting (e.g. “You were SO patient while you waited for mommy to cook your food for you.”).
4.Dealing with disappointment
The typical chain of responses between a parent and child—“No!” “But why?” “Because I said so!”— often falls short in teaching resilience, acceptance, and coping with disappointment. It can lead the child into a downward spiral, often making the situation worse or worsening behaviors.
In Finding Furr-Ever, let’s revisit the scenario of Ryan and his mother. Ryan is told “no” to adopting a puppy and begins melting down in public. Let’s recap the chain of events his mother took in responding:
She got down on his level.
She validated his feelings.
She connected.
She explained the “why?”
She offered choices.
His mother still upheld the boundaries she set by not adopting a puppy while prioritizing connection and assisting Ryan in regulating his emotions. This approach enables Ryan to comprehend, manage, and overcome his disappointment, fostering resilience in the face of adversity.
These valuable skills highlighted in the first book of The Adventures of Willow series teaches foundational socio-emotional skills for children and parents. As Willow embarks on new adventures, she will continue to model and promote valuable socio-emotional skills, increasing tolerance, and parenting strategies to help manage behaviors for children and parents. Storytelling is a powerful skill to foster connection between the child and parent while building valuable life skills. Plus, who can resist stories about puppies?
Join Willow on her first adventure and stay tuned as she gets ready to embark on new adventures with her furever family!
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