The Whole Brain Child: taking it to the kids

I was busy cutting and pasting this afternoon, making 'brain books' for both my boys. The Whole Brain Child, parenting book extraordinaire, not only has invaluable information for adults, it also contains 10 or 12 of these wonderful full-page cartoons explaining all the concepts in kid language and pictures.  

I’m possibly not allowed to photocopy them  but I did anyway, and stuck them into two scrap books, one for each boy.

I added some questions opposite each one with the aim of getting the children to think about their own experiences. With this page I wrote, ‘who are people you can talk to about your feelings?’

When I first showed the book to Bright Eyes he went all grumpy and told me that it was “a stupid idea” and “had I lost my mind?” and “what was I thinking?” and “I’ve told you a million times…”

I ignored him and just left it on the floor of his room. When I took it back at bedtime I said, “We’ll read a page of this as well as your story.”

“Hmmmph,” he said.

“Don’t you like it?” I asked. “What do you think it’s about?”

“It’s about me…” he grumped. (Clearly he knows when I’m about to preach at him. But not this time.)

“Nope,” I said. “It’s about your brain.”

He visibly perked up and after we read the first page he was interested, but heeding my father’s advice to always leave an audience wanting more, I stopped it there and mysteriously said, “We’ll read more tomorrow.”

Max, the seven year old was so entranced with it all that he told me about his big feeling of sadness that starts ‘here’ (pointing to his chin) and ‘goes up to become angriness’.

I think the publishers of The Whole Brain Child need to bring out not only a training course (for me to run for everyone around me) but a kid’s book as well!