For adults, 2020 has been hard to handle – for kids, our kid at least, this year has been really hard to get through; this was the year that we were getting out and about more, meeting more home ed families, doing more experiential learning. The disappointment of not being able to do that was, for ‘A’ crushing. This year also came with some pretty significant losses; former friends of ‘A’ who chose other paths and the loss of a family member in Australia. Overwhelm set in around the same time as the second lockdown and home ed became a little more of a challenge to get through.
This past weekend ‘A’ discovered ‘Bubblegum Brain’ by Julia Cook on the KidTime StoryTime Youtube channel and the story really resonated with her. She watched that video about 30 times, showed it to me about 10 of those, and began to try and approach her world from a Bubblegum Brain perspective. For the uninitiated a ‘Bubblegum Brain’ is a growth mindset – ‘I can’t do that, yet!’ instead of ‘I can’t do that!’ etc and for this kid, for right now…it’s working.
This morning the postman delivered two books for ‘A’, to much squealing and ‘OMG!!!’ ing, ‘Bubblegum Brain’ and the ‘Bubblegum Brain Activity and Idea Book’. She has read through the storybook twice, once on her own and once in time with @kidtimestorytime and is now happily ensconced in her maths, spelling and English work. ‘I’m using my bubblegum brain Mum, I can DO this!’
Is it a miracle? No, but it’s progress…and she chose it herself, which is growth and that’s even better!
If this sounds like something your child would be interested in, you can find the Amazon links to the books below.
I only link items that I genuinely find wonderful and helpful. When I link something and you decide to purchase, I get a small bonus from Amazon. This does not change the price you pay for the item.