Making a worry book for a kid

September 20, 2018 10:30 AM

7yo has some recurring anxieties / flashpoints for anger. His therapist suggested we make a "worry book" or a "feelings book" where he/we can record what he was worried or angry about, and what helped him feel better. Obviously the best tool is one you like to use - so I'm seeking suggestions for how to set this up and make it appealing. I'm curious whether anyone else has tackled this sort of project with their kids, and what worked for you.

So, for example:
- Did you decide to arrange things chronologically or have sections for different feelings?
- Did you use a plain notebook, or a binder, or a purchased journal, or what?
- Did you guys get crafty with it? (I'm willing to put in a little effort, but not go nuts)
- Did you mostly write text, or did your kid like having space to draw?
- Did you prefer to use some sort of template, or keep it really freeform?

- Anything that worked particularly well?
- Anything that didn't work so well?

I understand that these are all highly, highly individual preferences; I'm interested in a smorgasbord of approaches to help my kid and I brainstorm ideas about what's likely to work best for us.

The ultimate goal is to develop a tool that we can use as a family to help us all navigate some of the choppier waters of the developing mind. :)

posted by telepanda to Human Relations (5 answers total)

During a period in my kid's life when he was young, and my husband/his dad was away a lot for work, and he was super tense/anxious about that, we made a book like you're describing. It was rather free-form -- I cut pieces of colored card stock in half and we used that. Some pages were photos and collage, others were stickers or coloring. But when it was all done (including extra blank pages), we took it to Kinkos and had them spiral bind it. After that, I made it super clear that the book was my son's and he could do whatever he wanted in it -- so it was a work in progress, and he could continue to write, color, etc. in it. I made it clear that he didn't need to be neat about it, or keep it pretty. It was his.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:44 AM on September 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

If you get a blank book with a nice binding, he can draw or write whatever he feels like, and keep it when it gets full. Keeping it simple keeps it flexible. He can decorate it any way he likes, or not at all — it's his book.
posted by ubiquity at 11:08 AM on September 20, 2018 [2 favorites]

Ours are wall charts but could just as well be pages in a spiral book. One is for success and consists of single-panel comic style drawings (some by me, some by him, some collaborations) of times that he felt the feeling, did the right thing, and everything turned out okay. The second is a chart of options: list of feelings in the left column and corresponding actions in the right column so that he can easily access choices for how to manage what he's feeling.

We came up with the examples by brainstorming together and I helped a lot to render the text simply and clearly so that it wouldn't become an onerous writing chore. My kid loves drawing, which is why we went with a comics format.
posted by xo at 11:11 AM on September 20, 2018 [4 favorites]

It isn't quite what you are looking for, but I really like the Worry Eaters - stuffed animals with a pouch inside and a zipper for a mouth. Feed them your worries!
posted by dinofuzz at 12:45 PM on September 20, 2018

Seconding worry eaters! And, you can remove them sneakily and keep them somewhere else with some sort of age appropriate symbolism for your kid.

I really like collages when I can't quite express my feelings.

For notebooks I always dream I want a bullet journal and that it will be some beautiful masterpiece but it just ends up a scribbled list.

The most important thing is that it works for him. So, ASK!

Sometimes a box will coping mechanisms to draw out when at
a loss for what to try can be useful. With things like play outside take a bath, draw, or talk to mom. Have him make and suggest tools for the box.
posted by AlexiaSky at 10:19 PM on September 20, 2018