A crafty companion to All My Stripes and All The Ways to be Smart that promotes self-acceptance and appreciation.
Reading Time:
We started out reading All My Stripes and All the Ways to be Smart. Then we discussed how that applied to Bug (Peanut got up and wandered away as soon as the books finished). We try to keep our praise based around effort in our family and as a result Bug wasn’t really quite clear what smart meant. So we had to discuss that first. In the end, he seemed to understand and then we discussed how the book used it. We switched to All My Stripes, which is mainly about a zebra with autism but also focuses on what his strengths or stripes are.
Write it Out
To really bring this home I pulled out a huge piece of paper and we wrote down all the ways Bug was smart. I started providing suggestions but he quickly became very opinionated about what else should be added. It was incredible to watch his confidence grow as we progressed. Soon he was reminding me of things and telling me to squeeze more stuff in. We ran out of space but I made it clear that just because it wasn’t on the paper didn’t mean it wasn’t a strength , just that we didn’t have room.
Draw it Out
Then we got our craft on. Bug and I discussed some basic face drawing techniques which I very gently suggested. At five I don’t particularly expect him to be churning out and exact replica of himself (heck I can’t do that and I’m six times his age). I also had to be careful because he can be a bit of a perfectionist, if it doesn’t look just the way he has in his mind he can get very upset. So we talked about making the eyes the same color as his or the hair. when he was happy with his drawing we colored it and went over the lines in marker.
Just Add Stripes
Then we looked at his “Strengths Board” again. He pointed out some that were his favorite or that went together. These he turned into Stripes. He chose a Love stripe that connects to his green Friendly stripe. His Brave stripe is grey because that color can be a bit scary. He did a Traveling stripe with an X-marks-the-spot. Then there was his Reading and Math stripes, an Active stripe and a mustache inspired Creative stripe. He was beaming by the end, proud to hang it on the fridge and excited to show it to grandma on FaceTime.
He helped me make one as well, which I kept. We can all use a tangible reminder of our strengths every once in awhile.
More…
Our reviews of All My Stripes and All the Ways to be Smart (coming soon) can be found by clicking on the titles. Any questions or suggestions with how you’d do the project? Let me know in the comments!
