As much as I wish we lived in a world of fairy tales and happy ever afters, the reality is that we don’t, and I believe that one of the biggest gifts we can give our children to equip them for their futures is the ability to listen to that ‘inner voice’ and to trust their intuition. While I also think that intuition is an inborn survival instinct, it is often drummed out of us from birth. I do believe, however, that we can teach our children to be mindful about most things, and one of those things is the people they trust, the people they know they can call on in various situations. It’s on the back of that that I wanted to do this trust activity with my smallest.
It’s actually from the new Rainbows Girlguiding activity book – they’ve revamped their program to make it more modern less about baking and crafts and more in line with STEM, recycling and other modern interests. It’s a great new program.
This activity can take as long or be as quick as you like, but the physical doing is less than ten minutes.
For the Handprint Trust Activity you will need:
- A sheet of paper
- Pencil
- Paint
- Pen
- A hand, still attached 😉
Instructions for the Handprint Trust Activity:
- On a sheet of paper, help your child draw an outline of their hand
- Paint the hand – watercolours are great because they dry really quickly.
- Ask your child to write the names of five(-ish) people they trust. You can leave them to choose, or you can direct their attention a little with questions like, “who would you call in an emergency?”, “who would you call if you need someone to talk to” and so on.
While the activity is pretty quick, the discussion around it can be as long or as short as you want, and as deep or easy as you like. It’s valuable though, to guide children into thinking about who they can talk to when they are in trouble, or when there are things they don’t necessarily want to say to you. The loneliest feeling in the world is scrolling through your phone looking at name after name, and still feeling like there’s no one you can talk to in this moment. Hopefully, by knowing at clear, rational, unemotional times who you trust most, they’ll be easier to identify when you need them most.
