Reinforcing Amazing ME Messages at Home

Track One

Ideas to support Amazing ME

• Songs, stories and books about feeling good about what you can do
• Challenge courses inside and outside
• Mirrors to look in - what's different? Talk about how your face looks when it's happy, sad, dirty, clean, scary and friendly
• Helping bath a baby
• Bathing dolls
• Looking at shadows
• Making sand angels
• Making footprints / handprints
• Practicing doing up and undoing buttons, zips, shoe laces etc
• Drawing around children and discussing how big children are, adding faces and clothes
• Naming body parts
• Puzzles
• Discussing visiting the dental nurse, doctor or other health professionals

Track Two

Ideas to support Amazing ME

• Recite address and phone numbers
• Go for walks and talk about road safety
• Chalk pedestrian crossing outdoors and practise crossing safely
• Look at photos and discuss safety issues with children
• Visit the Police station and Fire station or discuss what Police officers and firefighters do to help people
• Discuss what an emergency is, and what to do in an emergency

Track Three

Ideas to support Amazing ME

• Puzzles, books, matching games and oral stories that explore relationships
• Discuss family / whanau photos with children
• Discuss with children about the touching they like and don't like
• Tell children what you would like them to do if someone touches them in a way that makes them feel uncomfortable (your early childhood teacher will be able to support you to do this)
• Talk with children about what "being good" means. Sometimes being good means not doing what an adult tells them.
• Praise children, for example, "You washed your hands before eating, great".

Track Four

Ideas to support Amazing ME

• Songs, stories and books about feelings, for example the "If you're happy and you know it" song, or the book "Where The Wild Things Are ", by Maurice Sendak
• Look at pictures in magazines and discuss how people might be feeling
• Modelling how you would like your child to act, for example, you could say, "I don't like it when you hurt my body", if they jump on you or "That makes me feel special", if they hug you
• Discuss difficult feelings with children, for example, death and grief
• Discuss how you keep your pets healthy and encourage them to help feed and be kind to animals
• Reassure children that even when their behaviour is unacceptable you still care about them
• Use the "Stop. Think and Act" strategy
• Use the "No, please stop" strategy

Track Five

Ideas to support Amazing ME

• Songs, stories and books about feeling good, and about how you can help others, for example, Alfie lends a hand, Dogger, written by Shirley Hughes
• Play games that needs turn taking, for example, ball games, snap and board games
• Show children how to take turns fairly by using egg timers, telling the time or completing a game each
• Helping your children resolve conflict by modelling appropriate language and behaviour
• Discuss secrets, bad and good
• Thank your children for behaving well
• Encourage children to help each other