Link

Click here to download the Activity Book.

Background

This activity book was developed and published by Cafcass (Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service) in England. “Every year Cafcass helps over 140,000 children and young people who are going through care or adoption proceedings, or whose parents have separated and are unable to agree about future arrangements for their children. Cafcass is the voice of children in the family courts and helps to ensure that children’s welfare is put first during proceedings.”

How It Works

This pdf activity book is colorfully illustrated and offers older kids and teens activities to complete in addition to answering questions they might have about their parents’ divorce. This pamphlet offers very basic information to educate and help older kids and teens dealing with these difficult circumstances.

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Link

Click here to download the board game. (http://www.chatfirst.com.au/pdf/boardgame.pdf)

Unfortunately, this game is no longer available from the original source. We are leaving this page up in hopes that it will be available again at some point in the future.

Background

CHaT First is a website from the Children and Families in Transition Project a partnership between the Centre for Peace, Conflict and Mediation, Hawke research Institute, University of South Australia and Centacare Catholic Family Services (SA), with generous support from the Telstra Foundation.  It is full of information for children and teens whose parents have separated or divorced. One of the best resources is a printable board game called the CHaT First Board game.

How It Works

The CHaT First Board Game is a question and answer board game that encourages kids and teens to answer questions from one of four decks of cards. Players take turns rolling the dice and moving along the board. This game is not about winners and losers but about the experience shared together.

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Emotion wheels can be great tools for helping you to figure out what your feeling, introduce you to new emotions and help you to figure out what emotions might be underlying why you’re feeling.

This first wheel was created by Dr. Gloria Wilcox who is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in St Petersburg, Florida. It is a great tool for identifying emotions you might be feeling following the dissolution of your parents’ relationship. Emotions are grouped into six broad categories including Sad, Mad, Scared, Peaceful, Joyful and Powerful.

This second wheel is not quite as colorful but includes even more emotion words to broaden your emotion vocabulary. We found it originally on http://makalaonlife.tumblr.com.

Teen Between is a resource out of Ireland designed to help teens from divorcing families and to help parents and schools to help teens through the divorce process.  Teen Between offers in person counseling services all around the country of Ireland.  They also have an amazing website for teens dealing with the separation or divorce of their parents.

In the teen section, you will find articles and advice on how to deal with:

• Finding Out
• Being Stuck in the Middle
• Coping With Change
• Accepting the Decision
• Moving On

Many of the sections include specific tips and links to stories from other teens who have been through the divorce of their parents.  The teen section also includes a quiz which will give you insights into how you communicate when you are angry.

In addition to great information for teens, the site offers information and advice for parents on: Continue reading

Registration for our pilot online teen support group ends April 30th, and we are asking for your help to promote that program.  We have created a flier promoting the upcoming group.  We invite you to print out copies of the flier and hang them at your local community center, at your church, at your place of business or school, or wherever else in your community that teens might see it. Our goal is to make sure that teens who need this program are aware of it.

For a printable pdf version of this flier, please click the image below:

This site is from the Justice Education Society in British Columbia. It is a guide for teens to parental separation and divorce. Written on a teen level it deals with what is happening, changes, emotions, strategies, the law, and frequently asked questions. The website is also available in French.

Within each section, various issues facing teens whose parents are separated or divorced are addressed including:

• What
  • What’s Happening
  • Why It’s Happening
  • It’s Not Your Fault
• Changes
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This article from SafeTeen.org helps teens to understand how they might feel following the divorce of their parents and things they can do to help.  Although brief, this article provides a good overview and some sound suggestions.  The article explains:

Your parents are getting a divorce. Whether this is expected or unexpected, it is a traumatizing and overwhelming event to experience. Sometimes, teens and children feel like they somehow caused the divorce.

It offers the following advice to teens on how to make the divorce easier:

• Be fair to both parents
• Work it out
• Stay in touch
• Don’t worry about the future
• Keep living your life
• Focus on the positive

Although the article does not provide much in depth information or advice, is it a good overview for teens.

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If your parents are separated or divorced, there is a good chance you will experience anger at some point in the process.  There is nothing wrong with being angry.  How we choose to deal with that anger is important.  If we keep it all bottled up inside, we will suffer in the long run.  Or, if we choose inappropriate outlets for our anger, there can be unwanted consequences.

In order to deal with our anger, and important first step is recognizing when we get angry, how angry we get and what we do to express that anger.  That’s why we here I Am A Child of Divorce have developed:

THE ANGER-OMETER

Like a thermometer that measures temperature, you can use the Anger-ometer to measure the level of your anger and your reactions to it.  Use the Anger-ometer for a week to track your anger and look for any patterns.  Have a trusted friend or adult look at the results with you.  Click on the image below for a printable version of the Anger-ometer today.

We made the following video to announce the launch of our I Am A Child of Divorce Teen Support Groups, and we are excited to share it with you!

For more information on our groups, and to register for our upcoming April 2013 group, please visit https://iamachildofdivorce.com/groups/. 

Please feel free to share this video with whoever may benefit from these groups.

Divorce is stressful.  It is stressful for parents, and it is stressful for kids.  One of the best things you can do to reduce stress and other intense emotions (like anger) is to learn some simple activities and breathing techniques.  The website consciousdiscipline.com offers this great resource which includes four simple techniques to help you deal with your high levels of stress and calm down.  Although the “reminder” graphics were developed for kids, these exercises work great for people of any age!

LINK TO RESOURCE PAGE:

http://consciousdiscipline.com/resources/safe_place_breathing_icons.asp

LINK TO PDF FILE:

http://consciousdiscipline.com/downloads/resources/Safe_Place_Breathing_Icons.pdf

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