It all started when my children were showing signs of school anxiety and had difficulty coping with sibling rivalry, i.e. quarrelling and fighting. We had just moved to a new place and our special wall of values at our old house was no longer around. That wall of values had visual reminders that I could point them too whenever we needed to talk about feelings and behaviours. I wasn't prepared to set up a wall like that again so soon in our new house so I was thinking of how to get them to remember important things. Then I remembered that I used to have a reminder bracelet that I bought from a shop, it had a word carved onto it but it was not customised.
So I thought perhaps we can make our own special reminder bracelets and through the process of creating those beads, we can talk about meaningful reminders in our lives. I spent one-on-one time with my daughter to create the bracelets. We were having a very tense relationship - me shouting at her because she was shouting at her younger brother. She created a bracelet to remind her to show love to her brother and I created a bracelet to remind me to take 5 deep breaths when I am angry so that I can speak calmly.
Initially my assumption was that only girls liked bracelets but when my 2 boys saw our bracelets, they wanted to make them too! It was amazing to see their creativity and focus especially my youngest 4-year old in moulding the tiny beads. My 11-year old eldest boy took it one step further and made a bracelet for his dad as a father's day gift. These bracelets can be wonderful reminders for others too, to encourage and inspire.
I also facilitated the activity for mothers at Safe Place and they were so engrossed in making their beads that I told them to continue on making after the session! My daughter then also taught her 2 friends to make these air dry clay bracelets. Air dry clay is a great medium for people of any age who have never tried clay art before or love mess-free projects.
Hence, I put together a Reminder Bracelet Kit for children to create a reminder bracelet and talk about meaningful reminders. Creating a reminder bracelet will help them to make meaning of what has been happening and encourage them. I believe we can use creativity to make meaning of the things that have been happening in our lives. 'Meaning Making' reduces anxiety and builds resilience because it helps us to make sense of what's happening around us.
Also, the kit comes with a VIDEO LESSON! My first ever recording of a video lesson! With the video lesson, parents, caregivers and children, can focus on conversations about the meaningful reminders and make the bracelets together. I think it's so wonderful when we share a safe space together at home to create and talk about things that matter.
The Reminder Bracelet Kit is suitable for children 6 years and above and in particularly tweens will enjoy the process a lot. Each kit contains enough materials for 2 persons. You can purchase it HERE. Happy Creating!