What to Do When You're Feeling Blue

What to Do When You're Feeling Blue

by Andi Cann

About the Book:

Title: What to Do When You're Feeling Blue | Author: Andi Cann | Pages: 35 | Genre: Picture Book

Book Description:

Sometimes kids are happy. Sometimes they are sad. Kids learn in this book that it’s okay, either way!

Your child will learn that sadness happens. Meant to be loved and enjoyed, again and again, this book with colorful pictures and rhymes will help children learn that all feelings are okay and offer ideas about coping with sadness. Children will learn that they have the power to feel better and that happy feelings are just around the corner! Most importantly, children will learn that they are important and loved!

Today, depression is a real problem and is affecting children early in childhood. Teaching your children that changing emotions are a part of life will help create resilience and cope with life’s ups and downs.

Please note: if you suspect your child suffers from depression, please seek help! The National Alliance for Mental Illness can be reached at www.nami.org

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Our Review:

Kids need to know that it's okay not to be happy all the time. This picture book lets children know that it's normal to have days when you are feeling blue and you don't need a reason either. It also gives a variety of ideas of what to do when you're down like read a book or think about things that you enjoy doing like. The unique illustrations inside are colorful and cheerful. It also offers a contact number at the beginning of the book for a loved one battling with depression.

Amanda (age 11) says the book is nice and the art is good for little kids. She likes that the author didn't just say a couple of things that you can do to be happy, but a lot of things. She also likes the rhyming words. Amanda and I both recommend this book for children ages 4 - 7.

Related Review:

The Magic of Friendship Snow

About the Author:

Andi Cann

Andi loves writing books for kids! With two of her own, although they're grown now, she has always been an avid reader and an enthusiastic promoter of early reading!

It all started in Andi's early life in the Midwest part of the United States. Her life was rich with books, reading, and library visits. Nancy Drew was one of her best friends! Mrs. Gladieux, the town librarian, encouraged her love of reading, and allowed her to check out many more books than were allowed! Andi's stories are about children learning to embrace their uniqueness, find friends, or stand up for themselves.

Andi's memorable characters include Mr. Hoopeyloops, Alabama Oh, Jojo, Puddles, Rex, Rory the Elf, and MerryLyn, with many more on the horizon. Click "follow" to be notified when a new book comes out! And, if you liked the books, please leave a review. It helps me and other readers.

Andi lives in Arizona with her husband, a dog named Beau, chickens, and countless free range bunnies. She loves art, animals, and reading good books!

Visit her website!

Disclosure: Amanda and I own this book from Amazon Kindle. This is our honest and voluntary review.

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Father’s Day: In Honor of the Father of Our Children

Tomorrow is Father’s Day. In these last few months that I have been blogging on my own sites and following other mom bloggers, I have come across moms who are happily married and whose husbands take an active role in their children’s lives. This is always wonderful to hear. Sadly, this is not the case for everyone. I’m sure that there are many mom bloggers who will not be making Father’s Day crafts with their children, simply because the fathers of their kids are absent. To these moms and their kids I wish them a creative way to spend the day, so that it’s memorable. And if the dad is absent by choice, God the Father is not.

"If my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up" (Psalm 27 :10 NIV).

Today, I want to honor the father of our children. He often does homework with them in the evenings. Every day he helps with driving them to where they need to be. He’s not an absent father, but a very present one and he enjoys being around his kids.

Here is an entry from my journal dated July 14, 2011: Robbie said with a heavy voice, “Today was one of my toughest days.” And then he added in a lighter tone, “But I enjoyed Amanda!”

The funny thing about that entry is that it is the only one in my nice, hard-cover journal. Yep, it’s blank inside except for that one! Writers should keep journals, but I haven’t in years. I would say that this blog is my new journal.

He has a blog called Real Church Life (church beyond the four walls). I came on board and share the site with him, but it’s where he does most of his writing. Today I chose “Do What You Can Do” as a post by him to recommend to my readers. It’s a quick read on the topic of Bible study with a link to his Bible Coaching web site.

Related posts:

• More than a Prince
• Happily Ever After

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Never Underestimate Your Kids

Amanda and her big brother, Jeremiah, have a special bond. When we first shared our news with the kids that I was pregnant with our fourth child, Jeremiah was so thrilled that he ran to tell his friends who lived nearby. To be honest, I wasn’t sure how the kids would react to the news and so I was a little surprised that he was so excited.

Yesterday, Amanda told me about a conversation that her brother had with her. She told me that he had said how adorable and precious she was. She then told him how special he was to her. As she was telling me this, I could see that it touched her deeply. Amanda finished off by saying, “It was so sad.”

I asked her, “Don’t you mean ‘so sweet?’”

“No, Mom. It was sad. You can be happy and sad at the same time.”

Her choice of words was unusual, but I realized that she was speaking about something touching her so deeply that it almost hurt. I had explained to her before in movies why some people cry when they’re very happy. Later I told Jeremiah the odd thing she had said and he replied, “She’s a philosopher.”

Never underestimate your kids’ abilities to understand and reason no matter how young they are. I think adults in general are too quick to brush kids aside thinking they are too young to say anything of value and therefore don’t need to be heard. I have known my kids to say profound things at just the right moments.

I recommend you read (if you haven’t already), “Out of the Mouths of Babes.”

I took the above photo of Jeremiah with his baby sister, Amanda, in 2008.

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