Definition: Coming back after challenges and setbacks. 

Quote: "It's never as bad as it seems. You're much stronger than you think you are. Trust me." - Superman

Strategies:

• Help your child Identify what can and cannot be controlled. Then, help the student focus on what is within one’s control, and set attainable goals. For example, a student probably cannot increase a grade from an “F” to an “A” in the last week of a 9-week term, but the student can meet with the teacher to sign up for tutoring during the next 9 weeks.
• Model how to use positive self-talk when you are facing a challenge. For example, “I got this”, “I can do this”, “I am brave”, “I am strong".
• Help your child develop a sense of belonging within the school community by encouraging participation in school events and extracurricular activities. Bring your child with you to PTSA and SAC meetings.
• With your child, pick a positive word or “feel-good” word that you say to yourself anytime you need support.
• Remind your child that you are available to help problem-solve their challenges.

Discussion Questions:

• What are coping strategies you can use when feeling sad, angry, frustrated, etc.?
• Tell me something that went well today, and tell me something that you want to work on.
• What can you do if you experience or witness cyberbullying?

Definition: Understanding how and why others think, feel, and act.

Quote: “Kindness matters. Being a decent human being matters.” - Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson

Strategies:

• Model listening to the ideas of others without making a quick judgment.
• Help your child listen to people who are sharing their feelings without interrupting, and model the practice for your child.
• Discuss how to show people that you are listening, such as focusing your attention on the other person, nodding your head, and repeating what you heard. 
• Encourage your child to ask questions to learn how others feel and why.
• Consider trying this exercise with your child: Pause, take a deep breath, and “stand in another person’s shoes” to understand how they might feel or think.
• Remind your children that they are loved.

Discussion Questions:

• How do you know if you’ve hurt someone’s feelings?
• What does it mean to put yourself in someone else’s shoes?
• How can you use technology to better understand someone else’s feelings?

Definition: Continuing to try even when things are hard. Strength of courage that involves being hardworking, task-oriented, and undeterred by obstacles. 

Quote: “My wish for the future is to continue to do everything everyone thinks I can’t do.” - Beyonce Knowles

Strategies:

• Try new activities with your child. Model how to work on a skill even when that activity is new and/or challenging. 
• With your child, describe a situation where you struggled yet persevered through hard work. Explain how you persevered and what/who helped you. Think about a time  when you had a struggle and through hard work, you persevered. 
• Remind your child that mistakes are normal; they are opportunities to grow.
• Help your child ask a teacher for feedback on an assignment or test to improve the next graded assignment. 

Discussion Questions: 

• Was there a time when you could have quit something difficult, but kept trying? How did you feel?
• Think about someone who perseveres. How do they overcome obstacles?
• How can you use technology to create positive messages that inspire others to overcome obstacles? 

Definition: Working consistently towards my long-term goals

Quote: “If you put your mind to something, if you give 100 percent, if you sacrifice, and if you dedicate yourself, anything is truly possible.” - Apollo Ohno, Zero Regrets: Be Greater Than Yesterday 

Strategies:

• With your child, create a dream board where you draw or glue pictures of your child’s long-term goals. This can also be a family activity where you post group goals. 
• Explain how you and other family members have reached their goals. Give step-by-step details as they relate to your child. For example, explain how you found your first job to a teen who is looking for work. 
• With your child, research the name and story of a person who showed grit by overcoming difficulties. This could be a historical figure, a celebrity, or even a fictional character.
• Share stories with your child about family members who have shown grit by overcoming challenges.

Discussion Questions:

• What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done, and how did you succeed?
• How can you describe your best future self?
• How can you use technology responsibly to meet your goals? For example, can you use online calendars or reminders to build time management skills?

Definition: Being thankful and sharing it with others. 

Quote: “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them.” - President John F. Kennedy

Strategies:

• Help your child establish a gratitude journal, or create a shared family journal where you keep track of positive thoughts, feelings, and events.
• With your child, sign up for volunteer opportunities with your local schools or in the community. Register with Additions for volunteer opportunities in OCPS.
• Model gratitude by thanking someone every day. 
• Discuss someone you are thankful for every morning before school.
• Help your child write a note, email, or text message to someone they appreciate. 

Discussion Questions:

• Tell me something you are thankful for, and I will share back.
• What's one kind or thoughtful thing someone did for you today?
• How can we use technology including social media to share messages of gratitude?

Definition: Using good judgment, self-control, and owning my actions.

Quote: “Each one of us matters, has a role to play, and makes a difference. Each one of us must take responsibility for our own lives, and above all, show respect and love for living things around us, especially each other.” - Jane Goodall, Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey

Strategies:

• Help your child create a to-do list, or create a family task list together. Discuss how to decide which items are the most important, and list those tasks first.
• Help your child open a bank account to teach them basic money management skills such as the difference between saving and spending.
• Explain your expectations and rules for curfew, bedtime and electronic device usage. Discuss the relationship between responsibility (i.e., following household rules) and household privileges.
• Help your child with time management skills by creating individual and/or family schedules. Reminders can be electronic such as cell phone alerts or on sticky notes, written on the refrigerator, a bulletin board, etc.
• Help your child set a realistic goal and create a step-by-step action plan to achieve it. If a student wants to earn an “A” for a challenging course, an action plan might include adding fifteen minutes of study time per day, going to tutoring once a week, and turning in all assignments on time. Families may also create goals together. 

Discussion Questions:

• How can you take responsibility for your actions, whether those actions cause positive or negative consequences?
• How do you prioritize your daily tasks?
• How can you use technology to promote mental and emotional wellness?

Definition: Gathering information to think through and determine the best choice. 

Quote: “If you want to assert a truth, first make sure it's not just an opinion that you desperately want to be true.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson

Strategies:

• With your child, identify the qualities of someone who is a good critical thinker.
• Help your child organize information for a research project. The project could be personal, such as choosing a new bicycle, or school-related. 
• Help your child predict the consequences of possible choices.

Discussion Questions:

• Who can you ask for help with researching a difficult problem?
• How can you compare different decisions to make the best choice?
• How can you find reliable, truthful sources of information on the internet?
• How does advertising on social media affect the way that you think about health and wellness?

Definition: Coming to a solution by working together. 

Quote: “[O]ne of the really important things for succeeding as an astronaut, as well as in many other roles, is teamwork. [Y]ou're always trying to better your own skills, but also [think] of the overall goal of that group, whether it's human space flight, whether it's a sports team, a music group, or a group that's trying to change laws in this country.” - Ellen Ochoa

Strategies:

• Help your child identify a challenge he or she is facing. Help your child describe the challenge and possible ways to overcome it.
• After your child has identified a challenge, help make a list of possible solutions. 
• Remind your child to follow up with you throughout the problem-solving process.  

Discussion Questions:

• When you solved a problem in the past, did you choose the best solution? How else could you have solved it? 
• Who can you ask for help with solving a problem?
• How can your friends work together to use social media responsibly?

Definition: Thinking about all options and outcomes, then making the best choice.  

Quote: “Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” - John C. Maxwell, Talent is Never Enough Workbook: Art, Imagination and Spirit: A Reflection on Creativity and Faith

Strategies:

• Before your child makes an important or challenging decision, help them make a list of the positive and negative consequences of that choice. Discuss how the decision will affect your child and others.  
• After your child makes a choice, discuss how he or she feels about the decision. Ask, “would you make the same choice again? Why or why not?”
• A helpful acronym is PTA. Before you make a decision, PAUSE, and THINK before you ACT.

Discussion Questions:

• How can you learn from your mistakes? How can you avoid repeating the same mistakes?
• What choices can you make to help reach your goals?
• How can you make responsible decisions online, like reporting cyberbullying? How can you report online harassment or cyberbullying?

Definition: Understanding how and why I think and act, including my impact on others. 

Quote: “Emotional self-awareness is the building block of the next fundamental emotional intelligence: being able to shake off a bad mood.” - Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ

Strategies:

• Ask your child, “How many things can you come up with that you like about yourself?” Discuss the items on the list and how they also benefit others. 
• Talk to and share your thoughts and feelings with safe friends and family members.
• Ask your child to list two strengths and two values. Strengths may include a special skill such as playing a sport or musical instrument. Values are what one finds most important like family, honesty, and kindness. Your family could all create their own lists, then discuss and compare.
• As a family, make a list of things you like to do and how they make you feel.

Discussion Questions:

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?
• What do you wish your friends and family knew about you? Each family member can also answer this question and share out.
• Would I be proud of your actions online? Why or why not?

Definition:  Governing how I think and act, including my impact on others. 

Quote:“When in doubt if an action is good or bad, refrain.” - Voltaire

Strategies:

• Name it to Tame it: Help your child name feelings, and then work on managing them.
• Practice calming strategies together. For example, try this breathing exercise called 4:7:8. 

1. Inhale through your nose to a count of 4.
2. Hold your breath for a count of 7.
3. Exhale through your mouth for a count of 8.
4. Repeat.

• Remind your child that it's okay to disagree with friends. Discuss ways to accept different opinions without arguing or getting angry.

Discussion Questions:

• During times of sadness or stress, what coping strategies can you utilize?
• How can you better manage the amount of time that you are spending on devices?

Definition: Giving or asking for support, guidance, training, or expertise.

Quotes: “A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” - Oprah Winfrey

Strategies: 

• Help your child identify safe adults (for example, a parent, family member, teacher, school counselor, or school staff member) who can help your child with support and guidance.
• Discuss how your child can be a role model to others. 
• Discuss ways that you and your child can help others. These could be small tasks, such as returning a grocery cart from a shop’s parking lot, or larger volunteer projects.

Discussion Questions:

• What advice or guidance could you give younger family members or students in an earlier grade?
• Who is your ideal mentor and why? 
• How can you identify and report cyberbullying and online harassment, whether it happens to you or others? Who can you ask for help with reporting cyberbullying?

Definition:  Making good choices that help my community & nation.  
 
Quote: “Somehow we must be able to show people that democracy is not about words, but action.” - Eleanor Roosevelt

Strategies: 

• Find a community based activity and volunteer to help 
• Research activities that benefit your community and nation
• Choose an activity to help the environment such as recycling or picking up trash.
• Ask to see and monitor your child’s social media apps and discuss how these apps impact the community and people around them.
• Find an opportunity to learn a new skill and help the community.

Discussion Questions:

• What is something you can do to improve our neighborhood?
• What makes a good neighbor?
• What steps can you take to be a positive internet citizen?

Definition:  Telling the truth & being authentic. 

Quote: “A bright future beckons. The onus is on us, through hard work, honesty and integrity, to reach for the stars.” - Nelson Mandela, From Freedom to the Future

Strategies:

• Teach your child about the importance of telling the truth.
• List two ways to rebuild trust after being dishonest.
• Remind your child that your authentic self is the best version of yourself.
• Help your child to pause to think about the consequences before choosing whether or not to tell the truth.

Discussion Questions:

• Should you be honest with people even if it hurts their feelings? Why or why not?
• Are the people that you meet online always honest? How do you know if they are being honest?