"Fishful Thinking" Thursday - Happiness Scavenger Hunt!

YAY! It's "Fishful Thinking" Thursday!

And if you read my post last week, you know what that means...

Time to DIVE IN and try out one of the activities listed on the Fishful Thinking website which is full of activities, helpful articles, and even videos to help parents promote optimism, empowerment, emotional awareness, goal setting, and resilience in our kids!

Being that this is my very first "Fishful Thinking" Thursday, I decided to focus on the FIRST of the five KEY ingredients - OPTIMISM!

Children who are Optimistic:

• Have greater motivation, greater resilience, more positive moods, higher achievement and a greater sense of control
• Perform better in school
• Have better overall physical health
• Have better relationships
  

(Get more Optimism facts by clicking here!)

What more could you want for your kids...and for yourself?

Keeping that in mind, I thought it would be fun to go on a Happiness Scavenger Hunt!

Activity description:
*Create a list of simple items or experiences that make you and your child laugh, smile, or that bring a sense of pleasure (petting a puppy, watching ants march in a line, swinging, etc.). Devote 30 to 60 minutes to a happiness scavenger hunt where you try to find/do several things on the list. You and your child can draw happy faces next to the items on the list to show how happy they felt when doing each.

Modification idea: Even if you can't squeeze in a half an hour to complete the scavenger hunt all in one sitting, just make the list together, put it on the refrigerator, and then set a goal to do a few of the things on the list over the next couple of days.

Whatever you chose to do, even if it is a different Fishful Thinking activity, I'd love for you to please come back here, leave a comment about how it went, and share your thoughts and ideas. And, of course, if YOU decide to write a Fishful Thinking post, copy the link into your comment so we can stop by and read all about it.

Here are a few things that made our Happiness Scavenger Hunt List:
Playing basketball (Noah)
Playing with Barbies (Abby)
Camping with the family (Dad)

in the great outdoors

OR
the in the living room

Listening to music (Mom)
Telling knock knock jokes (Noah)
Writing letter and shapes in my diary (Abby)
Dancing (Mom and Abby)
Hitting golf balls (Noah and Dad and Abby)
In the thirty minutes we had before bedtime last night, we were actually able to do quite a few of the things on our list. Pat and the kids played a little game of indoor basketball. Noah told us a knock knock joke. We ate a treat (one of my favorite things to do!). Abby danced around for us. I read the kids a bedtime story. We gave hugs and kisses, and then sang songs like we always do before the kids go to sleep.

Even this morning, I thought of a few more things to add to the list. I'm going to post it on the refrigerator and see how many more we can check off over the next few days.

The cool thing I discovered during this activity is that we already do a lot of the things on the list without even thinking about it. Hugs, stories, dancing, telling jokes...just little things that make us smile. And it's nice to know that bigger efforts are appreciated too like making a tent in the living room or taking a trip to the botanical gardens.

There really is a lot in this life to smile about.