When children return to school after the holidays, the playground is often abuzz with stories about road trips to visit grandparents, movies with friends, hanging out at the pool, bike rides, camping with family, conquering of computer games, shopping trips, BBQs or just mooching …Read more
Maybe not in the wilds of nature, but in the wild world of our feelings many unexpected things can go together. Look inside on any typical day and you may notice a swirling mix of emotions and body signals. The limitations of language mean …Read more
Given that both trauma and learning difficulties can have significant impacts on a child’s outcomes in later life, it is important to know how to recognise them in order to provide appropriate support. What we often don’t talk about is that trauma and learning …Read more
Despite kids having access to loads of apps and digital games, they still seem to love stickers. Stickers are fun, versatile and tactile. They are also portable so you can take them anywhere, making them easy to whip out to do a quick activity …Read more
Over the hols, we spent some time with author of the Tell A Trusted Adult cards, Sharon Hynes (pictured on right), talking about the evolution of the cards and how she and Katerina Meda, the illustrator (pictured on left), came to be working together. …Read more
In this interview, Kelly Harris, one of the team leaders in Home Based Care at Anglicare Victoria (Australia) talks about the ups and downs of recruiting carers. She also describes the many changes to Home Based Care services in the last 15 years. Increase …Read more
It can be tempting to think that education begins when kids go to school, but in fact it is through play at home in the early years that the very foundations of life-long learning are laid. This is one of the foundations of the …Read more
Lillian Daley, a Grade 6 teacher in Darwin—the capital city of Australia’s Northern Territory—writes about the power of vulnerability and trust in the classroom. I first came across Innovative Resources when I was a pre-service teacher completing a placement at a school for disengaged …Read more
Thinking of ourselves as a car can be a very useful thing to do. Clean and green with zero emissions, of course. Or maybe not. Depends on the fuel you are putting in your tank, the junk in the trunk, the road you take …Read more
My name is Monique Beglinger and I am a psychologist based in Sydney, Australia. I currently work in two primary schools and one high school across Western Sydney. Prior to this I worked in child protection, out-of-home care, intensive family support, disability support and …Read more
You could say that social and emotional literacy is the heroic journey from the amygdala to the frontal lobe. A very short distance when measured in terms of the physical brain but a life-long journey in terms of developing impulse control, building respectful relationships, …Read more
As a child, did you ever pick up a stone, rub your wet thumb over its surface to reveal the colours, feel the satisfying heft and shape of it in your palm, and then carry it around in your pocket? Before long, you …Read more
Family violence is a serious yet often hidden crime. It is a fundamental violation of human rights and is unacceptable in any form, any community, or any culture. Led by the efforts of specialist services and people, primarily women, speaking out courageously about their …Read more
‘While our so-called “panic hormones” are part of our self-defence mechanism and are therefore to be celebrated, a few skills to “unpanic ourselves” and decompress are also crucial to have in our bag of tricks.’ When you think of a meerkat, what image comes …Read more
You’ve probably heard of fight, flight or freeze—the brain’s primal response to threat that floods our system with a cocktail of chemicals to help us react and keep safe. More recently ‘flop’ and ‘be-friend’ have been added to this list. Now, that’s a tidy …Read more
Our body signals are the gateway to recognising, interpreting and managing our feelings. That is why Body Intelligence (BQ) is such a fundamental aspect of developing Emotional Intelligence (EQ). There are times when each of us, no matter how skilled we may be, has …Read more
For many of us, anxiety sucks. It feels unpleasant, it’s uneasy, uncomfortable and sometimes scary. It comes in so many different forms and no two people will experience it in the same way. Sometimes, it comes in different forms, at different times, and in different situations, for …Read more
Our body communicates its wisdom to us long before our conscious mind can get a word in. That’s why body signals are sometimes called our ‘early warning signs’, and they are an important key to staying safe, and building social and emotional wellbeing. How …Read more
The stories of how people use materials developed by Innovative Resources never fail to inspire us with their practice wisdom. We received the following stories about using Shadows and Deeper Shadows in family violence situations: From Lili ‘I like Shadows and Deeper Shadows because …Read more
Only under certain circumstances does Innovative Resources permit the reproduction of images from our card sets like those displayed in the picture book, Smarty Pants, Kitty or Tiger? Nicole Rotaru from McAuley Community Services for Women approached us and explained the amazing work …Read more
