Hively Provider Book Club

Wednesday, 27 July 2022

Hively offers regular workshops, classes, and training to help child care providers develop their skills as small business owners, child development experts, and compassionate caregivers.

This includes Hively’s Childcare Provider Book Club! Every Wednesday from 1:00-1:30pm, Hively has a guest reader who reads a children’s book to a group of child care providers and we discuss the book together. Providers discuss their thoughts, how they can implement the book into their centers, and what they can teach their children in connection with each book.

Hosted by our Training and Inclusion Coordinator, Hively’s Childcare Provider Book Club introduces a range of diverse topics including inclusion, emotions, representation, disability, meditation/mindfulness and more!

At the end of the month, Hively provides childcare providers with a copy of their favorite children’s book to help providers build their children’s library while also providing them with the tools to implement the book into their child care program.

This week Casandra Madrigal, Hively’s Community Services Coordinator, read Stay Positive! A Book About Optimism by Cheri J. Meiners. “This friendly, encouraging book introduces preschool and primary-age children to ways of thinking and acting that will help them feel good about themselves and their lives.

Children discover that they can enjoy the world around them, appreciate family and friends, try new activities, stay on course when things don’t go their way- and help other people feel happy, too.”

Key takeaways from our Provider Book Club discussion included the following:

• The book focuses on finding positivity with the experiences around us (e.g., sharing happiness with others, fresh air, different seasons, saying thank you, etc…).
• “Things won’t always go the way I want, but I can keep trying”- this phrase in the book teaches kids that sometimes unexpected things happen but our perspective can change the way we feel about these experiences.
• Similarly, we can teach children to reframe negative experiences into positive ones.
• The book emphasizes how helping others can not only make those around us feel happy but we can also feel happy.
• This is a great book to teach kids that being optimistic, being hopeful and confident for the future, can help them work towards goals they set for themselves.
• It’s important to mention to children that being positive is important, but this does not mean that there is something wrong with other emotions. Rather, the book explains that children can “choose to be positive and happy, and expect the best.” In this sense, it teaches kids they can control how they view and react to different situations.
• We often see the phrase “stay positive” and this can sometimes disregard other emotions a child may experience. In this sense, this can be seen as toxic positivity, where children are taught to stay positive without experiencing their other emotions. We can help children feel positive and also encourage them to work through other emotions by explaining that optimism allows them to experience both the good and the bad of an experience.

The video provided below provides a further in depth explanation of optimism vs. toxic positivity.

In addition to these key takeaways, at the end of the book, there is “a special section for adults with discussion questions, activities, games, and tips that reinforce the lessons from the book.”

Check out a read aloud of the book below:

The activity sheets provided here can also be used along with the book to further discuss, teach, and reward kids when learning about and showing optimism:

• Character Traits: Optimism Worksheet
• Optimism Task Cards Worksheet
• Optimism Award

If you are a childcare provider in the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Sunol) and would like to join Hively’s Provider Book Club, please contact hello@behively.org for further information.

About the Author:

Hello, my name is Karely! I am the Training and Inclusion Coordinator at Hively. One of my roles at Hively includes facilitating and sharing resources for Hively’s Provider Book Club.

In addition to the Provider Book Club, I help and support childcare providers in the Tri-Valley (Pleasanton, Dublin, Livermore, Sunol) with inclusion services for their child care programs.

If you are a childcare provider in the Tri-Valley and are interested in inclusion services for your childcare program and/or you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to hello@behively.org Thank you!