Everything You Need For A Better Sick Day

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING

YOU NEED FOR A

BETTER SICK DAY

NOTE FROM STARLIGHT

Fun & Happiness For Sick Kids!

Who helps kids forget about being sick? Captain Starlight!

Who makes sick kids laugh when things are tough? Captain Starlight!

Captain Starlight is a superhero of fun who provides a healthy dose of fun and laughter helping sick kids cope when they’re unwell. With Captain Starlight sick kids can simply be kids.

Having fun with Captain Starlight helps sick kids feel happier, more confident and puts them in a better place to deal with the pain and stresses of been unwell.

In this magazine we share some of our favourite activities you can try at home. You can bring Captain Starlight in to your loungeroom with videos, crafts, songs and activities. We have also included some pointers for parents and carers to help cope with the stress of looking after little ones.

We want to help you make sick days a bit better for the whole family!

Good moods all round!

Find out more about Captain Starlight

This magis an in t use azine. eractiv e on y You can our and d c e inte lick vice r can active on the also links .Y and d prin ownlo ou t pa ad ges .

#FUNWITHCAPTAINSTARLIGHT We would love for you to share your adventures with us by tagging #funwithcaptainstarlight

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

Hi, I’m Captain Starlight!

VIDEOS:

Storytime with Captain Starlight click to watch

OH THE PLACES YOU’LL GO!

click to watch

THE STORY OF CINDERELLA WITH A TWIST.

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR KIDS

VIDEOS:

Arty Crafty Tutorial Time click to watch

CRAFT TIME!

click to watch

PAINT A CAT IN A FEW SIMPLE STEPS

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR KIDS

VIDEOS:

Song & Jokes with Captain Starlight click to watch

TIME TO LEARN SOME NEW MATERIAL!

click to watch

MOVE OVER BABY SHARK! LEARN A NEW SONG

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR KIDS

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR PARENTS

ACTIVITY:

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FOR KIDS

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Tin Foil Sculptures You Will Need: •

Tin Foil

•

Scissors

•

A Marker

Instructions: 1. Lay out your tin foil and mark all the body parts like this picture.

2. Cut along each of the lines you just drew.

3. Carefully fold up each section to make your figure’s limbs.

4. Pose your amazing figure!

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Strike a pose!

How will you pose your sculpture?

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR KIDS

ACTIVITY

Art With Captain Starlight DRAWING CHALLENGE Captain Starlight was challenged to close their eyes, not lift the pen and draw a rabbit coming out of a top hat.

What do you think?

Just like Captain Starlight, close your eyes and draw your best rabbit popping out of a top hat.

MAGIC ART Let’s Make Colourful Magic Art You Will Need: • • • • •

Piece of Paper Masking Tape Coloured Crayons Black Texta White Out

1

Mask

PARENT TOOLKIT

2

Colour

3

Peel

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

2

FOR KIDS

Detail

WELLBEING:

Wellbeing Strategies At Starlight everything we do is founded in positive psychology to help all children, no matter what their illness or circumstances, to experience a happy childhood.

Parents need to be happy too! We know from positive psychology there are many evidence based strategies we can draw upon to nurture and support our wellbeing.

Research shows when we are mindful of and prioristise our days so we engage with people, activities, and places that uplift us, we experience greater levels of wellbeing.

Have a look at some of the (many) strategies we can draw upon to support our wellbeing below.

Image by Nickolas Yu Credits: Lyuborisky, 2007; Seligman, 2011; NEF, 2008.

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR PARENTS

WELLBEING:

Wellbeing Strategies

Want to connect to your own wellbeing strategies?

What are my “go-to” strategies for topping up my cup?

When will | practice/prioritise each strategy over the next month? (The more specific you can get here by noting a date/day of the week and time, the better!)

Which strategies will prioritise over the next month to: Feel good?

Do good?

See good?

Making time for these strategies will help you experience positive emotions.

And research shows experiencing frequent positive emotions supports in increasing creativity, resilience, quality connections with others, clarity of thought, positive immune functioning, and psychological growth.

Interested in reading more?

Check out Starlight Ambassador, Dr Suzy Green's, latest article on the importance of positivity here.

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR PARENTS

Drink 2L of water

Eat well

Exercise

Read

Podcast

Breathing Exercise

Wellbeing Drivers

1

2

3 4

5

Rituals Tracker

WELLBEING:

6

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8

Oct

Sept

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

Nov

July

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Dec

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FOR PARENTS

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PARENT TOOLKIT

9 10 11

DAYS

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INTERVIEW:

Dr Claire Treadgold Is happiness proven to help sick kids feel better?

Let’s ask Dr Claire Treadgold Claire is the National Manager of Research and Evaluation at the Starlight Children’s Foundation and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Paediatrics & Child Health at the University of NSW. She’s passionate about the wellbeing of children and young people and finding evidence to prove Happiness Matters!

Q: Claire, can you tell us about your role at Starlight and what you love about your work?

A: At Starlight everything we do is about engaging with children and young people, it’s all child led. We use play to engage and learn from children. I love working with Starlight because I get to use my academic background and actually see it have a genuine impact in the real world.

Q: What can you tell us about the impact of happiness on health outcomes and wellbeing?

A: Researchers from the University of New South Wales spoke to parents about the impact of Starlight in hospital.

It showed us how important it is for parents and families in this situation to have respite from the medical and see their child being a child again.

A lot of parents talked about how Captain Starlight and the Starlight Express Room helped their child engage for the first time, laugh for the first time, connect with other children for the first time after their admission.”

A: If children have a happy childhood, then they often live better lives, longer lives, happier lives, healthier lives. There is collation of evidence to support this, particularly in the field of positive psychology, and we have research from the Telethon Kids Institute that shows what we do here at Starlight is closely aligned with positive psychology principles. We really believe that happiness matters in both the short and long term.

Seeing this, parents, and even hospital staff, felt more comfortable engaging and playing with the children. You can imagine how much this improves a hospital experience for a sick child.

Q: It can be really scary seeing your kid sick, especially if they are in hospital.

What advice can you give to parents in this situation?

A: We actually led research on this, called ‘Listen Carefully.’ It was a massive collaboration between Starlight, universities and academics

PARENT TOOLKIT

Q: That’s amazing. Are there any other ways we can improve experience of being sick or being in hospital for kids?

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR PARENTS

happiness matters

and Children’s Healthcare Australasia.

We found that through the process, all involved acknowledged that they could do more and do better. One of the key findings was that while parents get asked about their children, children themselves were rarely (if ever) asked about their experience.

Starlight is now partnering with Children’s Healthcare Australasia to find ways that children as young as six can have an active role in their hospital experience.”

Captain Starlight is helping us with this research. They are playing with kids and engaging them in games to design their ideal hospital. And from that activity we are finding out what’s important to the children. Is it the food?

Is it a space to play? Is it having mum and dad sleeping next to you? Ideally afterwards there will be a national standard questionnaire kids will get asked when they go to hospital. We believe this will lead to real change for PARENT TOOLKIT

children in hospital, helping them to feel heard.

Q: And do you think parents can use some of these ideas to improve sick days at home with their kids?

A: Absolutely! At the end of the day, it is all about having permission to have fun. Positive distraction makes everyone have a better day when someone is unwell.

Captain Starlight does this all the time with child-led techniques. If they know that a kid loves butterflies, then they will make the activity about that. When you know what is fun for your child, then you can make them feel better though engaging and positively distracting.

It can be as simple as playing word or card games or as elaborate as a detailed craft project depending on their energy.

As parents we know the day goes better when you’re all enjoying it and just a few minutes of taking their mind off what hurts, can help. Despite being unwell children can find joyful moments in positive distraction.

☺

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR PARENTS

RECIPES

Delicious Fun! Check out Pete Campbell on his Instagram at: @my.mate.pete

P

et e

‘SLAM’ COOKIES

20 21

with Peter Campbell

f Ca he c r mp bell, from Maste

I was introduced to this method by a friend while we were living in Los Angeles and it has become an absolute favourite in our home, especially by the kids who seem to find the ‘slam’ particularly entertaining.

The ‘slam’ technique is crucial to make the cookies large, flat and wonderfully rippled* You can add in whatever chocolate bar you like (Mars Bars are our favourite)** The cookies will spread out quite large, so it’s best to work in batches, say 4 cookies at a time and give them plenty of space on the tray.

You can keep the dough covered in the fridge if you’d like to make them over a few days.

Enjoy! * Make sure you protect your bench or surface with a towel before slamming the tray ** Avoid regular baking chocolate as it won’t melt into the dough and help the cookies spread out

RECIPE- Makes 12 Cookies Ingredients 2 cups AP Flour ½ teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 200 g unsalted butter, room temperature 1½ cups caster sugar ¼ cup packed brown sugar 1 large egg 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 tablespoons water Approximately 150g of your favourite chocolate bar, chopped into small pieces (I use 3 x regular Mars Bars, each chopped into 20 small pieces)

PARENT TOOLKIT

EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR PARENTS

RECIPES:

Delicious Fun! - Slam Cookies

Pete’s daughters making slam cookies

Method 1. Chill the chocolate before chopping, then place in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line baking tray with aluminium foil.

3. Combine flour, baking soda & salt in a bowl & mix well 4. Beat the butter, caster sugar & brown sugar until creamy.

5. Add the egg, vanilla, and water and mix until fully combine.

6. Add the flour mixture and mix until fully combined.

7. Add the chopped chocolate and mix evenly into the batter.

8. Form the dough into 12 equal size balls.

9. Place 4 balls an equal distance apart on a prepared pan and place in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking.

10. Place the chilled cookies in the oven and bake 10 minutes, until the cookies are puffed slightly in the centre.

11. Remove tray from the oven and ‘slam’ on a protected flat surface, so the inside falls back down and starts to create ripples.

12. After the cookies puff up again in 2 minutes, repeat the slam.

13. Repeat 2 more times (16 minutes total) until the cookies have spread out, the edges are crispy golden brown but the centre’s are not fully cooked.

14. Transfer the baking sheet to a wire rack, cool completely before removing the cookies.

15. Sprinkle each cookie with a little flaky salt for extra legendary status.

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EVERYTHING YOU NEED FOR A BETTER SICK DAY

FOR PARENTS

I hope you found this useful!

Don’t forget to share your creations with me by tagging #funwithcaptainstarlight

www.starlight.org.au