Page 3 - Story Summaries

ADVENTURES OF COSMOS CROW Topics of Various Stories
The stories in the Coping Skills’, Adventures of Cosmos Crow address issues that can be problematic for both adults and children. Our stories overlap various topic areas because irrational (Stinky) thinking can cause problems in multiple areas.
Adventures of Cosmos Crow stories are not about “perfect solutions” but rather about helping you and your children understand and develop the skills to deal with an issue across a wide range of situations while dealing with many different types of people. On the next two pages, you will find a brief paragraph outlining our philosophy and strategy in addressing a particular problem area as identified by these school counselors. There are several stories for various ages that have the issue or quality as the major or as a minor theme. Our website’s “Adventure Topics” will give you further guidance.
Bullying/Teasing/Ridicule
The stories of the Coping Skills series are more about teaching you how you handle your thinking and responses to Bullying, Teasing and Ridicule than about “making them stop.” If you are able to use “Good Thinking” taught in these stories, you will have self-control, self-confidence and will not make yourself unduly upset. Your child can understand that it is not “weakness” to ignore the other’s negative behavior and in so doing, the other’s behavior will not accomplish the goal of the perpetrator and the behavior will stop in time. These are skills not just for the eight- year old’s school playground but also for the twenty-eight-year old’s workplace.
Social Skills
There are certain social skills that make it possible for you to be more accepted, more successful and happier throughout your life. These skills are behaviors but they start with learning good “coping self-messages.” These cognitive (thinking) skills do not come naturally to us and some may even be discouraged in some setting or by your children’s peers. These stories will introduce and reinforce concepts that parents and teachers will want to reinforce daily.
Anxiety / Fear
A majority of the school counselors surveyed identified these emotions as significant issues in your children. These stories will help your child develop the ability to recognize their anxiety/fear and determine what they are telling themselves to generate it (typical anxiety and fear responses are cause by the unrealistic, irrational things we are thinking). They can then develop the skills necessary to challenge and change their thinking into something more realistic. Concern will allow you address an issue appropriately but anxiety/fear will activate you “flight reflex”, which unfortunately can become your child’s primary means of coping with life problems.
Self-Acceptance
There is a phase often used when referring to someone who seems happy and satisfied with themselves and their life. They are said to “Happy within their own skin.” This really refers to their “cognitive coping repertory”... the realistic, positive and effective things they tell themselves about themselves, others and life. This may sound complex but in the stories addressing this issue,, your child will learn of one who is, one who isn’t and one who learns to be “Happy within their own skin.” This quality or ability can be learned through the fables’ lessons.