A magical way to inspire you're kids to be kind, empathetic and have self-belief.
My son is standing in the kitchen whilst I get lunch ready. His legs apart in a karate stance, big water bottle held up in front of him shaking from left to right like something out of Scarface.
He’s laughing. I’m panicking.
Is this normal? Where did I go wrong? Where did he learn this behaviour from? I’m pretty sure I haven’t watched any films like Rambo recently that he might have accidentally overseen and we definitely don’t go around shaking water bottles like guns.
I rack my brains.
Then I realise he’s been watching PJ Masks and Power Rangers. These programmes are innocent enough but then it dawns on me that it’s probably his main exposure to heros and villains and he’s playing it out in real life. I promise myself I will steer him more towards wanting to be Catboy instead of Romeo but it also reinforces in me the need to reframe technology. That I need to encourage my boys to consume content that will help build positive values such as kindness, empathy and self-belief and hope that they put these into practise instead!
I do a fair amount of searching for content (films, apps, books…) for my boys to consume that will reinforce these positive values and I recently came across a 3D short animated film called Soar.
Fundamentally the film is about empathy and kindness – about putting other peoples needs before our own. When I watched it I was inspired – not just by the film itself, which is beautiful, magical and all about flying (always a winner with the boys) and is combined with an exciting live musician score. I was also inspired because it was made by a student at the Academy of Art University, made by raising money through a campaign on IndieGogo and it then went on to win numerous awards around the world. It gave me a great story to tell the boys about self-belief, working well with others, and achieving anything you want to - Two birds with one stone and all that :)
Simply click on the picture below to watch the film and read all about how it was made. I hope you all love it as much as we did. Enjoy!
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