We were sent a great Monkey Wellbeing package full of books, information, stickers and of course Monkey himself! It is such a great idea, little stories that make the terror of going to hospital for operations a little bit exciting. It has helped lots of other parents teach their children that it isn’t that scary. Which I think is brilliant.
It all started with Helen, when her 18 month daughter was due to go into hospital for an operation, she made a book to demonstrate the steps and stages she would have to go through by using a toy monkey. Voila! Helen said that her daughter went down to theatre without a worry, it was a positive and relaxing experience for her daughter. What a great way to encourage your children into something that is scary. The Monkey Wellbeing story started… Its an honest story, realisitic photos and shows actual hospital environments so that children feel the scenes are familiar when they go to hospital.
Isla and Noah love their Monkey puppet and they enjoy reading through the stories too, fortunately we have not had a hospital trip since getting the books but I will definitely be reading them with the children if they ever get one in the future. They are great and I like the chat bubbles over the page, you can really role play out the stories. Since reading these stories to the children it has helped with going to the doctors, as this has been quite frequent over the past month or so. I can tell that it is helping. The real test of course will be if we ever have to go to hospital. Fingers crossed it will just be Monkey!
The books and the puppet are brilliant, the children can really get involved in the stories and it really does give you an idea of what it is like going into hospital, how the little ones will feel and what to expect. For toddlers that are driven by routine, what to expect is a great way to deal with issues such as going to hospital. We also got some wellbeing stickers in our pack, which are for when the children need plasters, go to the doctors or for if they ever go into hospital. Great idea, my children love stickers. You can like Monkey on Facebook: http://facebook.com/ahhapublications and like them on Twitter too: @Monkeywellbeing.
