10 DYNAMIC WAYS TO LIVE BIG TOGETHER AT HOME OR IN THE CLASSROOM!
Below find incredibly fun, educational, & life skill building tools to LIVE BIG together using Kat’s books & free resources from her website!
1. DREAM BIG! CELEBRATE YOUR DREAMS!
Be the HERO of your story!
Celebrate the divine privilege of being born & dare to share your gifts with the world!
Believe in yourself & your dreams!
Mel Robbins says, “Scientists have crunched the numbers on the odds of you being born, at the time, to the parents, with the D.N.A. structure you have is 1:400,000,000,000…One to four hundred trillion. You are not born fine. You are born fantastic!”
Celebrate the MIRACLE of you and DREAM BIG too!!!
LINKS:
- Make Dream Boards– A daily encourager! Walt Disney says, “First imagine! Second dream! Third, believe. And finally, dare.” If we take time to do what Disney says, who knows what great things we can accomplish!
- Baby Baboon’s Dream– Young kids begin to imagine your dream with Baby Baboon!
- Caterpillar’s Dream– Older kids can begin to formulate their dream with caterpillar!
- The Hero’s Journey– All ages, study & understand what it means to be The Hero of your story!
- Write A Memoir– All ages, esp. older, visualize & internalize your dreams coming true! Write your memoir backward with a detailed account, feelings & all on how you achieved your dreams!
- Make Capes– Go BIG, celebrate, & know you can be The Hero of your story!
- Twinkle Little Star of Dream Big – Sing with the African Children’s Choir, dance, & know when we SMILE BIG in who we are we light up our heart of stars!
- Flamingo’s Celebration Poem – Learn & say with Robert, a Massai Warrior, in Kenya.
- Dream Big Celebration Song – Enjoy & sing with Wilba Amwayi in Kenya & enjoy the animal videos I took on my Me to We Trip.
- The Butterfly Fact Sheet – Claim your wings! Let your life soar!
- The Frog Fact Sheet – Dance & sing as you become your best me!
- The Flamingo Fact Sheet – Feel your beauty within & know you are extraordinary!
- The Baboon Fact Sheet – Choose your moods & celebrate the best you!
- The Termite Fact Sheet – Be the leader you are meant to be, a Queen, a King, a Star!
Also, enjoy A Backyard Reading of Dream Big with Kat & Dream Big’s Dynamic Curriculums! Plus, DREAM BIG is coming to VOOKS soon – a streaming, ad free library of animated picture books that are incredible for reading skills, comprehension, & all around fun. Sign up here.
2. YOU ARE MADE OF A PRICELESS, TIMELESS TREASURE—STARDUST!
Albert Einstein says, “Look deep into nature, and you will understand everything better.”
My favorite natural fact is that we are all made of “star-stuff.” It lives above us, around us, & within us all. It is from the beginning of time with the power to overcome darkness of any kind! Just think about that for a moment. We all have this magic living in our hearts! I play on this fun truth in my books & use our beautiful world as a mirror to show us our lives, our choices, & the ways we relate to one another.
Carl Sagan, a famous scientist, says, “We are made of star-stuff…Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective precious.” We all have a chest full of treasure, a heart full of stars, just waiting to be lit!
So let’s celebrate the miracle of us & the magic of stardust in all of us 🙂
LINKS:
- Star Download- Have fun decorating & celebrating the beauty of stars!
- Hang decorated stars all over your house or classroom to remember – stars continually reflect our smiles to remind us, we are all born extraordinary!
- Attach your star to a pencil or stick. Turn it into a magic wand & practice using The Trilogy’s 3 Powerful Secrets!
- Sing TWINKLE Little Star, dance, & know you have a chest full of treasure, hearts filled with stars, too!
- Star Fact Sheet- Learn that stars are 2 hydrogen atoms fusing to make helium—the star stuff above us in Dream Big, the star stuff around us in Love Big, & the star stuff within us in Think Big—fusing with the stars in our hearts!
- Flashlight fun to learn constellations.
3. THE POWER OF YOUR SMILE—CATCH-M!
S.M.I.L.E.- See Miracles In Life Every day! The miracle is you- YES!
Science says smiles reduce the body’s response to stress, lower heart rates in tense situations, & release neuropeptides, good stuff, in our brain!
The African Animals discover that a SMILE, they call CATCH-M, is how we invite stardust too WHOOSH into our lives & WHAM light the gift of stars in our hearts. WOW! Our beautiful SMILES have the power to light up our life! We can use our SMILES to: 1. Connect us to something bigger as we smile big in who we are & wish upon a star (Dream Big). 2. Connect us to each other as we share big smiles (Love Big). 3. Connect our head & our hearts with big thoughtful, inside SMILES (Think Big). The African Animals use these 3 powerful secrets about our smiles, “Our U-Shaped Bridge,” to connect to their best life! We can too!
LINKS:
- CATCH-M, know & have fun with your smile! Celebrate your smile! Take a moment to smile all the way up from your belly, through your chest, & let it shine from your face who you are! Draw your smile! Put them on paper, shirts, socks, thumbs for thumbs up fun CATCH-Ms, on half a paper plate for silly smiles. The list is endless.
- CATCH-M MURAL is where you put everyone’s smile together on a wall or poster board at home or school to know we are in this together. For more community fun – do sidewalk chalk, hide smiles in the window, send to health care folks with an encouraging note, or your amazing teachers. Also, enjoy CATCH-M ADVENTURES. Travel with your drawn smile, a field trip, dinner, a vacation. Take photos, journal, & note the fun you can have when you share your smiles. Mail your smile. On the backside of CATCH-M, write: What you love about the person! Invite them to take photos with your CATCH-M enjoying their town. Afterwards, see if they want to make your smile a chain letter by adding their CATCH-M. Then mail them both to the next person where someone could end up with 30 smiles in the mail. You can even keep track of all the places your CATCH-M goes & all the friends it gets to meet by putting pens on a map. It’s hard to have a bad day when we focus on smiles 🙂
- Surprise Smile Download- To bring the power of a smile into someone’s day! At home or school – find ways to make each other smile! You can hide smiles, share kindness cards, why you’re grateful for them cards, & more.
- Smile With Your Community – Celebrate your smiles together with an author visit by Kat. Enjoy with your school, at a party, for library fun, or any community event you can dream of! They are fantastic!
- The Star Fact Sheet Remember stars are 2 hydrogen atoms fusing to make helium & our SMILES our how we invite the stars stuff above us (Dream Big), the star stuff around us (Love Big), & the star stuff within us (Think Big) to connect with the stars in our hearts! So get your CATCH-M ready & watch your life shine!!
4. LOVE BIG! EVOLVE INTO YOUR BEST ME & BE PART OF A REVOLUTION!
The good news is we are all in this thing called life together.
So let’s LOVE BIG, EVOL-VE, & start A R-EVOL-UTION! Evolve means to grow, to be set free with LOVE hidden inside the word! Love is also part of the word revolution & how we can start a great one! Revolution is a movement designed to effect fundamental change!
There is an excellent song by Big Sean titled, “One Man Can Change The World!” Let that person be you! Start & be part of a revolution! WE CAN all work together to make the world a better place by sharing BIG SMILES & coming up with ways everyday to LOVE BIG—which fills everyone’s treasure chest!
LINKS:
- Make Rhino Horn Party Hats– Celebrate that KIND IS COOL, a fun way to LOVE BIG!
- Make an A-Point-ed Container – Bring your community together to make a “LOVE CAN” so you can make a POINT to be KIND together. Have a party, fill your LOVE CAN with everyone’s hair to remember the Rhino horn which is made of the same stuff- too weird, no problem, draw your CATCH-M with hair on paper, a rock, or marble. At the party, everyone places their CATCH-M with hair in The LOVE CAN to show their commitment to MAKE A POINT every day to fill their LOVE CAN with their group’s best act of kindness!
- Make capes– Go out like HEROES & change the world! Together be KIND, SHARE, LISTEN, CARE or find new ways to LOVE BIG!
- Coat of Arms Download– A community symbol, you can design together & add to your capes!
- Sing Twinkle Little Star of Love Big – Sing with The Austin Children’s Choir, dance, & know when we share BIG SMILES, everyone’s chest is filled with treasure, everyone’s heart of stars gets lit up!
- Learn The African Animals 4 Fantastic LIFE SKILLS to LOVE BIG—
KIND! Rhino Fact Sheet– They’re born with a rude, bully-bound top lip power- pout hanging out called a Prehensile Lip! But they grow a horn to offset the pout by remembering to make “a point” to be KIND every day!
SHARE! Hare Fact Sheet– Hop, pop, zip, & skip like Hare because she learns how fun it is to SHARE!
LISTEN! Lion Fact Sheet– Become a true leader like Lion, who learns to LISTEN to who he is & to who those around him are too!
CARE! Dung Beetle Fact Sheet– Become a hero! Face your DO-DO Dilemas & make “a point” to DO good with the good you DO have too!
Also, enjoy a reading of LOVE BIG with Kat at Boys & Girls Club & Love’s Big Curriculum.
5. CROWNED FOR GREATNESS—BE THE LEADER YOU WERE BORN TO BE!
Since you are born extraordinary with a chest full of treasure, stardust, we like to say you are royalty! A King! A Queen! A Star! The only you who will ever be with gifts only you can share with the world! So let your life shine, hold your crowned head high, & be the hero of your story too!
LINKS:
- Crown Download– Decorate your crown & celebrate you! Lead your best life too!
- Connect with your Community- Celebrate everyone in your community’s gifts, talents, & dreams. Crown a leader! Circle up at a meal or in class. Everyone shares their favorite thing about the crowned leader. The leader does a show & tell so everyone can listen & learn more about them. Then the leader celebrates with a giveaway. They gift something they cherish to show their willingness to share, sacrifice, & do what’s best for their community.
- The Lion Fact Sheet- Learn to lead from the King of the Jungle who realizes how important it is to listen to who he is & to who those around him are too.
- The Termite Fact Sheet– Learn to lead from a Queen who builds a beautiful castle through community, collaboration, & encouragement.
6. CELEBRATE & STAY TRUE TO YOU! KNOW YOUR MOODS!
Now that you know you are born for GREATNESS. Stay true to you! Learn from Baboon how to keep your moods in check, understand what you do, & how you think so you can live BIG too!
LINKS:
- Learn your moods with Baboon– They can be moody & mean or happy & helpful. Every day we too get to choose our moods like Baboon! Which one would you rather be?
- Baby Baboons Rainbow moods– She learned by watching her dad how to name her moods.
- Make “PomPoms/ Dreamcatchers.” Baby Baboon keeps her mood in check by remembering to celebrate her life with pompoms. At night, she puts them over her bed like a Dreamcatcher. The bad dreams get stuck on the fluff & the good dreams pass through. Note, she also wears a tutu to stay happy & also encourage us to LIVE BIG by saying, “We can too-too!”
- Make You Can Drums. Baboon keeps his moods in check by making & playing Drums.
- You CAN– A fun download where you write about you & your dreams on “cans” to put in your “You Can Drum or Appointed Love Can!”
- Learn the Secrets! Baboon watches the other animals react to fear, pain, & hardship! He helps us see their choices so we can understand how to be our best me too—A great social, emotional resource for any age!
7. DO GOOD WITH THE GOOD YOU DO HAVE & PLAY DUNG BEETLE’S DO-DO GAME!
Some times in life & for sure in quarantine, we DO not know what to DO. Let’s learn from the Dung Beetle, who is born into a real “poopy” situation.
We could say, Dung Beetles have a horrible life since they are born in poop. Gross, I know! But Dung Beetles don’t complain about their “DO-DO Dilemma.” Instead, they DO good & have fun with what they DO have. They celebrate being alive, care about others, & have a blast turning their poop homes into balls which fertilize the land, making food for us all to eat—which is why the people in Africa call them the HEROES of the savannah!
So let’s be HEROES and DO GOOD with what we have too, even a smile will DO!
When life gets hard, practice by playing:
LINKS:
- The Dung Beetle’s Do-Do Game –The game is like “Duck, Duck, Goose” But you play with different key phrases. “Duck” is “You Can”.“Goose” is “Do Good”. Make a circle, someone is it, & let the fun begin!
- The Dung Beetle Fact Sheet- Remember, their choice to DO GOOD is vital to our world’s survival!
- Termite Maze- A download to help us learn to how to get where we want to go when we face hard twists in fate.
- Fill Your Heart With Song– Stay encouraged to DO good too! Write songs. Enjoy the animals’ songs. Circle up, play your drums, & sing together!
…In my life, I have learned the gift of Dung Beetle’s secret. I lost my brother at a young age. Then my sister, my brother-in-law, my mom, & my dad, all at different times & suddenly.
What DO I DO?
After my brother, I watched my parents shut down from the pain? My pain wanted to take control too. It felt like I was thrown into a dark scary room, alone, with no lights! So I tried everything- physical, spiritual, mental & emotional! I studied all kinds of people to see how they dealt with their pain and hardship. I’ve read 100s of books. I’ve watched. I’ve learned.
What DO IDO?
Now, I have kids of my own. How do I rise above, conquer, cherish, & lead them?
My books are the cumulation of all I have learned. They are the books I needed as a girl. They use nature as a teacher! The African Animals as a light. Hopefully, their stories in The Trilogy can be a resource for your family or classroom too!
How great to be able to face all sorts of twists in fate, good & bad, together & CHOOSE TO DO GOOD WITH THE GOOD WE DO HAVE TOO!
8. THINK BIG! GO FOR EXTRAORDINARY & CELEBRATE YOUR BEST ME WITH THE 3G’S!
When we must face hard twists in fate, like COVID, we can THINK BIG together & still go for our best lives! The African Animals show us how to slow down & take thoughtful breathes to connect our head & heart with a BIG INSIDE SMILE! Then work together so that we can celebrate “our best me” by using the 3 G’s: GOALS, GIFTS, and GRATITUDE!
LINKS:
- Goal Sandwich Download– Set GOALS & go for your best life! To experience success on your quest, surround your GOALS with GRATITUDE & GIFTS every day!
- “LOVE CAN“- Or make a 3G Box. Every morning, fill your A-Pointed LOVE CAN or 3G Box with gratitudes & goals. At night, fill it with your best gift you gave or best kind act you made. As you do this daily, you will experience the feeling of success on your goal quest!
- Mythological Fable– Pick your favorite animal or natural fact. Learn all you can. Then create their origin story with a moral take away so we can find more ways to live our best lives together!
- Holi Festival– Come together, celebrate, enjoy color, & living our best lives together no matter what!
- Twinkle Little Star of Think Big – Sing with the African Children’s Choir, dance, & know when we take a deep breath & connect our head to our heart with a BIG INSIDE SMILE we light our heart of stars!
- Giraffe Fact Sheet– BE EXTRAORDINARY! GO FOR YOUR BEST LIFE! Stick your neck out! Set goals!
- Honey Bee Fact Sheet– BE GRATEFUL (great-full)! Be great! Be full of an attitude of gratitude & celebrate being alive with friends & family too!
- Baobab Tree– BE GENEROUS! LIVE TO GIVE & GIVE TO LIVE! To live a long, fruitful life we must celebrate & consider the community around us!
- Kudu Fact Sheet– CELEBRATE YOUR BEST ME! Choose to do good no matter what twists in fate you face!
Also, enjoy a reading of THINK BIG & Think Big’s Curriculum with The 3 G’s, writing exercises, & talking about fire.
9. LIVE BIG! CELEBRATE THE “NO BAD BUTS GAME” & “WORLD SMILE DAY”!
Now that you know you are born extraordinary, with gifts only you can share with the World! Lead & live your best life too! Celebrate you!
Play The “NO BAD BUTS GAME!”
We created this game because we realized the people we call heroes got to their best life by living from their “YES!” From the gift of who they are, no matter what they’ve been through or are going through! One of my hero’s, Victor Frankl, who survived the concentration camp, came out to write a book that has sold millions of copies & was initially titled, “Nevertheless, Say YES to Life.”
Don’t deny your pain or hardship, but live by your YES!
LINKS:
- Play the No Bad But Game to practice living by your YES! It’s like Simon Says, but you use different key phrases: When Simon, the crowned leader, says, “Yes, I can stand.” “Yes, I can clap.” “Yes, I can…” Everyone should follow. When the leader says, “Yeah, but I can stand.” And you follow, you are out. You never follow a BUT!
- World Smile Day– Get together with your community to celebrate the power of your smiles together! It is the first Friday in October! Or any day you choose!
- The Kudu Fact Sheet- Learn from someone, who faced some hard twists in fate, but chose his YES! Note the beautiful, twisting horns he grew to remember how great a YES can be!
10. CELEBRATE FRIENDS, FAMILY, COMMUNITY TOO WITH THE A-BUN-DANCE GAME!
We are not alone! We can bring everything together that we learned from the Baboons in the LIVE BIG TRILOGY, & have an A-BUN-DANCE CELEBRATION! Be like The Honey Bee who have a blast shaking their booties in gratitude for their family, friends, & the gift of being alive. Pull out the pompoms & drums you made, put on headbands or anything grand for a celebration, make drum circles, create beats, & celebrate living BIG together!
Eckart Tolle says, “Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation of all abundance.” So choose abundance, your YES, & have a blast encouraging each other, make up some fun bun-dance moves, shake your booties, & make great memories as you shout out together, “Our lives are full of abundance!”
Then take The ABUNDANCE CHALLENGE! Come up with ways to celebrate the good you do have in your life & ways you can do good too!
LINKS:
- Play the A-BUN-DANCE Game- Put on headbands, anything grand, even a tutu! Sing, dance, & come up with fun ways to shake your booty—a great way to stop any bad day! Helen Keller says, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much!”
- The Honey Bee Fact Sheet- Let’s be like the Honey Bee who communicate with their bum shake so they can fill their home with a sweet treat, honey. Let’s do the same & fill our homes with silly, fun, sweet memories!
- Go to my Sound Cloud Page- Make up your own fun bun-dance with Jack Propst’s song he created for me. Or my new Tik Tok Page too.
- Termite Tricks. Make up your own dynamic ways to encourage others to Live Big too!
