Who knew? Lance Armstrong and Arthur? Really? It’s brilliant, just brilliant!
The Lance Armstrong Foundation and ARTHUR have collaborated on an clever project to reach children and their grown ups. What better way to start the conversation about cancer than to do it through the story of ARTHUR and his gang? I don’t know about you but in my house, many a library book features ARTHUR.
The episode will air daily this week. There is a fantastic Family Activity Guide that accompanies this project and is available as a free download through the Lance Armstrong Foundation. This guide, “When Someone You Know Has Cancer”, is full of tips and discussion points for families. It also covers the ARTHUR story that is airing this week, featuring the lunch lady, Mrs. MacGrady, and her recent cancer diagnosis. There are tips for parenting through cancer, suggestions for games that facilitate conversation and a discussion about talking with children of different ages. The show introduces ways that children can help someone who is sick, most of which are just great ways to be a friend in general.
But the resources don’t stop there. The Lace Armstrong Foundation has also developed school curriculum to support these conversations in the classroom. What an amazing idea. We know that our schools act as a support network for our children in many different ways and this curriculum will allow teachers to talk with their students about the diagnosis of a child or adult close to them. Please click here to visit The Lance Armstrong Foundation Classroom Resources. I encourage you to also check out the links at the top of that page to see the tremendous resources available to classrooms and to families who would like to introduce these ideas to their schools.
