Thursday, October 1, 2026
A junior at John F. Kennedy High School is turning personal hardship into a resource she hopes will help children navigating divorce and life between two homes feel less alone.
At 17 years old, Sophia Rose Lancer recently published “The Road Between Two Homes: A Workbook for Kids When Their Family Changes,” an interactive workbook designed to help children process family separation through guided reflection, emotional support and practical tools.
The workbook, which Sophia began writing at 16 and published roughly two months ago, was inspired by her own experience growing up between two households following what her mother described as a difficult divorce and custody battle.
“We always say kids are resilient, but we don’t always stop to think about what they’re really feeling,” said Sophia’s mother, Dena Shemtov Lancer. “When families are going through divorce, especially difficult divorces, parents can become so consumed by everything happening that they forget to ask their children, ‘Are you okay?’”
Originally from Oceanside, the family moved to Bellmore about six years ago. Sophia attended Shore Road School and Winthrop Avenue School before enrolling at Kennedy High School.
Sophia said the idea for the workbook came during the beginning of her junior year while brainstorming projects that connected to her own life experiences.
“I came across a workbook for kids of divorced parents, because I’ve obviously been through that, so I wanted to share that experience with other people,” Sophia said.
Before creating the workbook, Sophia conducted a SurveyMonkey questionnaire that received responses from roughly 50 children and adults who experienced divorce or family separation. Their responses helped shape the workbook’s content alongside Sophia’s own experiences.
The workbook includes reflection prompts, emotional check-ins, stories from other children, notes from Sophia and practical tools such as packing lists for “switch days,” when children move between households.
Dena said those transitions were a major source of anxiety for Sophia growing up.
“She would get so anxious of, ‘What do I bring? What do I pack?’” Dena said. “So she created checklists for the kids to have in the workbook.”
Sophia acknowledged that revisiting those experiences while writing the workbook was emotional at times.
“Obviously they sparked a lot of emotions when I was trying to come up with them,” she said of the workbook prompts and questions. “But I really wanted to help other people, so I just kept the vision of that goal.”
Sophia hopes the workbook can help children identify feelings they may struggle to express while also serving as a tool for parents, counselors, psychologists and social workers to begin difficult conversations.
“Our message is more about it’s okay not to be okay,” Dena said.
The workbook has also earned the backing of Dr. Robert Goldman, a local psychologist and attorney, who plans to pilot the workbook this summer through the Institute of Psychological Resilience with children navigating family transitions. Sophia will also work with Goldman’s practice this summer, applying her interest in child psychology in a clinical setting.
“Sophia has created something genuinely useful,” Goldman said. “This workbook addresses a real need in child psychology — and it does so with empathy and intelligence.”
Sophia said she hopes to continue expanding the project in the future.
“I was thinking of expanding on it for resilience — what comes after going through all those emotions, and then how to overcome it,” she said.
Sophia said she hopes children currently experiencing divorce understand that their circumstances do not define them.
Sophia’s workbook is currently available on Amazon.
