nside: How to Make a Calming Jar plus 10 more ideas for inspiration!
Making calming jars with kids is fun, but it’s also a useful coping strategy that can help a child calm down and relax.
Have you ever considered sharing a journal with your kids? Sometimes your child may come home and isn’t ready to share about your day. Journaling is an opportunity to see how your child views the world while you’re living the same moments. It can open up opportunities to be empathetic to situations that you weren’t experiencing in the same way. It can create a safe space for questions to be asked, that you weren’t aware that they were worrying about.
In today’s episode:
Where do you begin when you want to teach kids coping skills? Janine has a five step system she uses to help kids learn and use coping strategies, starting with connection, and finishing up with making a personal coping toolkit for kids.
In this episode Janine speaks about:
Sometimes it's some of the simple things in your day to day like a game you like to play that remind you of a few strategies and values in life that are helpful to keep you going.
In this episode, Janine speaks about the game Stardew Valley and the reminders of life lessons that she holds and was reminded of from playing this video game. She speaks about:
In today’s episode:
When you label your feelings, it can help you regulate your emotions better. How do you explore feelings with your child in a fun way? One of the ways to explore this with your child is via reading a story. So why not head to your local library and check out one of the following feeling focused books:
In today’s episode:
Every child needs 3 to 5 people to be part of their orbit to help shape their world and will have a significant influence on them. Whatever role you have, you could be that key person in a teenager’s life to discuss the more stressful moments in their lives. There are signs and symptoms we can look out for in our teenagers. Stress is a normal reaction for anybody in different situations. But what if these reactions are taking over our young people’s lives?
In today’s episode:
It’s starting again, as usual, during homework time. Your daughter is frustrated with her work, and now she’s yelling and crumpling up her papers. Suddenly, she pushes everything from the table onto the floor. You’re feeling overwhelmed and don’t know what to do next. How do you deal with an angry child?
Have you ever been in the midst of experiencing stress and had someone say “just take a deep breath”. Maybe you’ve even said it to your kids. But why does everyone say that? Let me explain why deep breathing is so important.
When you are calm, your body is in what is known as “rest and digest” mode. Your breathing is normal, your muscles are relaxed and your heart rate is normal.
You’re out with your son running errands and you can see his anxiety getting bigger and bigger. You can’t delay these errands, but you’re noticing he looks like he’s about to head into full meltdown mode. And you don’t have his coping skills toolkit with you right now. What can you do? Maybe there’s an app that could help.
Inside: Instructions for making your own feeling faces chart using your own children's faces
Emojis are like a modern day feeling faces charts. When I first started out as a therapist, there was that one particular image of feelings faces that everybody used. Nowadays with emoji's everywhere, there are so many more choices out there for creative feeling faces charts.
Inside: 5 tips for helping kids cope with anxiety, stress and anger in healthy and safe ways.
The phone rings, and your heart stops when you notice the number. You know it’s because your daughter is having a hard time at school again. What could it be this time? A writing assignment she didn’t respond well to? A kid brushed her off?
You take a deep breath and answer the phone.
Inside: A book review of the Happy Kid Handbook by Katie Hurley. It's a wonderful addition to any parent's bookshelf!
Have you ever read a book that you couldn’t put down? That you felt compelled to underline and highlighted and put sticky notes all over? This happened to me when I started reading The Happy Kid Handbook. I got it out of the library and as soon as I started, I knew I needed to get my own copy so I could underline and highlight to my heart’s desire.
Here are a few of the reasons why I enjoyed this book so much and why I find it to be an extremely valuable resource.
Inside: 10+ Strategies you can use today to help an angry child cool down and diffuse anger quickly.
Your son and daughter have been playing together while you get dinner ready.
Your daughter says joyfully “Connect 4!” as she wins the 3rd game in a row. And then it begins. Your son growls, and yells “You’re cheating!” then knocks the game off the table.
Inside: All about fidgets - why they help, who can benefit from using them, and lots of suggested fidgets, both those that you can DIY and those you can buy.
We all know those kids who can’t quite get settled in the classroom. They may have a hard time sitting down to get their homework done. They may be zoning off in the middle of a lesson in school. Or they may look like they are paying attention, but their mind is constantly wandering off. These kids might benefit from a fidget!