Social Emotional Wellbeing #LearningAtHome Challenge
13 days of fun play-based activities to help children learn social emotional development, decrease stress and anxiety
- Available in:
- English
- Македонски
As a parent, you may feel stressed, worried, frustrated, confused, and disconnected from your usual sources of support. Your children most likely have similar feelings, although they may show them differently. It is important to remember that children look to adults for guidance on how to react to stressful events. Talking with children about their emotions, fears, doing relaxation activities with them, teaching them helpful coping strategies, and giving them a sense of comfort can help reduce anxiety. The following simple parenting tips, along with specific activities and games might help you calm down your children, learn how to manage their feelings, and help them feel more secure.
Most activities can be enjoyed with children from age 2 to 6 years, although some are more suited to the older children as well. We hope that both you and your children will benefit. Children will have ways to receive comfort, express their feelings, strengthen their connections with you and others who are physically distant. Children will learn age-appropriate ways of coping with what can feel like an overwhelming situation. Engaging in some of the suggested activities will help them to continue learning and developing healthy adaptations to the world around them.
Take the challenges and share your content on social media using hashtags #LearningAtHome #УчимеДома
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Day 1 Challenge: Puppet Play
Pretend play and acting out stories help children express emotions, they learn self-control, relaxation, and imagination all at once. Have your child perform a puppet show with their toys or cut out drawings.
Puppet play is a great way to get into a child’s imagination and learn about how they are feeling. Encourage your child to develop their own play; help them set up a space where they can perform, it can be as simple as hiding behind the couch or a cardboard cutout theatre; agree on the time the performance and be ready to be the audience. Use the time to reach out to grandparents and if possible, connect with them online so that they can watch as well. After the play talk to your child about the characters and how they are feeling; give the child reassurance that things will be back to normal.
Day 2 Challenge: Gratitude Journal
As a parent you can help children notice and seek out the positive things happening around them and expressing gratitude. Studies show that practicing gratitude makes you happier. Daily gratitude journaling is a writing opportunity that also helps children academically with handwriting, spelling, and sentence structure.
You can create a gratitude journal together with your children. For this you will need couple of blank sheets of paper or an empty workbook and color pencils. You can leave sections for your children to write or draw about their positive experiences. Here are a few prompts to help children phrase their grateful thoughts.
- I’m grateful for...
- I was kind to ...
- This was the best part of my day...
- Something that I laugh a lot...
In the video you can see an example of a homemade gratitude journal.
Day 3 Challenge: #ShareCare
Positivity is contagious. Positive thinking and spreading positivity are great ways to teach children how to help others and keep themselves positive.
Get your children to start a #ShareCare initiative for people they care about. Have them paint positive messages and images on rocks or other random objects they have at home, even on a card. Take a picture and send a photo to the person they care about with a message that their special gift will be shared when they next get to meet them in person.
Day 4 Challenge: Mood Meter
Recognizing children’s emotions and developing strategies for regulating those emotions has positive effects on children’s wellbeing.
The “Mood Meter” tool encourages family members to discuss their feelings by using the colors of the Mood Meter. For example, you could say: “It seems you’re in the red and you want to feel more “green” is there something I can do to help?”
RED feelings: high in energy and low in pleasantness (e.g., angry, scared, and anxious);
BLUE feelings: low in energy and low in pleasantness (e.g., sad, disappointed, and lonely);
GREEN feelings: low in energy and high in pleasantness (e.g., calm, tranquil, and relaxed);
YELLOW feelings: high in energy and high in pleasantness (e.g., happy, excited, and curious).
This is just one of the activities that children are learning about as part of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, UNICEF and the United Kingdom Government supported initiative to teach socio-emotional skills in pre-schools.
Day 5 Challenge: Sensory bottles
Here is something that can help your children focus their mind and reduce the brain chatter. Sensory bottle is simple but very playful technique to help children learn focusing skills, calm down and regulate emotions.
To build the bottles with the glitter, see ides in the video provided. You can explain your child that sometimes our minds are full of thoughts, swirling around like the glitter in the bottle. Sometimes, we experience angry thoughts. Sometimes sad thoughts. Tell them that it’s okay to have strong feelings but that we can calm those thoughts and our bodies as well. One way to do this is to let your thoughts settle like the glitter in the bottle.
This is just one of the activities that children are learning about as part of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, UNICEF and the United Kingdom Government supported initiative to teach socio-emotional skills in pre-schools.
Day 6 Challenge: Belly Breathing with Stuffed Animals
Does your child have a favorite stuffed animal? This game is one of the best ways to help children lower their stress levels. And try it with them!
Let your child lie on his or her back and put a stuffed animal on belly. Have them breathe in and move the stuffed animal up, then breathe out and bring the stuffed animal back down. This helps teach children to use their belly to take big deep breaths.
This is just one of the activities that children are learning about as part of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, UNICEF and the United Kingdom Government supported initiative to teach socio-emotional skills in pre-schools.
Day 7 Challenge: A Quiet, Calming Place
In confusing, stressful times, having a private space can be incredibly calming. Make one for your child, and find your own, even for a few minutes.
This does not need to be elaborate. Even a blanket over a couple of chairs can work to block out overstimulating sights and sounds for a while. Let your child help. Pile in some cozy pillows, favorite stuffed animals, maybe a favorite book, and other calming tools to make it the ultimate relaxation spot. Perhaps add some calming music?
Day 8 Challenge: Flower and Candle Breathing
Breathing slowly is a great help when children (or you) are anxious, angry, or stressed.
A simple activity is to tell children to breathe in like they are smelling a flower and breathe out like they are blowing out birthday candles. Demonstrate for them (may be hard for the youngest—try another activity perhaps).
There are many ways to talk with your children about deep breathing. More example here https://copingskillsforkids.com/deep-breathing-exercises-for-kids/
Day 9 Challenge: Write a message to your teacher or someone else you miss
It’s easier to manage feelings when they’re expressed in words or creative media. Here’s an activity to help your child, and it’s something you can enjoy together. Use “feeling words” as you talk to your child.
Depending on the child’s age, suggest “Let’s write a post card message to Grandma and tell her about what we did this morning. Then we can send it to her (or read it to her over the phone).” The child can dictate, and you write down
With older children who know how to write, you might ask, “Why don’t you write a post-card message about what happened today?” (with younger children, write what they tell you and perhaps help them draw a picture)
Challenge 10: Organize an online kids party
With the need for social distancing many kids celebrating birthdays have missed out on their usually parties. Keep relationships alive! Help organize an online party for kids to celebrate all the missed birthday parties or even the ones coming up. Bake a cake and have all the kids blow out the candles together.
Reach out to your kid’s friends’ parents and organize that all kids have the same material ready to play party games and a cake to blow out candles. Organize games such as freeze dancing - the online host can play music for kids. Karaoke with songs from YouTube and charades are other great game to play online with friends. Get creative with you children and think of how to adapt the games they usually play.
Challenge 11: Origami Challenge
Origami is both fun and creative and provides both mental and physical stimulus with exercise. Making origami can help your children develop hand-eye coordination, fine motor skills and mental concentration.
Origami is accessible anywhere, anytime, for anyone with just a sheet of paper. Children can easily become fascinated with it as you can create millions of 3D forms from a flat piece of paper. You can make animals, decorations, and plants.
Challenge 12: Healthy Body Healty Mind
If you’ve every cooked you know cooking is an act of patience, concentration, an outlet to express love and creativity. All the things that can contribute to maintaining a healthy mind.
Cooking with kids can help develop a happy, adventurous eater with some pretty valuable life skills and plenty of happy memories in the kitchen.
Whether you use ready or inventing your own recipes make them fun. This will keep both kids’ hands and brains busy. Its also a fun way to learn math’s – for example explain half cup of peas and half a cup of corn = one cup of healthy vegies.
When cooking nutritious food that will support their growth and development, you not only building healthy eating habits you are building healthy minds.
Challenge 13: Photo and Video Memories
You, with your children, may feel less stress if you spend some time reliving memories of other times and places. Get out your photo albums or phone and get started!
Spend relaxing family time looking together at old photos and videos. Talk about who is in them, what everyone was doing, and anything else that brings smiles. Even 2-year-olds can point and name!
Some of these may be shared with family or friends who are in other places, through digital tools (Viber, WhatsApp, Skype, Duo, Zoom or other means.)