It’s no secret that children usually want to be on the go, go, go! But just like their grown ups, there are times when they need a little help to relax and wind down.
Introducing your small people to relaxation techniques is a useful, lifelong habit that will help them become more resilient and maintain their mental wellbeing.
The following ideas are a great place to start if you’re looking to create chill out time that isn’t about watching the telly.
Relaxation methods
Heartfulness offer audio relaxation exercises for early and primary aged children.
These simple, free, relaxation recordings can be easily downloaded and paused to give longer peaceful spaces.
Move your bodies
Yoga is a great outlet for kid’s physical energy. Cosmic Kids Yoga introduces basic yoga skills alongside fun stories to keep your little ones engaged.
It even offers shortened versions of classic Disney stories to get even the most reluctant mini-yogis excited!
Get outside
Even though they may need a little persuasion to get out of the door in the first place, you can get a challenging day or week back on track simply by getting outside. It’s also the perfect opportunity to talk to your family as it’s often easier to talk if you’re doing another activity.
Hear are 10 ways to get reluctant kids (and grown ups) outside:
- Do a treasure hunt. You don’t have to hide anything - just give them a list of natural things like stone, feathers, leaves and flowers to find
- Fly a kite
- Grab a picnic rug and their favourite indoor toys and head out into the garden or park - puzzles, lego, small world play, painting, play dough and stories all still work outside
- Paint some rocks and hide them for other children to find. You can retrace your steps a few days later to see what has been picked up
- Play hide and seek. As the night draws in grab some torches or fairy lights and take the game out into the garden
- Wash the car. It's extra fun if you 'jet wash' it with water pistols
- Take photos and chat about them when you get home
- See how many shapes they can spot in the clouds.
There’s also some great online resources offering activity ideas to help you and your children learn more about local wildlife and how to look after the world around us, including:
Get creative
Using your brain creatively can give you focus and calm a busy mind, not to mention the sense of achievement that comes with creating something with your hands from simple materials.
Bedtime stories with a twist
PAPYRUS, is a UK charity for the prevention of young suicide. It has launched the Bedtime Stories campaign to help protect children from the nightmare of cyberbullying and harmful online content, by alerting parents and carers to the type of content their children could be accessing online.
Bedtime Stories invites us to cosy up with four famous faces, as they read us a bedtime story - with a twist. These stories - each narrated by a different celebrity - detail the dangers of the online world and online bullying, and act as a reminder to parents and those with young children in their lives, that PAPYRUS is here for them.
Watch actor Michael Sheen read Annabel and the Trolls.