With the major upheaval to the education regime, these are strange and bizarre times for your child, and they may be uncertain with the challenges that await them as they return to school.
With their overstimulated minds reeling out of curiosity, trepidation and inquisitiveness, it is important to guide and navigate your child through the new changes coming their way so that they can re-focus their attention on developing the independence and resilience required to overcome academic and life challenges.
As your child learns how to cope with the changes in their academic journey, here are some relaxing activities you can practice at home to channel your child’s focus and relieve stress.
1. Multisensory Delight
Multisensory play encourages your child to train their imagination whilst refining their critical thinking and language skills, and more.
It also allows your child to immerse themselves in the moment of play without giving in too much to external distractions and retain their focus on completing the task at hand.
Engage in a guessing game that grabs your child’s attention as well as curiosity with this tactile play. Compile a group of small objects with various textures and place them in an opaque bag such as a pouch or paper bag.
These objects may include a fluffy toy, leaf, pebble and an eraser. Then have your child reach into the bag and feel an item without removing it from the bag. Encourage them to describe their observations and make an educated guess as to what the object is before taking it out to confirm their answer.
Click here for more multisensory activities that combine play and learning.
2. Breathing Exercise
Maintaining a razor-sharp state of mind and keeping still may be challenging for children.
Taking regular breaks will help, and even more than simply having a snack break, try out breathing exercises with your child to prepare them both mentally and physically for the tasks ahead.
Ask your child to gently create fists with both their hands. As your child take a breath, ask them to unfold a finger each time. For example, have them inhale then slowly open up their left little finger upon taking their first exhale.
Take a pause and enjoy an inhale before they unfurl their next finger whilst exhaling. Continue exhaling, releasing a finger and inhaling until your child has opened both fists. This breathing exercise can help your child regroup and re-energise themselves in a calming manner.
3. Reflective Meditation
Its natural for children to be highly active and energetic. However, their busy minds and bodies need to rest as well to recharge themselves, especially at night.
Help your child have a better sleep by setting a bedtime routine that includes a reflective meditation session so that your child can fall into a deep and restive slumber without any negative emotions or thoughts, and wake up in the morning with a go-getter attitude.
Have your child lie down on their back in bed and as they close their eyes, ask them to pay attention to the feelings in their feet, legs, arms, and hands. Then let them take a deep breath and bring tension into their extremities by flexing all their muscles as hard as they can.
Upon exhaling, ask them to gradually release their muscles and shift their focus from the force in their muscles to their relaxed breathing. Repeat this exercise at least one more time and watch your child drift off calmly to sleep.
Formula for Success
At The Learning Lab, we understand that success takes more than having the right knowledge. In order to achieve, our students are also taught the necessary skills and dispositions to thrive in demanding situations.
Our pedagogy provides your child with a holistic education combining our customised curriculum, highly-trained teachers and conducive learning environments.
We have put together a collection of enjoyable home-based learning resources that include activity sheets, guides, quizzes, science experiment instructions and more that will get your child clamouring for more. Click here to access the full range of TLL's complimentary home-based learning materials.
