New Resources - Friday March 27

New Resources

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is doing well and adjusting to our temporary new normal. We are continuing to add some new posts to assist you during these strange times. We will be trying to post new resources on a weekly basis.

Included on this post are some additional resources: one for parents and two for your child.

Parents

This resource comes from the Child Mind Institute, a non-profit which provides resources for parents on various topics, such as anxiety, anger, and behavior. Currently, there are many resources and videos for parents on supporting children, teens and parents regarding COVID-19.


Children

Mindful Schools is offering free live streaming mindfulness classes. Go here to learn more.  Mrs. MacKinnon and I took online classes here when we started teaching mindfulness in the classrooms at Nab.

Another great resource is from Centervention.  This website contains free activities that you can complete using material that you already have at home. The games revolve around various social-emotional topics, such as identifying feelings, impulse control, anxiety, among others.  One example is the Music Freeze game. In this game, kids dance until the music stops and can only move when the music starts up again. Post-activity discussion questions are also given.

We hope you find these resources helpful to you and your family.

Be well,

Mrs. Reynolds & Mrs. MacKinnon

Thinking of you!

Hi Everyone! We have been thinking of you so much and for now we will be using our blog as a means to connect with you. We thought it would be a fun and hopefully useful idea to share a few resources once or twice a week. If you check back weekly you will be able to follow along with our ideas. Stay tuned for another post this Friday.

Our first resource is this fabulous poster from one of our favorite sites on Pinterest called WholeHearted School Counseling

Daily Yoga activities (great for all of us!!)

Lisa Flynn, the founder and CEO of Yoga 4 Classrooms, has made a very generous offer to help support us during this most trying time. She has offered a Mindful Activity of the Day option free of charge to help keep us grounded and healthy. Her only request is that she is properly credited with the material.

Here are the links for the activities shared so far:

Day 5: Balloon Breath

Day 4: Special Place Meditation

Day 3: Washing Machine

Day 2: Mandala Meditations

Day 1: Mountain

Take care,

Mrs. MacKinnon and Mrs. Reynolds

Check this out!

Hello Nabnasset families,

We have one more resource idea to help you navigate these anxious times right now. This resource is available through Facebook, but I believe this will become a podcast very soon. Find Lynn Lyons on Facebook - she has had 2 live conversations with parents (on Facebook) about how to help their children manage their anxiety/worries right now. Below is a link to a Facebook podcast group that you should be able to join. As soon as I find out that the podcast is available we will post that link as well.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/momsretreatpodcast/?tn-str=*F

Take care,

We are thinking of all of you!

It takes a village

Good morning Nabnasset Families,

We hope everyone is faring well during this challenging time. We hope that sharing some information and websites will be helpful as we all band together (tough to do when social distancing in the expectation!) to provide whatever support we can! We hope you take some comfort in knowing that we are all weathering this very difficult situation together.

As you may know, how children deal with any unexpected change in their routine depends on how their caregivers manage it.  To all of our adult caregivers, Please remember to take care of yourselves! Easier said than done, we know, because we all tend to put our children and families first. Common Sense Media posted helpful information that you may wish to access to help support you in your efforts to support you and your family’s ability to weather this most recent storm.

PBS has a wonderful website that you may find helpful, particularly if you have younger children. Brainpop.org is another resource that is geared towards slightly older children. Additionally, kidshealth.org has information for explaining the virus to your children and hopefully making it seem less scary.

Below is some additional information that may be helpful to review to support you in your conversations with your children:

Talking to Children About COVID-19: A Parent Resource 

How to Talk to Children about the Coronavirus

Don't forget to check out our other blog posts in which we have shared mindfulness activities, coping strategies, zones of regulation information and links on the left side of our blog to some wonderful resources.

We look forward to being able to return to our daily routines and seeing all of our Nabnasset friends again. In the meantime, stay strong and know nothing lasts forever, even though it may feel like it in any given moment. This too, shall pass.

Take care,
Melissa Reynolds
Elizabeth MacKinnon

Starting a Gratitude Practice

During this busy time of year we hope that you can take a few moments each day to practice gratitude. Below are some of suggestions and a few videos that may inspire you to begin or continue this important practice.

2 short videos on taking a moment to feel grateful and make today a little brighter!

https://app.gonoodle.com/activities/be-grateful

https://app.gonoodle.com/activities/celebrate-the-new-day

Here’s a link to ideas on how to start your own gratitude practice:   https://leftbrainbuddha.com/start-gratitude-practice/

Below are some ways to practice Gratitude with your children:

• Children can use a notebook or a folder and paper to make a Gratitude Journal.
• Practice gratitude journaling at a regular time each day, or a few times a week.
• Take five minutes to think of something that you feel grateful for today. Here are some topics or ideas:

1. Something that someone else did for you that day.
2. A person in your life that you appreciate.
3.  An activity or hobby you are grateful to be able to do.
4.  A positive quality of someone that can sometimes be hard to get along with.
5.  A skill or ability you have.
6. An item that you love.
7. Something that made you laugh.
8. What you have learned from something that was hard.
9. Have family members put their day’s thanks into their own Gratitude Jar, or create a Gratitude Tree where each day’s thanks is written onto a ‘leaf’.

Coping skills for kids

During this busy time of year, we are often asked by parents and teachers for some ideas on how to help their children manage their feelings, particularly those of frustration, anger and anxiety. It seems like perfect timing that one of our teachers found this FANTASTIC website on this exact topic! We were so excited by the useful strategies and ideas included in this website that we wanted to share it on our blog. You will find the link below:

Coping skills for kids

We hope that you find something useful for you and your family. Some of the sections included are:

• Calming Anxiety
• Managing Anger
• Deep breathing exercises for kids
• Helpful books for kids and families
• Helpful toys, games and activities

Stay tuned next week for a post on the importance of the mindfulness practice of: 

Gratitude

• 
  

MIndfulness Summer Bucket List

One of our favorite mindfulness blogs full of ideas for parents and their children is Left Brain Buddha! I would like to say that we thought of the idea of a mindful summer bucket list, but we will give full credit to the Left Brain Buddha blog! 
Please follow below for some of her great ideas to keep you mindful and peaceful this summer! In addition, I have added a few Nabnasset ideas at the bottom of the list! Personally I am going to keep track of all my mindful activities in a journal over the summer and come back to school feeling refreshed, renewed and more mindful than ever.

The Mindful Summer Bucket List

• Read a book about mindfulness (see a list of top recommendations here)

• Eat an entire meal in silence — pay attention to the act of eating and to the taste of the food

• Go for a walk — with no iPhone, no music…. just pay attention

• Get a mindfulness coloring book and spend an afternoon coloring

• Watch Inside Out

• Start a gratitude journal — and write in it once a week

• Take a 24-hour technology detox — no phone, Internet, TV, etc.

• Declare a Day of Kindness and volunteer, engage in random acts of kindness, smile at people you see, and make people’s days

• Teach a mindfulness practice to your kids

• Forgive someone for something (maybe yourself?)

• Practice mindful walking

• Try these breathing exercises that my son learned in kindergarten

• Change up a daily activity — brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand, drive a different route to work, sit in a different spot in your morning meeting…. Go wild!

• Put on some music and dance — just move however your body wants to move

• Practice lovingkindness

• Take a class — art, painting, drumming, dance, tai chi

• Make a list of the things you love about yourself

• Do a 30-minute body scan meditation

• Declutter an area in your house that’s driving you crazy

• Make a mind jar

• Watch a sunrise

• Make a list of the top 10 things that help YOU reduce stress — and post it somewhere you will see it every day

• Create a meditation space or a calm-down space in your home

• Meditate outside

• Watch a Cosmic Kids Zen Den or GoNoodle mindfulness video with your child

• Sign up for the Calm.com app and practice the "Daily Calm"

• LIsten to some relaxing music for kids from Mindful Kids

• Go outside and look up! Do some stargazing or cloud gazing!

We wish you a peaceful, relaxing summer filled with fun and sprinkled with some mindfulness!