Helping Your Kids Through the Pandemic

 

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We’re still in the midst of a pandemic and many of us are starting to consider how we can make this time as easy on our kids as possible. Here are a few suggestions that should help you to provide them with the best and to keep a smile on their faces!

Education

Many of us are finding that our main concern for our children during this pandemic is their education. At the end of the day, they’d usually be in school every weekday learning all the things they need to advance. But while many schools are closed, the responsibility of teaching has fallen harder on parents’ shoulders. While there may be video classes for little ones, many are finding that they want to educate their kids further. Try getting in touch with their school to find out the curriculum they would usually be studying or consider an online christian homeschool curriculum. Just make sure not to put pressure on yourself. All kids are in the same situation and all kids will be able to catch up together when schools reopen and teaching and learning recommence as usual.

Keeping Them Occupied

Of course, learning shouldn’t be the only thing your kids are doing at home. In usual times, they only spend a portion of their day at school. The rest of their days are usually filled with clubs, activities, and fun. Right now, hobbies and extracurricular activities are going to have to be home-based and away from others. So, you may find yourself looking for new things for your kids to do that they will enjoy. Here are a few suggestions that might help!

Arts and Crafts

The vast majority of kids love getting involved in arts and crafts. It helps them to express their creative side and - at the end of the day - is downright fun. Now, some ideas to get the ball rolling include helping them to make mosaics. Encouraging them to create sculptures with clay or plaster of Paris. Drawing. Supervised sewing or knitted. Painting. The list goes on. Simply provide them with the materials required to let their creative sides loose and they’ll be occupied for hours.

Baking

Another fun supervised activity for your kids is baking. So many little ones love getting involved in the kitchen and baking could be a fun and safe activity for you to all enjoy together. Plus, you all get a delicious treat at the end! Look up simple, child-friendly recipes or you could even consider pre-packaged and prepared baking kits specially targeted at kids. While you should take care of anything to do with the hob or oven, they can enjoy mixing, decorating, and all of the other fun and safe parts of the process.

Storybooks

When it comes to the evening, if you want to help your little ones wind down, try reading them a story. This will help them to drift off to sleep. You could also try out kids' audiobooks if you’re not great at reading out loud yourself.

Hopefully, some of this information will help to make the whole pandemic a little easier on you and your children. Each suggestion can really help to keep everyone engaged and occupied, bringing smiles to everyone’s faces on a daily basis!

The Importance of Counseling

 Have you been stressed as of late and want to reduce such stress? Counseling is the best way you can do so. The good news is that you can easily get a counselor. Thanks to the internet, you can access groups, such as Centennial counseling, to offer you the guidance you need in life. Below are some benefits you will get from counseling sessions.

Improve reflection in personal relationships

Sometimes, people can be caught up in challenging relationships and fail to know the best cause of their actions. For instance, an individual might find it challenging relating with their parents, siblings, or spouse. If such happens to you, groups such as Centennial counseling will offer you the necessary guidance on how to go about the situation. Once you have attended several counseling sessions, you will realize that you can reflect and make important decisions regarding the challenging relationship. People who attend counseling have reported a huge improvement in how they reflect on personal relationships.

Improves self-esteem

Counseling enables an individual to appreciate their flaws. This makes it easy for them to love and appreciate themselves more and hence, raising their self-esteem. However, through counseling, people can learn how to appreciate themselves, and this raises their self-esteem. According to Central Park Counseling, people living with low self-esteem deserve counseling regardless of what caused the low self-esteem.

Improves decision-making

The counseling process makes it easy for an individual to improve their decision-making abilities. Through the counseling process, an individual gets to learn important skills that enable them to view life from a clear perspective. It is such a perspective that enables an individual to make better decisions than they used to make before the counseling process. According to Central Park Counseling, people should seek counseling often, whenever they feel like they are not in a position to make the right decision. The counseling process gives someone the insight they require in making such decisions. 

Encourages self -awareness

Counseling helps an individual in understanding their feelings and character. A substantial number of people do not have self-awareness, and this affects the manner in which they react with other people. Some people tend to increase their self-awareness through yoga and meditation. However, counseling is considered to be the most effective strategy for improving self-awareness since the counselor helps you understand your character. Other methods of increasing self-awareness will only help you understand your feelings. If you are seeking better results, it is advisable to find a counselor near you, and you will not regret the results.

Enhances how you understand other people

The best part about counseling is that it enhances how you understand other people. If you had a certain perspective about an individual, counseling might make you understand their character better. It gives you a better understanding of other people’s behavior by changing your views about life. An example is a case where you tend to judge someone based on their actions. If you attend counseling, the chances are high that you might understand why they behave so.

Going for counseling is not a decision that other people can make for you. It comes to a situation where you feel the process is necessary since it will help you live a happier life. It is also advisable to seek counseling even when you feel that you do not need it. You might have issues that need resolving through counseling and fail to know it.

Online Parenting Journalists Conference March 12-13, 2021

 Do you want to:

• Connect with editors of top parenting publications,

• Discover a community of writers who make a good living doing what they love, and 

• Learn insider secrets to landing an agent and more? 

Register today for the live, online Parenting Journalists Conference on March 12-13 and unlock a package that includes interactive workshops and networking opportunities, roundtable conversations, master classes, and access to a private Facebook group. 

How to Help Your Child Grow During a Crisis

 If you’re wondering whether this year has impacted your child in one way or another you’re probably right. From digitizing their education to seeing friends and loved ones less, it’s normal to worry whether they are growing and constructively adapting to the constant change and challenges in their life. 

No one likes their kids to feel discouraged, but being challenged and experiencing failure are important to allow them to grow. Below the folks at Tommy John outlined three ways to help kids develop a growth mindset during this time of uncertainty along with some helpful printable activities to support this growth.

1. Set high but realistic goals and expectations

Setting high expectations for your kids is great because when you show them that you believe they’re capable of handling difficult tasks, they feel empowered. But setting high goals is only half the point. You need to communicate and help them realize realistic and attainable ways to reach these goals. When kids find themselves in challenging situations the expectation grows bigger and it’s easy to get frustrated if you don’t have a road map. Encourage your child to look at the problem from all angles and set micro-goals to reaching a solution. 

2. Keep a structured routine 

Committing to a daily routine is one of the best ways to increase structure in your child’s life and ease anxieties. When some days seem more chaotic than others, rather than barking orders, help them through their routine tasks. Let your kids control simple tasks like picking out their clothes, but support them through the process of getting dressed.

3. Give them space

Life will be full of struggles and challenges for your child and it’s easy to look to a parent for a quick solution. Help them cultivate their independence by resisting the urge to help them right away when they confront a problem. Instead, ask open-ended questions to help them come up with a solution on their own. For example, “I know you're frustrated because X, how can we find a way around it?" Active problem-solving builds resilience and creativity. 

We hope these three tips help you navigate the turbulent time we are all in. For activities geared at helping your child develop a growth mindset, we’ve sourced three printable activities to do together. Whether you try the Emotion Grid Exercise, Growth Mindset Conversation Cube or the Goal Setting Worksheet, all of these printable worksheets are perfect for doing together as a non-screen and educational activity. Download the activities below. For detailed instructions on using the printable worksheets check out Tommy John’s post here. 

So, Why Wouldn't You Try Make Us an Offer?

Just supposing that you were to go to a shop and choose an item which you wanted to buy and the only price on the item was a ‘typical’ retail price of say, $10, the price you might expect this item to be in any other shop.

Now, imagine you were to take the item to the cashier and they said to you, “How much do you want to offer for this?” At first, you would be surprised but, having confirmed that you could make an offer for this item, you replied $5. Suppose the assistant then checked the cash register and told you that was fine, the offer was accepted and $5 was all you had to pay for the item.