Activities to Help Kids Calm Down can be so useful. I have some wonderful calming ideas hear to help anxious, worried stressed out kids learn to calm down
Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
Create your own Calm is packed with Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
I am also excited to tell you about my new book for calm kids, Create Your Own Calm which is packed with activities to help kids calm down. i think you are going to just love it
Create Your Own Calm is a fun activity book that aims to help kids learn how to manage their BIG feelings and stop them from becoming overwhelming. This si os important – emotional regulations makes for a much happier and more confident child and we CAN teach these skill s it is not a personality trait it can be learned and it is our job as parents to teach it. It is far the most important thing our children will ever learn
pin activities to help kids calm down for later
Who is Create Your Own Calm for?
Create Your Own Calm is specifically for 6-12-year-olds, the primary school years (but the techniques work whether you are 9 or 90, so parents should glean a lot from this book too.)
When kids are frightened, upset, worried or angry they might long to be able to feel peaceful but find it really hard to do so. This book gives them tons of ideas and strategies to do just that.
Telling them to calm down never works, does it?
What they need to know is HOW to calm down and how to do it for themselves. It is a skill for life.
Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
How does Create Your Own Calm work? Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
This book looks at lots of ways to help kids achieve a calmer state of mind with exercises such as mindfulness and yoga, nature, art, baking, positivity PMR and exercise. It teaches kids how to make worry dolls and scented dough, a calm down jar and even a calm down first aid kit!
It helps them discover steps to manage their fears, worries and anger more positively and lots, lots more and it is absolutely never to early to start taking care of tyour child’s emotional welbeing and teaching them how to cope with challenging and tricky emotions. How to help your child manage emotions read in this article.
Each of Activities to Help Kids Calm Down topics contains:
- An inspiring quote to motivate kids & make them think
- Science or research that explains how the calming strategy works
- An activity to help kids put what they have learned into practice
It is full to the brim with handy hints on how kids can chill out more generally and also in those moments when it all gets too much.
More Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
The topics in the book are divided into 6 sections
- Thoughts and Feelings
- Nature
- Words
- Relationships
- Simplicity
- Creativity
- Mind & Body
The book contains over 50 activities, here is an example of one of them on mindfulness
The Create Your Own Calm Blog Tour Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
Create Your Own calm has recently been on a blog book tour and I am so excited to share it with you. The gorgeous array of blogs taking part each shared a different activity from the book – do pop over and have a look and do bookmark these blogs. I promise you that they are all fantastic for parents activity
Activities to Help Kids Calm Down that you are just going to love – on a range of interesting and inspiring blogs
- Red Ted Art shares how to make a relaxation jar
- Rainy Day Mum shares a lovely Yoga exercise
- Much More With Less shared some nature crafts from the book
- Penny Reads shared our fun Book Bingo activity
- Emma and 3 shows you how to make a Calm Down Kit
- Growing Family presented Creating a Pizza Garden
- Thrifty Mum shared the Cloud Watching activity
Thank you to each and every one of them.
Mindfulness Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
“Be where you are, otherwise you will miss your life.” – Buddha
Sometimes we are so busy worrying about what happened yesterday and fretting about what might happen tomorrow we forget to focus on and enjoy today. Mindfulness is about making sure you are fully focussed on the here and now.
You might feel mindful when you are :
- Watching an ant
- Painting
- Singing
- Looking at the stars
- Splashing in the sea
The emotional impact of Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
When you are doing these things you get completely absorbed in them, totally aware of all your senses what you see, hear, smell, feel and taste.
It is so healthy to be totally ‘in the moment’ it allows your brain to deeply relax and this helps you think more clearly
“There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.” —James Carroll
The science behind Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
Lots of research projects have shown mindfulness is brilliant at reducing stress, anxiety and impulsiveness.
Being mindful calms down the bit of our brain (the amygdala) that make us want to ‘fight or flight’ (react with strong emotions.)
Because that bit of the brain is calmer information can go to the part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex instead. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that helps us make good, sensible choices.
So if we calm down first by being mindful then good choices will follow.
Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
More Mindfulness Activities to help kids calm down
Have a go at the mindful activities below and see which ones work for you. I love a bit of mindfulnes there really is nothing quite as relaxing is there?
- Run to the end of your street and back. Then sit down cross-legged and place your hard on your heart. Sit for a while and feel your heartbeat.
- Eat a small snack quietly, slowly focussing on and appreciating each mouthful of food
- Blow bubbles slowly and really focus on how they grow, float and eventually pop
- Have a shower and pay close attention to how the water feels on your skin
- Take a mindful walk, looking at all the colours and textures, sights and smells, of nature as you do
- Sit in the park garden on a blanket, ring a little bell (or hum) and listen till the sound stops. Then listen on for another minute What other sounds can you hear?
I think these would work for adults equally as well as they would work for children – why not give them a try yourself. children learn so much form our role modeling. Perhaps you could do them together?
Create your own calm….by learning to focus on what’s happening right now and letting your mind be still
How to use Create Your Own Calm Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
Kids can work through the book in order or they can just dip in and pick any activity they fancy. Rather than read it all at once they might want to read one topic and have a good go at it before moving on. They may want to involve you their grown up in the book or may want to keep it private to start with. It’s totally up to them. – this is theri journey towards calm and learning to calm themselves down and it is best they explore it the way that feels right to them.
Keep an open mind about activities to help kids calm down
Some of the activities like belly breathing, positive affirmations and Earthing might seem a bit unusual at first but do encourage your child to keep an open mind and give them a go. We never know what works for us until we give it a try.
Being able to create your own calm is a skill for life and the sooner kids learn how to do this the more peaceful and happy their lives will be
A bit about me & my Activities to Help Kids Calm Down
As well as being a blogger here at A Beautiful Space I also blog quite a bit about parenting at Simple Parenting and Emotionally Healthy kids
I am a post-graduate qualified psychotherapist and certified life coach and a member of the National Council of Psychotherapists.
Get your copy now of my book packed with activities to help kids calm down
Create Your Own Calm is published by Harper Collins in September 202o and available form Amazon and all good bookshops.
My other books
It is the companion book to the best selling Create Your Own Happy (2018) – a happiness boosting activity book for kids
I am also the co-author of Be Bappy Be You – a teenage guide to happiness
Create Your Own Calm is packed full of activities to help kids calm down and it was a real labour of love I do hope you enjoy it – if you do have a read and have a go with your child at some of the activities to help kids calm down I would absolutely love to hear how you got in and if they resonated – do please drop me a line
Becky x
If you enjoyed activities to help kids calm down you might also like my post on 100 ways to calm down