Time to chill out
- 5 minutes
- Kids of all ages
1. Calm corner: make a twinkly reading place
- You’ll need: cushions or bean bags, blankets, fairy lights, books, soft toys
Give your child blankets and cushions to create a calm corner, and then help them to decorate it with fairy lights to make it special. Now they just need their toys to read a story to. Or, join them (and steal a hug!) to give you some calm, too.
Silent snipping: give them paper and scissors to make a calm collage
What you’ll need: old magazines, scissors, paper, glue
What to do: Simply give your child old magazines to snip their favourite pictures from. Then they can glue them to a sheet of paper to make a creative collage.
Slow down: here's an easy way to try animal yoga
What to do: Help your child to practise these simple moves…
Butterfly pose: Sit with the soles of the feet together so the legs look like butterfly wings.
Mouse pose: Kneel with forehead on the floor.
Snail pose: Just like mouse pose, but the arms are straight out on the floor above the head.
Sea lion: Lying on the tummy and using the arms to push the body up off the floor.
Art wall: give them a space to fill with their mini-masterpieces
What you’ll need: crayons, paper, posters, stickers, Blu-tack
What to do:
Give your child a wall that’s just theirs. It could be in their bedroom, the kitchen, even the fridge. Every time you need some quiet time, remind them the space is there for them to create more pictures for. They can draw, make a collage or add stickers to coloured paper – whatever they like. Then they can proudly display their work.
Do play dough: challenge them to create easy sculptures
What you need: playdough
What to do: Can your child make a snake? Can they turn that snake into a snail? How about a ball? Can they turn that into a frog? Give them mini tasks that get them rolling, squishing and squashing the dough, and using their imagination.
