Good morning everyone. This week’s Health and Wellbeing theme will be feelings and how we can explore them with our children. There are so many feelings for children to name and recognise and it is good to encourage our children to begin to both recognise these and how they make us feel.
I have included a lovely link below for a story all about feelings called In my Heart. Please listen to the story and share it with your child as a way of supporting them to recognise feelings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIfLgHBwYx4
For today I thought it would be good to share ideas about how we can talk about feelings.
Knowing your Feelings:
It is easy to talk ab out feelings when we know how we feel and why we feel that way. Some ways to achieve this with your child include:
- Think of the name for how you feel. (Maybe you feel upset.)
- Think of why you feel that way. (Maybe you feel this way because of how much things have changed for us and because our routine is different)
- Get your child to put these two points together into words. (Say to yourself, “I feel upset about Coronavirus.”)
- If your child doesn’t know why they feel a certain way, you can still talk about it. You can say, “I feel upset but I don’t know why.”
Pick someone to talk to:
It is good for your child to choose someone to talk to. In school we do this using the helping hand approach. On each finger the child identifies someone they can talk to. Try this at home too. It is a good way for your child to know there will always be someone to talk to.
- Let them know that the other person will listen
- They might give them advice or they might even make them laugh
- Let them know they have someone to share their worry or indeed their excitement with as all feelings are good to share.
Taking time to talk to someone and taking the time to listen is such a key part of allowing your child to explore and identify their feelings . I hope you have enjoyed the story and if you try any of the ideas please let me know.
Have a great day everyone,
Mrs Docherty
