Educational, Family life, Health, parenthood

Children’s Mental Health Week 2021

by 4freckledfaces

This week is Children’s Mental Health Week. With all the craziness of the past year, I think this years acknowledgment of it is even more important than ever!

Children, like adults, have had a year of not knowing when normality will resume, being teased with a little normality – for it to be taken away because it made things worse. Everyone is dealing with all of it differently, but for children it’s that little bit more difficult to understand it all.

We thought we would share with you a few things that we have done recently, that has helped us as we have taken the time to reflect on our Mental Health.

We found this poster that is really good for ways to nature a child’s mental health. It gives great suggestions. Some of which we will be focusing more on this week.

Listening and Respecting

We have been working on this for a while now, especially with Freckled Faces 2 and 3. Sometimes they’re best, other times they are enemies and bring the whole family down in their war. We have encouraged them to take a DEEP BREATHE, take it in turns to tell eachother how the other one is making them feel. Now, sometimes this works GREAT….other times not so much! But that’s ok! We are all trying our best, and that’s how IMPROVEMENTS are made!

Acknowledging Emotions

It is so important to teach children about different emotions/feelings. They will feel them, but they might not recognise them or know how to explain them. It’s often helpful to give an experience they have been through to help them understand an emotion. For example, remember when you went on a plane for the first time, or first day of school, or friend came to visit, etc. If they are able to relate to it, it will mean more and they will understand better. Also, the younger you teach them about emotions, the better! Here is an activity that Freckled Face 4 was given for home learning today. She even went one step further that was asked of her, and decided to colour code the emotions!

A 4yr olds take on colour coding emotions.

Family Time

Freckled Face 3 pulled us up on this recently. Things have got a little more stressful since going back to work full-time and the man of the house taking on a new role at work. We kind of lost our quality family time for a while. Thanks to the kids letting us know that they were missing it, we got straight to sorting it out. Movies nights, story time, talent shows, games, walks, etc. It really does make a difference!

Calming and Positive Influence

Now this one has 2 meanings. Firstly, when dealing with any problems or heated situations that may arise – we need to stay calm, we need to remember that children often learn from the behaviour they see. As hard as it may be, we NEED to try! I have failed many times at this, but that’s ok. My children have seen me fail, recognise my failings, apologise to who I needed to apologise to, and then try again to do the right thing.

Lastly, help them find a calming influence for them, for those moments of frustration and anger, or even sadness or hyperness/excitement. It could be calming music, reading a book, colouring…whatever works for them. It is so important that children learn to regulate their emotions.

These are just a few things that help us. Are there any suggestions you have, activities you do to help you and your children?

20 thoughts on “Children’s Mental Health Week 2021”

    1. That is very tricky! Have you tried letting him draw, whilst you talk, or turn it in to a game? I find my kids, and kids I have worked with opening up a lot easier if the don’t feel they have too. So I try to make it as casual and non intrusive as possible. I hope you find something that helps! I’ll keep having a think x

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  3. I think it’s been an awful past year, even though my little one is only one I can tell when he sees people in the park he gets worried as he hasn’t been around anyone.

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  4. I’m worried about my oldest who’s 11 she is being assessed but she already saying she don’t want to go back to school I think she suffers with anxiety and over worries the smallest of things not looking forward to next week

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  6. Thank you for this post. I have a teenage daughter who is in year 10 and quite anxious at the thought of going back to school. I like the poster. Lots of useful tips, thank you.

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  7. I was diagnosed with ASD as an adult and suffered really badly as a child with my mental health, it makes me so happy to see that there is much more recognition and support for this now, when I was a child it was just ignored and I have always felt like an outsider as a result.

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  8. I am so glad we can acknowledge mental health as a real issue and try to tackle it together. I think it is our responsibility as a society to look out for one another, especially vulnerable children.

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  9. Definitely something we have to pay more attention to. We’ve made sure to focus on this more than anything else, we home school but place more emphasis on the self

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  11. It’s great that mental health is no longer a taboo subject. I have worried about a family member in the past and whether to intervene.

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  13. That’s a really informative poster. We have also been colour coding our emotions and I think it’s really helpful.

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  14. My son struggles with his mental health and this pandemic nearly tipped him over the edge. Its brilliant that we are so more informed these days and advice is much more easily accessible

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