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Wellbeing Kit

Mindfulness Skills

What do you know about Mindfulness? If you’ve ever looked after a puppy, you’ll know how important it is to train it so that it doesn’t wander around the house and chew up your sofa.

Mindfulness is like training our mind in the same way so you can focus on what’s happening now, instead of worrying about things that have already happened or might happen in the future.

What you can do for sure is be present for what is happening now. Mindfulness takes a few minutes practice each day and is like your very own brain gym!

Here’s some great starter activities:

Exercises for Children

Cool Games

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Wellbeing Kit

Grounding Skills

Do you find your emotions getting quite strong lately? Perhaps you are worried about your mum/dad, or getting irritated at being at home most of the time, maybe you miss your friends?

These emotions are all understandable and important.

Grounding Techniques Sheet Download

Sometimes they can get very overwhelming though and in times like these there are some really quick ways to feel a bit calmer and in control.

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Wellbeing Kit

Journaling Challenge

You might still be doing schoolwork when you’re at home, but there’s another kind of writing and creating that can help you express your thoughts onto a page. 

Journaling is a visual diary – it’s record keeping combined with creativity! It’s a place to record your thoughts, memories, and emotions through images, art and words. The number one rule about Art Journaling is that…there are NO rules. 

Use these Journaling ‘prompts’ to begin your creative pages in your journal. It’s time to start ‘journaling’!

Downloads

Art Challenge

Writing Challenge

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Wellbeing Kit

Worry Bubbles

It’s normal that lots of worries come to visit us day-to-day but ever find that sometimes they stay a little too long? Bubbles make the perfect aircraft to help those worries move on.

If they decide to come back, we can say hello and get them back in their bubble car as many times as we need!​

First, get a piece of paper and write your worries out, one in each bubble you draw

Now it’s time to make the Bubble Mix! You need washing up liquid, water and a bowl. To the bowl add one part washing up liquid to 6 parts of water. Stir it up!! Ask the adult at home with you, if they have any glycerine in the kitchen cupboards. Add a few drops to the mixture.

Now, we are nearly ready! In the house, maybe you have a cookie cutter, or a potato masher, or even a badminton racket. Test it out with your Bubble Mixture.

Now it’s time for action. Take a deep breath in and out. Picture your worries in the bubbles and watch them float away high into the clouds.

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Connection Kit

Worry Box

When we’re worried or scared about our family members or what’s going to happen in the future it can feel overwhelming. When we see stories on the news, it makes sense for us to worry about what’s going to happen.

This can feel overwhelming when we either try to ignore the worries or think about them all at the same time.

What if we had a place where we could just hold them for now?…..where we could take them out one at a time to talk them through with someone else at home? Aha!…that’s where The Worry Box comes in handy! Also check out ‘Worry Bubbles’ in the Wellbeing Kit.

Source and decorate a small box, such as a tissue box.

Then, perhaps each night before bed, write down the thoughts that keep worrying you onto a piece of paper.

Fold the piece of paper and put it in the box.

The next day – take the notes out of the box and see if you still have those worries.

If they are no longer a worry, rip up the paper and throw it in the bin!

If you do, place them back in the box and decide which you could share with someone else. 

Your worry box helps you to see the idea that these anxious feelings are simply thoughts that we can distance ourselves from.

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Connection Kit

Daily Rituals

Right now everything may feel like it’s so far away from what you are used to. To help you and your family cope, having some new routines can be helpful, and they don’t have to be boring! A really quick and fun way of spending time together could be to create your own special ritual. Sharing a ritual can not only make you smile and laugh but can also help you to feel close even when you don’t have as much time together as normal. 

Picking a family theme tune – why not get together as a family and agree on a favourite song which could become your own family theme tune – play this song out loud when you get up or to mark getting together again after a family member returns from work. You could even make it active by dancing along! 

Create a dance routine – TikTok dances are everywhere – so why not make your own dance up at home and use it as a way of getting together, you could make your own video and share it with your friends. 

Playing your favourite game – this could be a card game or something like Jenga but agreeing each day or week to play a game you enjoy is a great way to connect and enjoy each other. 

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Connection Kit

‘Now and Then’ Jars

Not being able to do the things we like can be frustrating and sad – We have to stay inside, not see our friends and not do the fun stuff with our families. Here’s an idea that can help.

There are still some really nice things you can do now, with a little imagination.

For the other things, there will be a time when you get to do these again, but write them down so you don’t forget.

Find two empty jars or pots. 

Label one with ‘Now’ and the other ‘Then’ – you could decorate them too! 

For the ‘Now’ Jar:

As a family think come up with some ideas of fun activities you could do at the moment whilst we are at home and not able to go out as much. 

Write these down on separate pieces of paper or lolly sticks 

Place these in the ‘Now’ Jar 

Set some dates and times for when you plan to do an activity together as a family.

On that date/time pick one out of the jar at random to decide what you will be doing! 

For the ‘Then’ jar:

As a family think about some of the things you would like to do when things are a bit more back to normal. This could be things you have done before that you have missed or maybe you have some new activities you would like to try! 

Write these down on separate pieces of paper or lolly sticks. 

Place these in the ‘Then’ Jar. 

You could add to this over the weeks as ideas come to you. Remember to run it passed your family so they feel involved! 

When the lockdown rules have been lifted, pick an activity out of the ‘Then’ jar at random and plan a date for when you will do this. 

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Connection Kit

Ninja Postie

Showing you love and care for someone can be fun, especially when you use your ninja skills to secretly leave messages to be discovered…….without you being discovered!

Think about what you’d like to say to members of your family that you haven’t had a chance to. I wonder where you could sneakily hide the message to give an unexpected but caring surprise to someone you care about.

It could tell them how much you care, make them laugh or feel not so far away.

On a piece of paper write or draw something that will make mum/dad/carer smile. This could be telling them about something you did that day, saying something that you like about them, a nice picture or a joke.

Fold up your piece of paper when you’ve finished.

Now think about where you could hide your note for mum/dad/carer to find it – around the house or perhaps you could put it in their pocket when they’re not looking!

When mum/dad/carer get home from work if they haven’t already found your note, let them know it’s somewhere in the house and help them try to find it – you can let them know they are close by saying ‘hotter’ and ‘colder’ if they are further away until they find your note.

Mum/dad/carer can also play too by leaving you notes to find! 

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Connection Kit

Cookery Connection

Even when all our family is not together, we can still feel together. Making food with others and for others is really caring and thoughtful and a way to feel better.

Food can really lift our mood and be really comforting and reassuring for those we love. We want to share food with you too, through our Cookery Connection Challenge.

How many of the recipes can you cross off? Try one each day and get others involved!

🤖 Bingo CardDownload

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Connection Kit

Lighten the Load

There’s a lot of extra things we’re carrying around on our minds at the moment. Your family have things they have to do for their work, which means they can’t be there as much as they would like. Everything from doing the shopping to looking after everyone feels so much more difficult. We can’t change that for now, but we might be able to help ’lighten the load’ by doing a few little things each day to show we want to help.

The little things really do count. See how many of these you can fit in over the days ahead and cross them off as you go. Tell us when you’ve got the full collection!

🤖 Lighten the Load Bingo CardDownload
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