Although we still don’t know what the lasting effects of the past few months will be for children, we can see they havent found it easy. With that in mind, going forward it’s more important than ever that we take some time to think about how we can nurture the mental health of our children. Creativity is a great way to boost a child’s mental health – it allows children to get lost in the moment which helps their little brain to rest and slow down.
Creativity comes in many forms, but we think that creativity is anything that allows you to get in to a state of flow using your body, be it painting, dancing, digging, all are forms of creativity. So often as parents and care givers we shy away from creativity for fear of it being messy, but it doesn’t have to be that way, hopefully our tips will help you!
1) Braintangle
Ali created the Braintangle for our original book The Positive Planner after being inspired by an art therapy technique. Its purpose is to help untangle thoughts and feelings and we think it’s perfect for kids of any age!
1) On a piece of paper use a pen to draw one big scribble across the entire page.
2) Divide the page in to 4 using a cross.
3) Working from top left clockwise, write the following in each corner
- I feel
- Because
- I need
- How can I get it
Now together work your way around each square filling in the spaces between the scribbles with the child’s words. This is teaching them to put words to emotions. If you’re working with older children, you can let them fill in the spaces with their words. You don’t need to fill every space in, a few words is enough.
Your young ones can create the tangle themselves and just colour in the spaces they make
The braintangle is a fun way to open up conversations about emotions if you sense your child is feeling overwhelmed or angry. Use it as a way to help them voice and breakdown their emotions. Guiding children through a process like this helps them to connect where their emotions are coming from. sensations they are experiencing, and teaches them the process of how to help themselves feel better. For a more detailed explanation Ali has done an IGTV which you can watch.
2) Gardening
We know gardening can be very therapeutic for adults, it is away of connecting with nature and getting our bodies moving, but gardening really benefits children too. It has a very real positive effect on a child’s physical and mental health, and is educational as it is a great way to teach them where food comes from.
Ali has an allotment, and it has been a godsend to her during lockdown, it is a space where her kids seem to relax more than usual, which allows her to enjoy the befits as well. Even in the rain she made sure she got there regularly, the kids just but there wellies and raincoats on and when to make mud pies! There are endless ways to be creative in the garden, from fairy houses, to a personal plot to grow veg or flowers in. If you don’t have a garden you could get using those window sills and see if you can grow something from seed?
3) Vision Boarding
We love vision boards – they are popular with both children and adults. Flipping through magazines and finding what inspires us is such a fun activity. It is a fantastic way of teaching children to believe in their hopes and dreams. We all need motivation, excitement and encouragement to live life to the full sometimes and it is no different for children.
The key here is to keep things short and simple. Allow children to have fun ripping up magazines and add in paints and pens if you want. You can introduce question themes: What are my favourite things? What would my dream spaceship look like? What makes me happy? Cutting and sticking is a fantastic way to work on dexterity, so if you have children’s scissors allow them to be used (under supervision of course!)
4) Journaling
Who kept a diary as a teenager? I’m sure none of us realised we were helping our mental health at the time. The benefits of regular journaling are many and the explosion in journaling shouldn’t just be for us adults – our children could be doing it too!
If you want to dig into this a little deeper, take a look at a blog we wrote, 7 Tips for Journaling with Children.
5) Dancing!
Aside from the obvious release of endorphins that exercise helps to encourage, dancing with children is an amazing way to build confidence and social skills. Dancing together helps to strengthen the bond between child and adult, and models playfulness and fun as an adult trait and not just a childish one.
There is a reason dance is usually a main feature of any celebrations, and that is because it feels great, it bring people together and it encourages us to let go. This is the same for children. My son and I often dance, it helps me if I am feeling tired and irritated, and it seems to help him if he is feeling grumpy or angry. It has also become part of our morning routine and helps speed things along a bit but in a playful way if we are running late.
Now it’s over to you!
So what do you think? These activities are all great not only as a way to boost your child’s mental health through creativity, they’re also a good way to introduce quality time with the children you care for – both individually or as a group. I hope you enjoy some of the tips.
Author bio
Finn Prevett is a leading mental health advocate. She is the co-founder of www.thepositiveplanners.com, an author, speaker and is training to become a life coach.
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The mind is also a muscle that must be kept trained and healthy, so your tips and exercises are really valuable. You have to start from an early age.
Creativity is so important especially for growing children. Expose them to more variety of things to light up their imagination and creativity.
Nice tips for boosting the kids’ mental health. Thank you for sharing 🙂 – Dan “Jay” Reyes
Great tips for kids and adults! I think always keeping busy is key for our mental health…these are great ways to keep joy in our lives.
That’s such an interesting definition of creativity: anything that allows you to get into the state of flow. I’ve always thought of creativity as an act in which someone creates something (including creating something as “untouchable” as dance moves). I think either of those definitions leads to activities that will boost children’s and adults’ mental health. Anything that allows the state of flow brings such calm joy and sense of purpose.
These activities are wonderful to boost a child’s mental health especially during these tough times! Thanks for sharing these tips with us