Sure COVID-19 has changed a lot of things in our daily life. The way we work, study, and keep ourselves entertained, everything has taken a new meaning. However, kids are hit the worst in the whole pandemic scenario. They are cooped up in homes when in their growing, learning stage, they are supposed to be highly active socially. Their personality starts shaping up by understanding about how things work between people who are not family.
No wonder, students are getting affected both physically and mentally, just as their ability to communicate one-on-one or within a community, later on becoming socially responsible. As if their life has come to a halt. Though this is the case of everyone in this pandemic but kids have been uniquely impacted.
Therefore, this blog!
Kids have an insatiable urge to learn, create and grow. And all the while staying physically active unless they are lured by something more interesting (like smartphones) or pressured (by parents). They are the best student of all the age groups.
Here are some of the best tips on how to keep kids as they are: just kids, while they can keep getting a better student!
Wellness Challenges: Design interesting daily, weekly, a monthly challenge
For a parent, the situation is rather difficult to keep the spirits of your kids high and make them see the bright side of the coin. Designing interesting activities as a part of daily challenges would encourage the kid to be up and running and meet the challenge head-on.
They could appear something like the following:
You can add our kids’ favorites to the challenges to keep the things to their liking, encouraging them to participate more enthusiastically.
Some of the things you can put on the calendar are:
- Adventure trip
- Family picnic
- Board games with friends / families
- X-box with your chosen partner(s)
- Nature walk
- Photo challenge
- Watch a movie
- Take fun quizzes
- Make your own T-Shirt or for your loved ones
- Science experiments
- Visit Theme Park / Zoo / Museum
- Cook a meal
- Get creative and make something of waste or recyclable material
… and many things like these. The options are endless!
Get rid of Identity Crisis
Anything that need drastic measure is a crisis and what crisis could be bigger than the crisis of identity in students who are foundation of our future. If you notice hints of probable identity crisis, sit with your kid and help her / him to get a grip of who is the person inside their body, likings, interest, what they relate to most, what problems they want to address in the society, what they can do at their level, help them to voice their opinions and encourage them to consume literature that coincides with their characteristics and personality.
Dive into this topic deeper by calling in experts if you feel the need.
Spark up a hobby that is likely to make her / him passionate
Hobbies can be therapeutic, in ways which can be difficult to understand. People can get spiritual about it; they can later take it as their profession, lead communities to connect with themselves as they so when they are practicing their hobbies.
Music can be a hobby, so can be any form of art and sports. Just don’t give in when your kid tells you that talking to friends endlessly or sleeping as they wish is one of these. Push them hard to realize what they are missing when they are not indulging in the fine things life has to offer to them.
And bonus is their increased concentration in their studies for which you did not really had to do anything separately.
Meditation
Not an option anymore, meditation is now mandatory to escalate expansion of consciousness. Practicing it regularly makes people experience oneness with everything surrounding. Mediation practitioners would vouch for that their way is the best to follow. Then, there would be those who have spent days and months practicing it but have experienced spirituality or even clarity of thoughts in any case. Don’t listen to various thoughts voiced throughout, focus inwards.
Apps like Medito, Headspace and others help to meditate through guided meditations, a great way to start the journey.
You can meditate on music, drawings, nature or whatever that touches your heart.
Go read The Book of Secrets: 112 Meditations to Discover the Mystery Within by OSHO, if you are more of a reader and want to read a lot about the things you want to take up. Only then you would be able to relay the information to your kid in a convincing way.
Checkout – 7 Best Foods to Eat Before Bed Time
Remember you should believe in something to make your kid to take up something. Do it yourself and experience bliss inwards before coaxing your kid to meditate!
Journaling
For those who haven’t done it before, journaling can be very challenging. Either they couldn’t come up with what to journal or they have so much they don’t know what all they should.
Those who don’t know what all they, journaling can help process not only the emotions but also help keep everything important to the person in one place. If your kids liked the idea of a diary they can go to anytime for their needs and their moods (ups and down), that’s good. They have just found their closest secret-keeper and best friend. It would tell them what’s there, no lies and no sugar-coating. It’s up to them now what course of action they take.
For those kids who are details-oriented and have a lot on their plate, they will learn sorting their mess on paper and then getting a hold on it slowly and gradually, keeping only what’s most important in their schedule and life. They would learn to organize a lot better.
And make journaling gratitude a must. It would be an eye-opener months later when the kid reflects back. She would be humbler, wise and a better human being!
That would be all for now. Hope your kid does better and make the most of this time to become better that she was before!
FAQs:
- What causes mental health problems and how to recognize the symptoms?
Ans. Lack of communication and trust among the family members is often at the core of the mental issues in kids. Some life events can also escalate the problem if the kid is already fragile emotionally. Don’t ignore the following symptoms, talk to your kid, and visit a child psychologist immediately if you couldn’t handle the problem yourself:
- Long faces for long durations like more than a week
- Outbursts about nothings
- Avoiding social gatherings or interactions
- Talking about death or suicide
- Weight loss
- Low or no appetite even for favorites
- Mood swings
- Missing routines or regular classes or school
- How is mental illness in kids addressed?
Ans. The first thing is to reconnect with the kid and it would be difficult because the kid has withdrawn and doesn’t see the worth in connecting. But continuous coaxing, like things the kid loves to do or talk about, may soften the kid up as at core human deeply wants to connect and for kids, it’s their parents. Take it very slow and then over the time, try to cajole them in spilling what’s eating them up. Have fun with them. The above blog can support your efforts to connect with the kid and motivate her to find purpose of life so that negativities of life can be turned into learnings.
Things could be sped up by getting the child consulted by a therapist. He would add medicines to mix of your efforts plus the therapy and there would be magic waiting at the end of the rainbow!
- Could support groups help?
Ans. They may and they may not, depending on what your child is comfortable with. You need to be cautious and not just enroll her into the program just because “it looks good”. The child may ditch the progress you have made with her so far if the support group is not to her liking and she blames you. The opposite might also happen: she might just feel comfortable people who have gone through similar phase and now are on the road to recovery. She might actually befriend few of them, easing off some of your concern. Most of the other questions are answered in the three mentioned above. Let us know if you have more
