According to scientific research, gratitude is one of the best ways to boost your mental health and physical well-being.
This is what Robert Emmons, the world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude wrote, “it’s an affirmation of goodness. We affirm that there are good things in the world, gifts, and benefits we’ve received.”
This article discusses studies that seem to suggest that gratitude is good for your health.
Tip #4 on How To Teach A Child About Gratitude = Say Thank You
Gratitude enhances and builds relationships.
Even the youngest of children can learn to say, “Thank you.”
With their chubby little hands, they can form the sign language words that express gratitude.
These two words, “thank you,” are the first words parents often teach their kids.
Energetic and zealous, parents demand that their children give thanks for any gift received or service offered.
Often, children end up expressing gratitude by rote.
Other times, their words are insincere.
Gratitude does not produce all the scientific benefits unless it is heartfelt.
How can we make sure that our children are not saying these words by rote?
How can we ensure their words are meaningful and genuine?
The author of the book, Nonviolent Communication, shares tips about expressing effective gratitude towards others.
In his article, he shares three steps to effective gratitude:
1. Observations.
Teach your children to make observations about what their friend or relative did for them. Like,
A. Mom tied my shoes.
B. Grandma bought me a present.
C. Dad brought me a hamburger after work.
Even if your child didn’t like the gift itself, she can express gratefulness for the motive behind it. “Thank you, Grandma, for taking the time to go shopping and buying me a gift.”
Teach your child to express gratitude in full sentences.
2. Feelings – Teach your kids to describe their feelings about their friend or relative’s kind action or gift.
A. “Mom, when you tied my shoes, I felt relieved…”
B. “Grandma, when you bought me a present, I felt loved…”
C. “Dad, when you brought me a hamburger, I felt happy…”
3. Need – Finally, help your kids express the need that that their friend or relative met.
A. “Mom, when you tied my shoes, I felt relieved because I wanted to go outside and play.”
B. “Grandma, when you bought me a present, I felt loved because I knew you were thinking about me.”
C. “Dad, when you brought me a hamburger, I felt happy because I was hungry and you remember my favorite types of burgers.”
In summary, an effective gratitude statement includes the action that was performed, the feeling that was produced, and the need that was met.
This formula helps avoid rote gratitude.
It also helps you avoid saying “thank you” as a way to manipulate someone.
Think how good you would feel if someone used this formula on you!
“When you stopped by to ask if I needed something (Observation), I felt happy (Feeling) because I had been very lonely and anxious today. (Need)”
Tip #5 on How To Teach A Child About Gratitude = Thank You Notes
Writing thank you note may seem like an ancient, outdated practice.
In reality, it is a wonderful habit to teach t today’s generation of kids.
If you are quarantined or shut inside during winter, now is an excellent time to start developing this skill in children.
Children can rediscover the joy of letter-writing.
Ask your children to name one person who has influenced and encouraged them.
Maybe it’s someone whom they have missed during the pandemic.
Have them write a letter expressing gratitude to this teacher, friend, or classmate.
Now is the time to teach children about envelopes, stamps, and postage.
Kids can learn how to address an envelope and write a return address.
They can practice their skills of letter heading, greeting, body of the letter, and closing.
Are you willing to send a thank-you note to someone you’ve never met?
Then you are willing to take your gratitude journey to the next level!
Why not share the gratitude with someone who’s discouraged?
The organization “More Love Letters” devotes itself to inspiring people to write handwritten letters to people who are going through tough times.
Go on the website and help your children select a discouraged individual to write to.
Looking back in your gratitude journal, you’ll be able to see how God has provided for you in a very difficult time.
Then share the good news with someone else!
The “More Love Letters” website always shares about the kind and sacrificial acts that the discouraged individual has performed.
He or she is having a tough time remembering his own goodness right now.
Express gratitude to that person for the kindness, sacrifice, and hope they have shared with others.
Going Back to School: Tips on How To Ensure Children Are Safe.
Is It Safe For Your Children To Go Back to School?
How to ensure children are safe to return to school is a serious thought in every parent’s mind.
Back-to-School 2020 is a TIME like no other.
Gone are the jovial crowds, jostling to find the best deals on school supplies like markers, pencils, notebooks, and Kleenex.
Stores are quiet.
Silent, masked individuals move around the stores, not taking the effort to talk or make eye contact since no one can see their smile.
Stores hide their back-to-school items, uniforms, and school supplies along the back wall instead of broadcasting their sales in the front lobby.
This year doesn’t look like it usually does. The hesitance is tangible.
It’s time for school, but no one knows what that really means.
In some states, no one knows for sure when and if schools will ever start.
When educational facilities finally open their doors, what will school look like?
Parents have to make quick decisions with ever-changing situations.
They feel the weight of the world on their shoulders.
If they send their children to a traditional school, are they compromising their own health and the health of their kids, the teachers, grandparents, school workers, and staff?
The school does not just provide academics to children.
Students also learn social and emotional skills and access to mental and special needs support.
Students also have access to computers, the internet, and other vital services in a school setting.
Parents should be aware of what the school’s policies are concerning children’s safety while in school.
On the other hand, if they keep their children at home, are they separating their children from the necessary social and emotional support they normally get through time with friends?
What steps can parents take to ensure their children are safe?
How can you as a parent make the wisest choice, and how can you ensure your children are safe?
What is the parent’s role in keeping those precious little ones healthy during the back-to-school rush?
Let’s explore some tips from a parent on how to ensure your children are safe to go back to school no matter what option you have chosen.
While implementing these tips, it is my prayer that the Lord will guide you into making the right decision and I pray that the Lord protects and shields every child and family from all harm and danger.
1. Stay Updated on CDC Guidelines.
The most reliable resource to refer to when making safety-related COVID-19 decisions for you and your family is the CDC.
Being on top of CDC guidelines will help you make sure your child’s school is operating in the safest and most efficient way possible.
For the most part, you need to teach your children about the importance of wearing the mask or cloth face covering, hand washing techniques, and social distancing.
This will help guide decisions such as whether or not your child should go back to school and will help give insight into things you can do on your end to ensure they’re safe going back to school.
2. Check Your School’s Safety Policy.
In a traditional school setting, an easy first step is checking the school’s mask and safety policies in the classroom and in outdoor spaces.
Some schools are flexible about masks, only using them when absolutely vital to keep state mandates.
Other schools strictly enforce mask usage.
Some schools are going to great lengths to ensure that children do not mingle in hallways, common areas, recess, and the lunchroom.
Instead, children limit their interaction with the people in their own classrooms.
These measures can be very helpful in holding back the spread of the virus, allowing schools to easily isolate rooms that may become infected without shutting down the entire school.
Find out the school’s policy on washing hands, sanitizing equipment and high-touch surfaces, social distancing, mask usage, and other personal protective-PPE measures.
Make sure that their standards of operation are in line with the CDC’s recommendations.
3. Cleanliness During Transitions To and From School.
When your child leaves for school, make sure they are equipped with a mask and personal hand sanitizer.
Teach him or her to use hand sanitizer when on the bus and when leaving school for the day.
Arriving home in the afternoon, have a designated area where soiled school items, such as backpacks, are placed.
Your child should thoroughly wash their hands with soap and water according to CDC guidelines and change their clothes immediately after arriving.
Later, when it’s time to sign papers and do homework, treat the school items as you would any germ-laden item, such as currency.
Teach your child to wash his or her hands after using items from his or her backpack, and not to touch their eyes or face while handling school items.
Temperature Checks: You should plan to monitor your children’s health at home especially their temperature with a thermometer (not the back of your hand).
The child should stay home if they have a temperature of 100.4 degrees or greater or any signs of not feeling well.
These important steps will help keep your children safe and healthy.
4. Homeschooling.
While the CDC does not provide scientific studies that suggest that COVID-19 transmission may be low among children, they stress that this is the case when proper protocol is followed.
You may find that your child’s school might not follow the COVID-19 protocol that is the safest or most efficient.
When you choose some form of homeschooling, social distancing becomes much more efficient and effective.
If you or one of your children has a health problem that would put you at significant risk were you to contract the virus, you may find that schooling or distant learning from home is the most viable option.
Getting some homeschooling ideas can help you to effectively provide good targeted educational instruction to your children.
When you choose to keep your child at home, you may elect to hire a tutor to guide him or her through the online curriculum.
Like any babysitter, this tutor must be thoroughly vetted. Will the tutor provide effective emotional support, or will she dismiss your child’s fears and needs?
Does your tutor have plenty of thorough references, a background check, and other proof that they are safe to be around children?
After you hire a tutor, listen to your children and what they tell you about the way their tutor treats them.
Don’t just go with the flow because hiring a tutor is cheaper than a private school.
Keeping your children safe from the virus will mean nothing if they are not safe from their in-home teacher too.
6. Being a Safe Teacher-Mom.
If you choose to stay home with your children, you are poised to provide not only physical safety but also emotional health.
Who knows your children better than you do? Is anyone else more invested in their physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental well-being than the mother herself?
You may be confident that you can provide the safety and attention your children need.
As you homeschool your children, there may be times when you become overwhelmed by your children’s daily needs.
The novelty of teaching and parenting at the same time and the question of how to entertain everyone and keep everyone engaged in learning could become challenging.
During these times of stress, it’s important to take care of yourself so that you can be present as a healthy, safe, and fun mom.
Become aware of situations and comments that trigger you or tempt you to blow your top.
Do you feel shame when you think you haven’t done enough?
Do you feel upset when your children don’t perform as well as you’d hoped?
Are you comparing and measuring your children—and yourself—to other schools, moms, and situations?
Could you be pushing your children too hard? Are your expectations too high or too low?
Since you will be home 24/7 with your children, make sure you take time away to recharge.
180 Days of Self-Care for Educators can help you understand how prioritizing your own self-care will better equip you to positively impact student learning and achievement.
Read God’s word, walk in nature, read a good book, or vent to a friend.
Make sure that you are a safe mom to your children.
7. Pour on the Healthy Touch.
No matter what option you choose for schooling your child this school season, there are things you can do to keep your child safe physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually.
Make sure your child gets plenty of safe, healthy touch while at home.
Numerous studies have shown the critical importance of human touch to our well-being and safety.
Dr. Asim Shah, A medical doctor-MD who teaches at Baylor College of Medicine states that “touch starvation increases stress, depression, and anxiety, triggering a cascade of negative physiological effects.
The body releases the hormone cortisol as a response to stress, activating the body’s ‘flight-or-fight’ response.
This can increase heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, and muscle tension, and can suppress the digestive system and immune system—increasing the risk of infection…
‘Every single medical disease including heart attack, diabetes, hypertension, asthma—every single physical disease—is altered if you are more anxious, more depressed or if you have more mental health issues.’”
You may not think that touch has anything to do with health, or that children need touch in order to be safe.
But in reality, their immune systems and health are compromised when they are deprived of the loving hugs, high-fives, pats on the back, and other experiences they previously received at school.
This means that it will be your job to fill in those gaps.
Becky Bailey, Ph.D. promotes the “I Love You Rituals” series on youtube as a way to incorporate healthy touch into your child’s life.
The four key ingredients of an “I Love You Ritual” are presence, healthy touch, gentle eye contact, and playfulness.
Sweet and playful connecting games, explained inDr. Bailey’s book, I Love You Rituals, can help increase the bonding and safety in your home.
Make sure to look up Ashley’s Conscious Life on Youtube to learn how to use “I Love You Rituals” in a day-to-day context.
Each of these tips will help keep your children safe during an uncertain time.
Many schools provide social-emotional training every week.
At school, children learn to calm themselves, breathe deeply, solve arguments, and make friends.
Children learn how to express their frustration in helpful words and have a positive attitude towards life.
It’s important not to neglect children’s social and emotional safety.
If you choose to keep your children home from school, they may miss their friends and teachers.
You know you love your child. But how can you make sure your child knows it?
5 love languages of children will help you discover how to speak your child’s love language in a way that he or she understands.
They may miss the playground and after school activities even more.
If you send your child to a traditional school, they may feel stressed by seeing everyone in masks and by being introduced to rituals and routines that are completely foreign to them.
They may feel scared and startled by teachers who will no longer hug them, get close to them, or smile at them (due to social distancing and masks).
Social and emotional health are critical parts of safety.
Children whose emotional needs are not met are at a higher risk for anxiety and depression.
Are you listening to your children’s needs and point of view? Are you offering a comforting presence, understanding, curiosity, and kindness to your child?
These elements will improve their emotional well-being, which in turn promotes physical safety.
9. Other Immune Boosters.
The addition of immune system boosters to your daily regimen can help to ensure your children are safe at home and in the community.
In addition to healthy touch and psychological safety, there are many other simple, practical and cost-effective ways to support the immune system and help ensure your children’s safety during this volatile time.
Vitamin supplements, good nutrition, plenty of sleep, and exercise are other ways to ensure your child stays as healthy as possible.
First, help keep your children safe by boosting their immune defenses.
Vitamin C, D, and Zinc are the most popularly recommended by medical practitioners for immune system support.
All these supplements come in different forms including gummies.
Vitamin C is a well-known vitamin that helps children avoid sickness.
Second, help keep your children safe by ensuring they have plenty of sleep.
The Sleep Foundation shares, “Without sufficient sleep, your body makes fewer cytokines, a type of protein that targets infection and inflammation, effectively creating an immune response…. Chronic sleep loss even makes the flu vaccine less effective by reducing your body’s ability to respond.” https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/how-sleep-affects-your-immunity.
Third, emphasize exercise for your children.
Ensure that they are getting outside to move their bodies in fun ways.
In this way, it will work out for the safety and health of all involved.
10. Trusting God Brings Ultimate Safety.
One of the most difficult admissions for you as a parent to make is that ultimately, you cannot ensure that your children are 100% safe.
Stray germs could come into the cleanest environment.
The most diligent teacher could allow a safety breach.
Danger could come out of nowhere. No matter how hard you try, you can’t ensure your child is 100% safe.
Rather than becoming paranoid, we can seek God’s strength to rest in His sovereignty and love.
Ultimately, safety only comes from God.
The words of Psalm 27 describes an attitude of peaceful calm, trusting in the Lord’s protection:
“The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
whom shall I dread?
When the wicked came upon me to devour my flesh,
my enemies and foes stumbled and fell.
Though an army encamps around me,
my heart will not fear;
though a war breaks out against me,
I will keep my trust.” (Psalm 27:1-3 BSB)
The next verses explain the reason why David can have such confidence.
His ultimate request is not for protection from germs or other earthly harm.
“One thing I have asked of the LORD;
this is what I desire: to dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the LORD
and seek Him in His temple.
For in the day of trouble
He will hide me in His shelter;
(God)He will conceal me under the cover of His tent;
He will set me high upon a rock.” (Psalm 27:4-5 BSB)
Ultimately, our safety comes from God alone.
When our desire is the presence of God, we feel the security of hiding under his wings—even if we do get sick.
We should continue to work hard and do our best to keep our children safe.
But in the end, we should entrust them to the one who loves them more than we do.
And in Him, we can rest.
Praying for God’s continued blessings and guidance………♥
