Since the beginning of 2020, families, children and society as a whole have experienced so many stressors. For some of our youngest students, the stress involved with Covid is all that they have known in their lifetime. It has limited playdates, prevented typical well-checks, limited available speech therapies and so much more. Families are facing the stress of how to keep their children safe, how to manage finances, how to work from home with limited support from having the contact with family and friends. With all of this going on we have seen an increase in signs of stress in our students. What are we doing to help? Look to the right for our approach to helping children destress and connect with peers and faculty.

Every classroom has been introduced to the Feeling Buddies who are part of Conscious Discipline. The Feeling Buddies introduce various big feelings and help children identify the names and physical attributes that come with each feeling. They also introduce ways to help manage those big feelings. Big feelings are okay and are part of life for all of us. Learning to manage those feelings are a big part of our curriculum. Self Regulation is necessary in order to form relationships and learn new concepts. As a faculty, we have established other methods throughout the school that help with big emotions. We will be learning more next week and are excited to share with you what we learn. Look for more information in each issue. Below are a few breathing techniques we use. Hopefully they help you at home. I know I often use the STAR breathing technique!

From the Feeling Buddies curriculum: "The Buddies and accompanying materials help children learn to identify what they are feeling, separate themselves from the feeling and regulate it. As children manage their Feeling Buddies, they learn helpful language that eventually becomes their inner speech for self-regulation, emotional wellbeing and healing."

Feelings Buddies

STAR Breathing

Breathing Techniques