Relax Kids South Notts With Cat

To look after your child you must look after yourself. I love this collection of private parenting thoughts. Have a read through I’m sure you will find many that sound familiar to you, I know I did. 💚 Keep going and reach out if you need help, You are parenting through a world crisis, nothing has to be Pinterest perfect. Go gentle on yourself, Cat 💚

Free to print. How about doing some mindful colouring in with built in gratitude with your children this week? 💚 We have one in a plastic sleeve on our bin just in time for bin day today, and a Royal Mail in the front window. Which one will you do? I would love to see them 💚

So Easter is nearly here, and it’s going to be a very different one for us all. No big family dinners, no big outdoor egg hunts or Easter parades and no taking advantage of a long weekend to go visit friends and family further afield. This week I saw a wonderful video of the Prime minister of New Zealand giving an important announcement that along with the tooth fairy the Easter Bunny was considered to be an essential key worker and would be carrying out their rounds as best ...as they could. Apparently a similar announcement was made in Ireland as well.
Now I did see some comments from people saying chocolate is not an essential food item and questioning the shops selling Easter eggs in the middle of a crisis. But I completely disagree; right now chocolate Easter eggs are incredibly essential for our children’s mental health. Our lives have been turned upside down and that loss of “normal” can be particularly scary for a child. Being able to hang on to some little bits of their normal life no matter how insignificant they may seem to us can have a massive impact on lowering their anxiety levels and helping them cope on an emotional level. Many parents have already noticed children sticking to certain programs, toys or music. In some cases going back to things from when they were a little younger. These are all comfort seeking behaviours, they are totally normal and who can blame them right now.
So I encourage you to try to do whatever version of your normal Easter traditions you can still carry out safely and practically within the government guidelines. Our house has always been visited by the Easter Dragon rather than the Easter Bunny (Every family has their own traditions!!) While things will be a little different this year I have heard the dragon is also classed as an essential key worker and will also be allowed to continue his work this year. I wish you a wonderful Easter, connect with family and family however you can, and really enjoy the comforting familiarity of a chocolate egg.
Go Gentle, Cat <3
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How is lockdown going? Why not make some squishy soap to make all the extra hand washing a bit more fun. If we have all the ingredients we will be giving it a go later! Stay safe, Cat x

More freebies from Relax Kids HQ <3 Hope this can help improve calmness in your family. Stay safe and take care, Cat 💚

How are you doing? As week two of home learning continues we are falling into a balance of work and play and my daughter is happy to do some work on her own.
Giving me a little time to get back into my office. This morning I have been going through the last lot of feedback from one of the schools I work in. Reading all the lovely words has really lifted my heart this morning. I really miss all the amazing children and I can’t wait to get back to helping schools support the mental and emotional health of their pupils. 💚

So we made it to Friday, well done! Five days of home learning has seen a few ups and downs here and from the messages I get from other parents I know I am not alone. Some school work has been done, but I am taking the advice of teachers all over the country and not demanding a full school day of learning out of my daughter. Five days in and the fun of "playing school" at home is sinking in as a reality for all of us. We get to do this again next week, and who knows for how l...ong after?
She asked to do some maths earlier and reading will be looking at her copy of This Week Junior that has just popped through the letter box (Thank you to Royal Mail staff for your hard work) But unless she asks to do some more work from the amazing learning pack her school provided, we are focusing on other things today, like gratitude and the kind of activity that feed our souls, so for us that will be crafting and drawing, some yoga in the trapeze and maybe cooking some cakes… hmmm who know?! we will see where the wind blows us today.
Here is a free download for a Relax Kids Home Journal that asks just five simple questions each day, it is a great way of spending a few moments checking in with your child and reflecting on your day. Either print out as many pages as you need or copy them into a spare notebook or pad if you are short on paper and printer ink!
This is a time to focus on nurturing ourselves and our children. Be kind to yourself, you are doing better than you realise, Love Cat 💚
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So yesterday I was talking about the importance of deep belly breathing and how it is the fastest way to calm yourself in moments when big emotions take over, especially right now when many of us are struggling with raised levels of anxiety and fear.
But how do you teach it to a child? Whenever I tell a class of children I am going to teach them to breath I get a lot of puzzled faces and at least one child say “But I know how to breathe Miss!” But the Deep Belly Breathing we ...use to calm us down is a little different to our everyday going about our business breathing, it takes practice and feels a little odd to start with. So ask your child this, “When you breathe in does your tummy go in or out?” Most will say it goes in. But in order to breathe a really deep breath we need to push our tummy out to give our lungs the most room to expand inside our body.
So it goes like this. Breathe IN through your nose and your tummy goes OUT. Breathe OUT through your mouth and your tummy goes IN. Repeat at least twenty times or keep going until you feel calmer.
It is important to begin teaching this to your child when they are calm and make it fun and the best position to start to practice this is laying down on your back. My favourite method it is to place a soft toy on their tummy (on top of their belly button) When they breathe in the toy goes up, when they breathe out it goes down. Have fun taking different toys for a tummy ride. Lay down next to your child and do as well, it will benefit you too. Make it part of the bedtime routine as it is a great thing to do when they get into bed at night. Look out for children lifting their back off the floor and remember to keep it nice and slow. I’m teaching you this remotely, so you need to pay attention to your body, if you have asthma or feel light headed ease up a little and don’t go so deep or so slow. Discover what a comfortable pace is for you and remember your child’s lungs are smaller than yours so they won’t be able to go at your pace!
I’d love to see some pictures of what you balance on your tummy. Have fun and stay calm, Love Cat
Thank you to my daughter Autumn for demonstrating this so well with one of her dragons 💚
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Important advice for adults and children from my Cat Creative page.
Take care and breathe <3

Right now the most important thing we can do for our children is hold them and reassure them. The whole country is in crisis and your children will be picking up on your anxiety on top of their own. Neuroscience shows us that it is utterly impossible for anyone to access the “learning” parts of our brain if our panic centre (amygdala) is in control. So take a step back and breathe deeply. Some children get a sense of comfort from doing their work and that’s fantastic. But if... that isn’t your child, or you are trying to juggle working from home as well, please don’t feel you have to stick to rigid timetables and force work on your child. That won’t help any of you. A sense of nurture is more important than spellings and times tables right now.
Look after yourself so you can look after your child.
Love Cat 💚
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Day one home learning complete and we survived. How did you do? How are you and your children coping? Can I help? We muddled along, didn't get much work done, but my daughter felt supported and at the end said it had been a good school day. In the morning we focused on English and Maths, with lots of breaks in the garden for sunshine and fresh air. After lunch we planted some strawberry plants. We have more craft planned for tomorrow as it is something both my daughter and I love doing. I have heard so many teachers say that parents need to lower their expectations of how much we can do as parents in this situation. I passionately believe that our mental health needs to come first so lots of art, yoga, baking, playing, craft and hugs.
What will you make time for in your day?

So for many of us today is the day we start “home schooling” I will be cross posting lots from my main Cat Creative page to help both parents and children through this difficult time. Hang in there, love Cat 💚 #WeAreInThisTogether

Here is my advice for starting a home school from my Cat Creative Therapy page. Hope it helps <3

This has just been released by Relax Kids HQ. Lots of helpful activities and exercises. I know I am going to be making calmness part of mine and my daughters timetable when home schooling starts on Monday.
Parents and carers, don't just read the pack to your child, actively do it with them, we all need help staying calm right now <3
I may not be able to run classes at the moment, but please if you have any questions or you need advice get in touch.

I know it can be hard to remain calm for your child, especially during such uncertain times. But now more than ever remember to take time to breathe and recharge yourself emotionally. Then you well be better equipped to be the calm base your child needs 💚

The most important foundation to get right. Working in a school all day today helping children to strengthen their mental health foundations to help them now and for the rest of their lives 💚

My daughter and I created a lovely, if not a little random, bedtime activity tonight. Playing with molecules turned into creating these “molecular massagers” They felt so nice 😊 I love the inventions of a childs imagination 💚

The moon is beautiful at the moment, but for some reason children seem to really struggle to be calm and sleep when it is full. In case that is your child here is a free meditation for you to try.
Sleep tight 💚