Wellbeing

What Can Help Us View Things Differently?

Q: Why can't you do a math test in the jungle?

A: There are too many cheetahs!

A teacher asked one of his students, "Give me a sentence with lettuce."The student said, "Lettuce out of school early!"

As teachers, we’ve spent a significant amount of time lately joking about Zoom meetings, government forced exercise routines, and home haircuts. However, during times of uncertainty and challenge, it is perhaps more crucial than ever to recognise and hold on to the lighter side of life if we can. 

Humour, creativity and physical exercise are ways that we can do this. Humour can act as a valve and enables us to let off steam, In the current context laughing and silliness can make the reality less frightening. For parents with the stressors of working from home accompanied by supervising children’s learning becoming immersed in your young child’s play or just mucking around can be therapeutic and good fun!

One of the little people who is currently learning from school and I have an ongoing routine about him making a new car for me. Each day he brings a toy car to school, and each time I am there, the car becomes a bit bigger. I make suggestions about colour and size, and he laughs and shakes his head; but the next time we meet, he shows me another option. We both know that this exchange is make-believe, but this bit of fun has been a great connection. I know it has because he occasionally invites me into the sandpit to dig dirt racecourse tracks with him. 

Creativity is another great outlet for children at home. When the Junior children get online for Story Time, we have noticed that some of them like to share and show one another what they have been making at home. A teacher mentioned that one child, during storytime, seemed to be making a zip line for her dolls to travel across the living room. Keep your minds and hands, creative children – through drawing, painting, creating, and exploring your imaginative side.

The internet is full of suggestions. I’ve added some sites to the newsletter that may be worth exploring. 

• Easy Peasy and Fun (step by step drawing)
• The Primary Art Class – Home Learning Videos (great ideas for older children in our school – some tremendous drawing challenges in Lesson 5, I’m going to try some of these myself in the school holidays)
• First Palette
• Highlight Kids
• Hands-on As We Grow

Mrs Sykes is our Personal Trainer at school. She is inspiring us to do "Steptember." (sorry, Mrs Sykes, I said I needed to do 30,000 this weekend to catch up, only another 29,000 to go)! Last week and this week getting our bodies moving has been the Wellbeing focus. We know that physical activity is an excellent tool for mental wellbeing, and when our bodies are energetic, it can help our mind and our mood to feel great.

Finally, gratitude is a great way to see things through a different lens. We are facing difficult circumstances, but as members of the Holy Family School Community we can be thankful for:

 - the staff of teachers and learning support officers who provide learning opportunities for us;

 - the school for access to the digital learning tools we can use (for 463 million children globally, and 80 million in our neighbouring region, there is no remote learning because children do not have access to technology);

 - our parents – who support us in countless ways. 

Thank you. 

Have a creative, fun and peaceful holiday, everyone.  

Connie Drossaert

Wellbeing Leader