Assistant Principal's Report

Helping our Children Build Long Term Happiness Part 3

In my last newsletter article, I began explaining how we can implement and teach happiness habits and practices through the acronym ‘FLOURISH’. I mentioned that I often have conversations with members of our community around ensuring our children are consistently happy and that ‘We want our child to be happy’ is a statement I hear on a consistent basis. With the current local and global events having the potential of influencing the happiness of all of us, it is important to remember that the long-term happiness of our children is something that we can influence and is in our control. 

Once again, I refer to Parenting Ideas website for guidance and long-term happiness. In the article ‘Helping kids build lasting happiness’ by Dr. Jodie Richardson, it highlights how we can teach happiness by implementing and teaching happiness habits and practices using the acronym ‘FLOURISH’. This stands for:

- Flow

- Laughter and Play

- Optimism

- Unite for Family meals

- Relationships

- Intensive exercise

-Self Regulation 

- Helping Others

For this fortnight we will look at optimism and Unite for Family meals. 

Optimism 

Optimism has been shown to reduce the frequency of depression and is a skill that can be taught. One of the strategies that Dr Jodie Richardson refers to is the 3 P’s of personnel, pervasiveness (a tendency to spread) and performance. We can teach our children that when things go wrong it is important to understand that what happened is not personal, pervasive or permanent. Encouraging our children to be optimistic and to put events into perspective through various strategies will be a great addition to their happiness toolbox.

Unite for Family meals

Dr Jodie Richardson states that this is a game changer and has a big impact on the wellbeing of all members of the family, especially our children! Research tells us that more family meals together equate to better academic outcomes, fewer mental health issues and less negative habits that impact health later in life such as smoking and the consumption of alcohol. Family meals also bring families closer, strengthening relationships which are at the heart of lifelong happiness. In the Welsh household we strive to have at least 3 family meals a week and if time permits, we combine it with a game’s night! 

These are just two suggestions that can be applied to promote long term happiness in our children. In subsequent newsletter entries I will continue to cover the remaining elements of the acronym FLOURISH. 

Mr Welsh 

Assistant Principal Wellbeing