Self-Care for Adults; Homeschooling Resources for Kids!
Take a deep, cleansing breath in. Imagine the cleansing breath traveling throughout your mind and body, cleansing you of anything that does not feel good. As you exhale, consciously release any tension, stress, fear, or apprehension over things you have no control over. Inhale love, light and peace. Exhale sadness, anxiety, and worry. Continue this exercise for a few rounds.
You are not alone right now. If you’ve been feeling afraid, frustrated, short on patience, and/or exhausted, there’s nothing wrong with you—you’re doing the best you can in these unforeseen circumstances. We are all in this together. We’re doing the best we can each day. Whether you’re single, in a relationship, married, and/or have kids, everyone’s life has been out of whack this week.
The most important thing we can do right now for ourselves (and others around us) is prioritize self-care. What is self-care? It looks different for everyone. For some, it’s practicing yoga, meditating, writing, and/or reading. For others, it’s taking a bath, making a cup of tea, talking to a therapist, going for a walk, and/or cooking something nutritious. Self-care is deliberate; it helps us maintain our emotional, physical and mental well-being. It’s been scientifically proven that when we practice self-care regularly, our mood is improved and our nervous system is more relaxed.
As I prepared to launch my Something Katie website two years, I created a self-care checklist to stay on track with maintaining my self-care throughout the process. I found it so helpful that I paid a designer to help beautify it with graphics so that I could share it with anyone who visited my website. Today, I’m sharing it with you! I hope you find it helpful! Please feel free to forward it to anyone you think could benefit from it—as I said earlier, we’re all in this together!
For parents—I’ve spent a substantial amount of time this week gathering resources to help homeschool our kids. Teachers and schools are doing a fabulous job at sending home packets, holding digital space, and reaching out… but here’s the thing—no one knows your child(ren) like you. Think of this as the perfect opportunity to address a shortcoming with your child that you typically wouldn’t have enough time in the day to do between work, school, extra-curricular activities, homework, chores, meal time, etc. For example, our daughter gets distracted very easily, particularly when she’s reading. For us, this week has provided us the time to really work with her and remind her to pause while reading to ask herself comprehension questions. Our son is extremely factual. He is a walking encyclopedia. This week has provided us the time and space to work 1:1 with him to devise creative writing prompts and teach out-of-the-box thinking strategies.
For those looking for resources of things to do with their children, here’s a list of websites that I’ve found helpful:
A great source for read alouds, varying age groups, read by celebrities:
https://www.storylineonline.net
Kindergarten/1st grade reading comprehension:
Virtual field trips:
https://virtualschoolactivities.com/
Sample Schedules and lesson plans for pre-k—grade 12:
A great website for enrichment for talented and gifted children AND high school students:
SCIENCE for all!
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/labs/
More science for K-12:
https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/teachable-moments/
For multi-sensory learners, this website has great projects that include objects you'll likely have lying around your house!
https://livingmontessorinow.com/category/activity-of-the-week/
Math and science printable, activities, and videos:
https://www.exploratorium.edu/explore/activities
Learn another language (or two) for free!
https://www.learningliftoff.com/duolingo-learn-languages-with-free-iphone-and-android-app/
Even though our physical doors are closed; our virtual studio is very much open! Throughout this time, we will continue to offer online kids yoga classes, family yoga classes, and adult yoga classes. Click here to view our schedule. Tomorrow we are launching a VERY exciting program—PiP Yoga + Mindfulness Club! Stay tuned :)
Sending you all love + so much light,
Katie, @SomethingKatie