Month: June 2022

Daddy, will you read me a bedtime story?

Did you know that bedtime stories are most often read by mothers? In fact, according to a recent survey from YouGov, 65% of mothers were responsible for reading to their children. Often fathers are too busy or tired to make time for storytelling.

Reading a bedtime story to your child is a fantastic way to relax at the end of a stressful day. By snuggling up and listening to your voice, your child will feel safe and protected. Bedtime stories are very child-centered and allows for warm and positive interaction between parents and children. Listening to stories will stimulate your child’s imagination and even enhance their vocabulary. As well as helping them to relax and let go, you are developing your child’s interest in reading, learning and books. Children who are regularly read to, often perform better in school.

Here are some more of Relax Kids useful Bedtime Tips for Dads:

Children love to be heard and listened to. Talking to your child about their day is comforting for both parent and child. This really creates an atmosphere of security and trust. Encouraging your child to recount their day and give thanks to the great things that happened will develop their self-esteem and appreciation. Talking about their troubles and things that have upset them will help bring comfort and reassurance and will help them work through and understand their emotions. The best way to start is to ask open questions such as – What was the best thing that happened today? What was the worst thing that happened today?

There is nothing better than a bedtime cuddle. Many studies have shown that warmth in a parent-child relationship is strongly related to a child’s self-esteem. The more a child feels parental warmth and affection and communication, the fewer psychological and behavioural problems they will have. Touch is a powerful way of demonstrating love and you may even want to try incorporating a daily massage into your bedtime routine. Try stroking your child’s forehead gently or massaging their palms lightly with your thumb. Both exercises are simple and a great way to get children relaxed and ready to sleep.

Happy Fathers Day, take some time out this evening to read a bedtime story to your child

Relaxation can help child stress

Children can experience nightmares on average once a week. The distress that they cause can lead to restless nights because of awkward body contractions in their sleep, fevers or stresses from daily life.

Relaxation can really help child stress and in turn, can help children sleep better.

There are so many contributory factors to child stress ‚ new technologies, the recent recession, school and peer pressures. And whilst we cannot prevent these things from being created‚ we can do our best to ease the atmosphere.

Create a more relaxing atmosphere at home. Make sure that your TV and music are switched off or at least to a low volume after a certain time. Dim the lights.

Try some simple relaxation exercises to de-stress your child:

Clenching Hands: Ask your child to clench their hands for 5 seconds and then release. Ask them to complete this for different muscles and body parts.

Roll down the spine: Ask your child to as slowly as possible put their chin to their chest, leaving their arms heavy and slowly roll down until they are bending over. At this point ask them to slowly bend their legs into a crouching position and then crawl forward so they are on their hands and knees. Here ask them to bring their bottom backwards towards their feet and then they will be able to rest in form of prayer position. Take a few moments rest, before reversing the process to standing.

Shake it out: Ask your child to frantically shake their body for a few seconds to get their pulses racing and then stop. Placing hands on their stomachs, they will be able to observe what it is like to feel how their breathing changes to help them relax.

The Relax Kids https://relaxkids.com/store/product-category/cds/ fairytale range of CDs are a perfect antidote to stress and anxiety. Order today for restful nights!

Please pass it on and tell all your friends

If you have found this blog helpful please pass it on to your friends, colleagues, schools and nurseries and help us help more families and schools.

Bath times can very stressful.   Bath times can be a great opportunity for you to enjoy quality relaxing time with your family.  Rather than dreading it, you can make it into a special magical and creative time.

Bath times can very stressful. Bath times can be a great opportunity for you to enjoy quality relaxing time with your family. Rather than dreading it, you can make it into a special magical and creative time.

Here are some ideas to make family bath times enjoyable and fun

. Bubbles – as well as plenty of bubble bath, add a bottle of bubbles to let them blow

. Crayons – buy special bath crayons and let children be creative

. Food colouring – add a couple of drops of food colouring for a colourful bath

. Oats – add a handful of oats to the water to help itchy skin (take extra care as the bath could be more slippery)

. Salt – add a handful Himalayan salts to help children relax and sleep

. Lavender – put two drops of lavender in the bath to create a relaxing atmosphere

. Milk – put a cup of milk into the bath to soften the skin

. Lights – get hold of some water activated floating lights for some colourful fun

. Music – play some relaxing music as they enjoy their bath

. Candles – create a lovely atmosphere with candles making sure they are away from the bath and children are supervised

. Warm towels and PJs – put the towels and PJs on the radiator for an extra treat

. Foam shapes – squirt a few large blobs of shaving foam into their hands and let them make some fabulous shapes (make sure they keep the foam out of their eyes)

. Glitter – sprinkle body glitter into the bath for a magical touch

. Relax Kids – play your relax kids CDs for an extra relaxing time to get children in the mood for bed time

Penny Game

Place a penny in the bottom of the bath and let children drop pennies on top of the penny

Bath finger paints

Mix 2 cups flour with water to make a paste. Add food colouring and bubble bath (not foamy bubble bath) until it becomes thick. Children can paint themselves and tiles. The food colouring will colour the water, but it wont stain children.

Bath Bombs

Make your own bath bombs.

Mix 1 part citric acid (buy this at a pharmacy) with 2 parts baking soda. Add a few drops of essential oil and a few drops of food colouring and some body glitter. Spray with witch hazel until mixture just begins to stick together. Make into balls. Place balls on grease proof paper and leave the bombs dry and harden for 24-48 hours.

Did you know that the the piercing sound of an alarm clock has now been found to have a measurably detrimental effect on health?

Did you know that the piercing sound of an alarm clock has now been found to have a measurably detrimental effect on health?

A study by Japan‚ National Institute of Industrial Health found that participants who were woken from their sleep with alarms suffered higher blood pressure and increased heart rates compared to those who were allowed to wake up naturally in their own time.

Based on these findings, it would seem that someone who is subjected to a shrill alarm clock over a sustained period of mornings could develop health issues as a result, and the impact of an alarm clock can be classed amongst the most severe sleep disturbances.

Make sure that your child is getting enough sleep and is not woken up by the sound of a shrill alarm clock. You can get an alarm that simulates the rising sun and brings light into the room or your could preset relaxing music to come on at a certain time. The best thing to do would be preset their favourite Relax Kids CD to gently bring them out of their deep sleep. It is just the perfect way to be woken and will help keep them calm all day long.

Here are some tips to ensure that your child relaxes at homework time…

It is important to encourage children to adopt a regular relaxation routine to help children feel cool, calm and collected whilst completing their homework. Deep relaxation can help children concentrate and increases their learning so making homework stress free.

Here are some tips to ensure that your child relaxes at homework time.

1 Create a relaxing environment without distractions and make sure that the TV and radio noises can not be heard in the background or your child may be distracted.

2 Burn lavender oil to induce calm or rosemary oil to boost concentration.  If you prefer not to burn the oils, you could even put a drop or two on a tissue which children can keep close by.

3 Encourage children to stretch their back in all directions- forwards, backwards, sideways and twist, so that they do not stiffen up and become uncomfortable.

4 Suggest your child drink a glass of water to hydrate the brain and keep themselves alert.

Being grateful can help us feel happy and healthy

Did you know that being grateful and noticing the wonderful things in our life rather than complaining about the bad can really help us feel positive as we release endorphins.

How about starting a Gratitude Diary? You could write down or take pictures of all the things you are grateful for that day. After a few days you will start to feel wonderful. I have been doing this for a few months now and it feels amazing. This is a lovely activity for a family or class.

Here are some things to be grateful for

1 Life

2 Health

3 Family

4 Friends

5 Food

6 Sunshine

7 Water

8 Nature

9 Birdsong

10 Hugs

11 Happy Home

12 Animals and Pets

13 Music

14 Holidays

15 Flowers

16 Sleep and relaxation

Can you add anymore?

How to be happy – stay positive!

There is nothing more refreshing than being with a positive person and nothing more draining than being with someone who constantly moans that their glass is half empty. Positivity is attractive and infectious. Each day, we are met with challenges and situations that can either bring us down or help us step towards being positive. We can wake up feeling less than positive, but just this can be turned around in a short time by our attitude, thoughts and words. There has been some research in Harvard and Yale showing that when we have a positive thought, there is a biological change in the body as we release endorphins which make us feel better.

Here are some tips to help make each day a positive one. You may like to encourage your children to do one or two of these activities to help them grow up feeling positive and happy.

1 Say thank you

Make a list of all the things in your life that you appreciate. Consciously look out for the small things in life makes you appreciate life and living. It will help put troubles into context.

2 Write positive affirmations

You may like to write positive affirmations on post it notes and put them around the house to remind you to. You could also put them in a notebook and add to the notebook each day.

3 Write a love letter

There is nothing better than receiving a love letter. Don’t wait for Valentines Day. Write a letter to yourself and remind yourself of your specialness.

4 Read positive news

As much as possible, try to surround yourself with positivity and listen to things that are positive. If you need to catch up with the news, counteract it with listening to some uplifting music, read a poem or enjoy a joke…anything that can help you keep your mood up.

5 Do good

One of the best ways to feel positive is to give your time, energy and money away to a good cause. Do something that makes you feel valuable and worthwhile, knowing that you are making a difference.

6 Smile

Even if you don’t feel like it, remember to smile. You can trick your mind into feeling better if you smile. It will also make you look younger and more attractive.

7 Spring clean

There is better feeling after you have given the house or room a good spring clean. It clears away all the cobwebs inside and out and seems to help reduce negative thoughts. Even if it is the last thing you feel like doing, try just 15 mins cleaning and see how much better you feel.

8 Believe in yourself

Build yourself up with self confidence and start to believe in yourself and others will start to believe in you.

9 Before sleep

Before you sleep list all the things you were pleased about today and write what you are looking forward to tomorrow.

10 Little steps

Each day commit to 2 things that you can do each day that are good for your body and/or your mind. It might be committing to drinking 2 litres of water or getting your 5 a day or going for a walk. Whatever it is commit to it and promise yourself you will do it without fail for at least a month.

How to be grateful and teach gratitude to children

A grateful child is a happy child. A thankful adult is a happy adult. Gratitude is so simple to learn and I have found that it weaves magic in our lives.

So often we only focus on what is wrong with our lives and miss the beauty that is around us.

A friend of mine committed to 100 days of gratitude and made lists of everything she was thankful for. Reading her notes, I really noticed how those 100 days changed her life. She was happier, more alive and positive.

I am going to commit to 100 days of gratitude starting from today. Will you join me?

Get a beautiful notebook and start to notice little things that make you happy and things that you are grateful for that you might normally miss.  It is great to get the children involved at home or in your classroom.

Here are some ideas.

Encourage children to say please and thank you often.

Ask children to notice what they are grateful for and write it down in their notebook.

Sit around the dinner table regularly and tell each other what you are grateful for.

Ask your child to donate one of their toys to someone less fortunate than themselves, so helping them understand how lucky they are and help them share.

Encourage your child to write thank you notes when they go to parties or receive gifts.

Sometimes its nice to write a thank you note or a special note without an occasion.

Boost your own confidence and your child’s confidence by writing down achievements.  You might like to keep them in a book or make a wall poster and keep adding new ones as the weeks and months and years go by.

I was just making a list of my personal achievements for my bio and thought it would be an excellent exercise for families.

 As a child, in schools, university and drama school, I always always thought I was bottom of the class. I believed I was useless at everything.  I cried every day at university feeling talentless and useless. It wasn’t until recently when I wrote all my achievements down, that I realised the only person that thought that I was talentless must be me! I had just been comparing myself with everyone else. Comparison kills self esteem.

 This is a great lesson to learn and I hope you are able to help your child grow in confidence and help them believe in themselves.

 Boost your own confidence and your child’s confidence by writing down achievements. You might like to keep them in a book or make a wall poster and keep adding new ones as the weeks and months and years go by.

 Celebrate little achievements – that is what life is all about. Watch their confidence grow as you congratulate, reward, acknowledge and appreciate all the little and great things they have done.

 Encourage your children to write them down at the end of the day. Spend time acknowledging, rewarding, noticing, commenting and appreciating your children’s small and large achievements. Hand them certificates of achievement and let them know they are special and appreciated. This will really add to their feelings of self respect and confidence.

 Congratulate yourself too.

 Make a list of your achievements in life to date. You might like to put some here to inspire and remind others of their achievements.

 Here are some of the things I have done:

 Won numerous singing competitions as a child

 Played piano and guitar

 Sung in the CBSO choir with Simon Rattle

 Sung lead in the youth opera – recorded for Radio 3

 Got a degree in performing arts

 Won a Michael Jackson scholarship to study mime

 Awarded a Millennium Award Grant

 Ran a children’s entertainment business and performed at some big stars’ parties

 Went on TFI Friday with Chris Evans

 Directed pantomimes for 15 years

 Played an array of panto parts including genie, belle and wicked witch

 Took 4 shows to the Edinburgh Festival

 Founded Relax Kids

 Won Oxford’s best business and won an office for a year

 Went on BBC Dragons’ Den

 Developed a unique relaxation system and created Relax kids classes

 Trained over 5,000 people

 Editor of RELAX magazine

 Helped thousands of families and schools

The way we feel is the way we feel!

The emotions that we have can generally be categorised as either being positive or negative. However, this may then encourage us to judge our feelings as either good or bed, which is not particularly encouraging or helpful for anyone involved.

The way we feel is the way we feel, whether it be an emotion that makes us feel happy, sad or anything else does not matter. They are all valid and we need to listen to our emotions with equal importance. Only then by doing that will we see our motions transform into positive ones.

Ask yourself , How do I feel today‚ and then label it with a statement. This can be, I feel great‚ I feel angry or I feel frustrated… whatever the case may be.

Simply by acknowledging the way you feel you may automatically feel a lift, whether that be that you go from happy to happier or that you go from feeling rather frustrated to a little less frustrated.

Next, take a moment to centre yourself and take in everything that surrounds you. Empty your mind and observe everything that is there. What textures can you feel? What colours can you see? What shapes are in the room? This activity will allow you to notice whatever you see in that specific moment.

Then take a moment, to take a deep breath in and breathe out focussing on an object in the room. Then move to another object and repeat. Do this 5 times.

Smile. This may feel unnatural but it is hard to think of something negative when you have a smile on your face.

The Relax Kids ‘How do you feel today CD is perfect to help children manage negative feelings.

Please pass it on and tell all your friends

If you have found this blog helpful please pass it on to your friends, colleagues, schools and nurseries and help us help more families and schools.

Affirmations to use at the start and end of the day!

Here is a great way to get children feeling wonderful about themselves.

Try these great affirmations at the start and end of the day.

Repeat each affirmation 3 to 5 times.

Start of the day

I am confident 

I enjoy learning

I am positive

I appreciate myself

I look forward to the wonderful day

End of the day

I am grateful for my day

I am brilliant I am wonderful 

I will sleep well

I look forward to tomorrow

I am grateful for my day

Appreciate the little things in life!

There is nothing more lovely than a grateful child who enjoys the little things in life and appreciates everything. Encourage your child to have an attitude of gratitude by writing all the things they are grateful for that day. 

They can make a thank you list. Thank you for…….Thank you for……..etc. The more we are thankful for things in our life, the more we seem to attract more wonderful things in our life. Whenever they are down or upset, they can read their thank you list or notebook and feel better.

Encourage your child to appreciate and see their specialities with https://relaxkids.com/store/affirmation-cards/star-cards/