Month: December 2022

Hanukkah activity -make your own dreidel

Today is the beginning of Hanukkah, an eight-day Jewish festival celebrated around the world.

Relax Kids classes teach children about tolerance and respect of themselves and each other. One of themes is Around the World Adventures.

Our world is increasingly becoming a global society, where other cultures can appreciate and understand each other regardless of faith or ethnicity.

These classes will take your child on a different magical journey each week, igniting their curiosity about the world around them, and helping develop their understanding of different places and cultures.

Why not celebrate the beginning of Hanukkah at home with your child by creating your own paper dreidel?

Follow this link to download a printable, cut-out dreidel to make at home: https://relaxkids.com/dreidel/

Dreidels are a traditional Jewish toy. Here’s how to play a dreidel game:

Rules

1. Any number of people can take part in this great game.
2. Each player begins the game with an equal number of tokens (about 10-15). Use sweets, raisins or pennies as tokens, or create your own!
3. At the beginning of each round, every participant puts one game piece into the centre ‘pot.’ In addition, every time the pot is empty or has only one game piece left, every player should put one token in the pot.
4. Every time it’s your turn, spin the dreidel once. Depending on the outcome, you give or get game pieces from the pot. Follow the instructions on each side of the dreidel.
5. If you find that you have no game pieces left, you are either out or may ask a fellow player for a ‘loan.’
6. When one person has won everything, that round of the game is over!

Enjoy playing with your dreidel!

For more information on our classes or to find a coach near you, visit our https://relaxkids.com/find-a-coach/

Our classes will develop children’s social skills, imagination and creativity, build their self-esteem, and encourage physical development through fun and games. Your child will learn simple and fun relaxation techniques, including games and movement, stretching and breathing exercises, peer and self-massage, positive affirmations, and visualisations.

Every exercise in our classes has been created to help children have fun and develop their confidence, social skills and creativity!

Marneta’s top ten Christmas tips

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, so don’t let stress get in the way of your fun! Here are Marneta’s top ten tips to avoid stress this Christmas:

1.) Christmas Cards – Make a list of people you would like to send a Christmas card to. Don’t feel obliged to send cards to people who you feel you have to send to. This year, I made a list of all the people who are close and make me smile and I made each one a handmade card. You might like to save money and stress, by getting your children to make all your Christmas cards this year.

2.) Shopping – Plan your shopping trips and make plenty of lists and go shopping before it gets too busy. Try to make shopping a pleasure instead of a chore and give yourself little treats on the way. Have an express manicure, coffee break or stop and listen to the Christmas buskers! Don’t forget to listen to some relaxation https://relaxkids.com/product/relax-and-de-stress/ to help keep you calm and refreshed before and after shopping.

3.) Online shopping -This is definitely the way forward! It is easy and quite stress free. It does lack the buzz and atmosphere though, so try to find the time to nip into town to get an injection of Christmassy spirit.

4.) A perfect Christmas. There really is no such thing as a perfect Christmas and so many people stress unnecessarily by trying to create a Christmas that competes with Good Housekeeping magazine. Just Relax and do your best. Your family would much prefer you to be happy and relaxed than stressed and uptight trying to do everything perfectly.

5.) Emergency Presents – Wrap up a few extra boxes of chocolates etc for any unexpected visitors. This will save any last minute panics!

6.) Family Fun – Try to involve the children as much as possible and set aside times where they can help make gift tags or help cook gingerbread men. Although this may seem more stressful than getting on with it yourself, it will bring the real spirit of Christmas to your home.

7.) Relaxation – Make sure you take time out to de-stress. Quiet reflection, meditation or going to church or your place of prayer, will give you vital chill time.

8.) Charity – Try to spend a few moments in thought, prayer or action for those you are less fortunate than yourself. For many people, Christmas is a fun family time, for others it is the loneliest time of the year. Doing something for others is a sure fast way to make you feel valued and content.

9.) Take a break if it is all getting too much on Christmas day and go for a walk as you take time out for some quiet reflection.

10.) Relaxing Kids at Christmas – The seasonal build up can be so exciting for children and make them hyper and over exhausted. Make sure the children get plenty of relaxing time during the run up to Christmas.

Relaxation can improve family relationships and boost self-esteem

With less than a fortnight to go until Christmas, children are likely to be bursting with excitement and getting them to wind down and go to sleep may seem like an impossible task!

Children may resist traditional techniques, such as counting sheep if they don’t want to go to sleep.

Getting enough sleep is vital to children’s health and well being. We all know what over tired children are like, cranky, unable to engage with other children, run down, and even a little depressed.

Studies have identified a link between lack of sleep and the onset of depression. What’s more important, is that early intervention in disruptive sleeping habits and sleeping problems in children has been shown to lead to significant health benefits in later life.

If your child is finding is difficult to fall asleep or sleep through the night, now could be the time to introduce simple relaxation techniques to help them establish a healthy sleep routine and learn how to drift off peacefully every night.

Relax Kids creates simple and child-friendly exercises that teach children effective relaxation techniques, like breathing exercises, progressive muscle relaxations, positive affirmation and visualisation.

Try this simple exercise at home with your child. It is a progressive muscle relaxation that will help children deeply relax their bodies, let go of their worries, and feel ready for a good night’s sleep.

The Robot – Close your eyes, be very still and imagine that you are a robot. Your whole body is made of metal. The lights on your arms and legs and stomach are flashing brightly. The robot also makes all sorts of beeping and bleeping noises. It is a very noisy robot. Now you are going to see if you can switch the robot off and make every part of your body completely still. Start with your right leg – bring all your attention to your right leg and turn off the switch. Your right leg becomes totally still. Do the same to your left leg, switching off the switch and watching the bright lights on that leg turn off. Switch off the light on your stomach and make it very, very still inside. Now do the same to you arms, turning off the lights and letting your arms become very still and heavy. Finally, turn off the switch in your head. Switch off your mouth, switch off your nose and eyes and finally switch off your eyes. You should feel very still now. See how still you can make your robot body.

Don’t forget that if you move anything, then the lights will go back on – so stay as still as you can.

https://relaxkids.com/product/the-wishing-star/ (extract from The Wishing Star)

For more exercises like this visit our online store to browse our best-selling relaxation books and CDs.

Develop your child’s imagination and write your own Christmas story

With time off over Christmas, the holidays can be a great time to help develop your child’s imagination. With a visit from Santa just around the corner and a sense of magic in the air, children will already be brimming with excitement and wonder. Why not harness that creativity by writing a Christmas story together?

This activity will develop your child’s language skills and creative skills, help them learn to to think on the spot, as well as bringing you closer together in a fun Christmas activity!

Tell a Christmas Story

This game can be played by as many people as you like. The story begins with one person making up the first line of a story (tell the story out loud!), e.g. This morning, Sally woke up very early and was surprised to find…

The next person adds another line to the story, one of Santa’s elves standing at the bottom of his bed. The elf said to Sally…

The next person adds a line to the story, or if there are only two of you, it goes back to the first person, you’ve come all the way from the North Pole to find you Sally, Santa needs your help!Sally jumped out of bed quickly as she could, and…

This game can be played with as many or few people as you want and will help inspire children’s imaginations. Don’t worry if the story gets a bit silly. Let children go wild with their imaginations and see where the story ends up!

Put your child into their own Christmas Story

Enter a few simple details like your child’s first name and age, and what they have been good this year (helpful at home, eating all their vegetables, etc.) and is if by magic, you will have your very own personalised Christmas Story Book.

Within the story, your child will experience a magical ride on Santa’s sleigh, receive a special gift from Santa, and learn how Santa and his elves relax in order to prepare for a busy Christmas Eve!

The Christmas Story Book is free to make and will give your child a wonderful surprise, as well as teaching them valuable lessons about Christmas.

Fun Christmas Games

With just over two weeks to go until Christmas, everyone is getting into the festive spirit!!

Christmas can be so much fun as it is the one time where everyone gets together.Children love party games, so you might like to make your Christmas day into a real party. Instead of turning on the TV this Christmas, keep the festive spirit with some fun family games that will keep everyone laughing and releasing those all important endorphins.

Christmas Pass the Parcel- Wrap a small gift with lots of wrappers and have a sweet or forfeit in between each layer. You could have forfeits such as: Give grandma a big hug and a kiss. Say the alphabet backwards. Talk about Christmas for 30 seconds. Sing a Christmas song. Name Santa 8 reindeers. Hop around the circle. Bark like a dog to the tune of Jingle Bells. Be inventive!!

Pin the Carrot on the Snowman- Draw a big picture of a snowman and get everyone in turn to put the carrot nose on the snowman. Don’t forget that they have to be blindfolded.

Christmas A-Z – One person starts the game saying a Christmassy word beginning with the letter A, and the next person B and the next person C and so on until someone can’t think of anything. i.e. Advent, Baubles, Christmas cake etc

Guess who I am? – Under everyone’s plate, place cards with the name of a famous person or Christmas character written on it. The person sitting to the side of that person will stick the card with tape to that person’s forehead making sure they don’t see the name. Everyone else but the person who is wearing the card can see the name. Everyone asks each other questions to see if they can guess who they are. 

Hum the Tune –  Give everyone sitting round the Christmas dinner table a Christmas Carol or song. They then have to hum the tune to that song/carol for others to guess. This game is always lots of fun.

Christmas Stories – One person starts the game off by making up a story about Christmas and stop after two or three sentences. The person sitting next to them has to continue the story and so on.

Christmas I Spy – Everyone loves I spy! Why not play Christmas I Spy and list things related to Christmas.

The Big Wrap – Wrap up a present with lots of wrappers and make it as hard as possible to unwrap. Each person rolls the dice. When a person gets a 6, they put on gloves and try and unwrap the present until someone else gets a 6 and takes the gloves and starts to unwrap the present. The person who unwraps the final layer wins the present.

Teach children about gratitude this Christmas

Christmas is a wonderful time to teach children about positive values. With all the presents and lovely treats at Christmas time, it is important for children to realise how lucky they are and feel grateful for all the amazing things in their life.

Try this simple meditation at home with your child:

Close your eyes and be very still. Take in a deep breath and breathe all the way out. Breathe in slowly and breathe out slowly.

Now think of all the things in your life that you are grateful for. Think about having a home to keep you warm and safe, having people in your life that love you. Think about how lucky you are to have good food. Spend some time saying thank you quietly in your mind.

Now think about all your possessions and how lucky you are to have clean clothes and toys. Think about your favourite toy and feel so grateful and lucky.

Now, think about your friends and people that you laugh and play with. Feel yourself smiling inside as you think about your friends and how lucky you are to have special friends.

Spend a few moments thinking about all the special adventures and experiences that you have had recently. Where have you been that was special. What did you do that made you feel happy inside. Stay still and really appreciate how lucky you are to have these experiences.

As you sit there quietly, feel very calm and appreciative. Feel a warm feeling of gratitude surround you like a blanket. Continue to breathe in and out gently as you feel grateful and happy.

See how long you can keep this feeling for.