Social Work

Please check out the following video on how to identify feelings, being okay with feelings, regulating feelings, and coping with anger:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8hZbN9C4HHA

It can be tough to work from home and also have your kids in the house doing school work. Please see the video below on how to improve your working family relationships:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PXcIlTS6Ic

I know a lot of parents are struggling at this time with the Corona virus pandemic and how to deal with their children’s disappointment. Please see the below article from The New York Times:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/18/parenting/coronavirus-kids-events-cancelled.html

Sometimes for kids, especially younger ones it is hard for them to tell the difference between tattling vs. reporting. Watch the video below to learn the difference and how to do conflict resolution:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kwvkTcFDUM

Sometimes kids have a hard time playing games and not being the winner. Try watching this video from a cartoon series called, “George and Martha” where they explore being a sore loser. The video link that I sent has two stories in it and the video for our lesson starts at 11 mins and 30 seconds.

Some follow up questions for the video:

-Does it matter if you win or lose a game? (Only matters if you have fun)

-Martha is good at a lot of things. What are some things you are good at?

-What was George good at?

-What made George a sore loser?

-Why did Martha decide to let George win at the end?

-Once you are done with questions you can play a game with the kids to model their new skills.

Please click on the video below and remember to start it at 11 mins and 30 seconds:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qaf0fHYPNQ&t=700s

Instructions for the game:
1) Get into groups from 7-14 people (Obviously right now it will be a smaller group lol)

2) Everyone number off. (everyone should have a different #)

3) Using a four beat rhythm, count of saying “Concentration following the rhythm concentration now begin .” (keep the beat by slapping both hands on lap as first beat, clapping for the second beat, and snapping fingers for the third and fourth beats)

4) After the sound off the leader will call his number then another number on the snaps.

5) The second number called responds by calling his number then another number on the next set of snaps. This continues until someone falls out of rhythm. This game can be played as long as interest remains.

– So they will match the hand clapping rhythm to the rhyme which are both in bold above, after the rhyme they will try to continue the hand clapping while doing the number pattern.

Please refer to this video as the main example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqnsyLO9ypk&t=76s

This video explores steps for children on how they can ask friends to play with them. It also explores what to do if a friend tells you, they do not want to play with you. Please click on the link below to watch with your child and have them practice the steps after:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBPyVl3S5-k

Pizza breathing is something that a lot of the students at River Oaks have learned to do in order to calm down when they are feeling anxious or angry. At school we have pizza cuts outs we can use or the kids colored their own pizza. But also we can make a triangle and the kids pretend that is a slice of pizza to do their breathing.

What we usually do with the kids is we do the breathing with them to calm down. We tell them to “smell the pizza” and “blow on the pizza” to cool it down. Kids love doing this and we try to make sure they are smelling and blowing on the pizza slowly to get into meditative breathing stance. I suggest having kids practice 10 breaths when already calmed down, so if you see them getting upset they will already know what to do.

Follow up questions for kids after doing pizza breathing:
– How does your body feel after doing pizza breathing? (Kids will usually say relaxed or sleepy).

-If you are feeling angry, could you try doing this to calm down before you react?

-Tell me about a time you think you can do pizza breathing?

I found a video below that shows a pretty good example of pizza breathing. It is not exactly how we do it at River Oaks but pretty close. Please see the video below:

Great parent article on how to help with children having anxiety due to the Corona Virus. Click on the link below:

https://www.additudemag.com/adhd-parenting-coronavirus-home/?utm_source=eletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=parent_march_2020&utm_content=032120&goal=0_d9446392d6-55f18087ee-287850641

This video helps explain to kids how they can utilize the ABCDE method to help solve their problems or conflicts they might have. I have included some follow up questions to the video to use with kids along with the ABCDE method outlined.

Follow up questions from playground problem solving video to ask kids:

-What were the kids fighting about?

-Who was wrong when the 2 kids were fighting over the swing? (Trick question, most kids will say the boy was wrong because the girl was there first. The correct answer is they were both wrong because they were not being safe, respectful, & responsible).

-What is the solution the kids picked in the video?

-Write out the ABCDE method to solve a problem you have had?

A=Ask what the problem is?

B=Brainstorm Solutions

C=Choose a solution

D= Do it!

E= Evaluate the solution (Did your solution work or could you have picked something better?)

Click the link below to watch the Playground Problem Solving video which highlights the ABCDE method:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRPWF6Z3g2I&t=1s