Stress Relief Toolbox for Kids

I can not imagine what children today are feeling. The state of the world seems less like reality and more like a bad dream these days. As a family who had to do a lot of work on “transitions” with our son, it seems like the inconsistencies of today would be impossible to deal with. Moving from playing catch to going to the car would be a huge exercise in transitional practice. We have come a long way over the years practicing and are in a place now that’s more typical, but environmental stress is still something Atlas is far more sensitive to than most people we know, so we have been aggressively working on implementing time to de-stress, calm down, insert positivity, provide comforting moments, and remind him we are all in this together and we can make the most of it.

Not all days are perfect. Far from it. We have had the break down moments of things just not being fair. The let down of all our friends and family needing to cancel their plans to visit us. The miss opportunities to go to The States time after time, and of course, the unknown future of things. Disappointment is a recurring theme, but we are doing our best to lighten things up and we have found some really great tools that have been working for us.

Gratitude has become the focus of calm. Remembering what we have, what we have to look forward to and reminding ourselves of all the good. Below is a round up of stress relieving things we have done around here that have been successful, and most of free!

What Our Family Is Using to Keep Calm

Ninja Focus / Free for Now

Ninja Focus is a lot like Moshi, but also not like Moshi at all. It’s focuses on mindfulness, compassion, and emotional regulation. One of the prompts starts by asking how your child is feeling and after they answer, activities are suggested. It’s not like Moshi, because it does involve screen time, but it is like Moshi because soothing stories are worked in as well. We have really been enjoying this App and look forward to seeing future developments.

Coloring Sheets / Free from Kurzgesagt

We may be Kurzgesagt’s biggest fans. Atlas has transcribed over a dozen videos into books he made based off their videos. The topics range from cancer to black holes. He even made a 42 minute presentation on String Theory based off these videos. When we found out they have super cool coloring sheets for free, we made a family activity out of it. Honestly, this has calmed all of us down quite a few times.

Yoga for Littles / Free Videos + Book and Deck of Cards for $11 (on sale now at amazon)

As you probably know by now, if you follow our social media, I publish Yoga for Littles last year. This year we decided to do a 50 part series of free yoga videos for children. They can be used together or separate. The videos are meant to be calming and to help regulate, so they are best to do together to keep your kiddo engaged and focused. This is a really fantastic way to get your day off to a great start.

The Breathing Book / $15

We just bought this book, and it’s awesome. Small breathing activities set up to engage children while promoting breathing. We don't “do” the whole book, we pick a few pages and follow some exercises. This works particularly well for us before our bedtime routine really kicks in. For example after brushing teeth and putting on pajamas, we will crawl into bed and complete a few activities from this book, then read a story, and then turn on Moshi.

Big Life Journal Resources / Many are free + many items to purchase at various costs including downloads and physical items.

I was so excited when Big Life Journal released a weekly journal! We pre-ordered ours after doing a bit of a test with the free download (lots off free goodies when you sign up for their newsletter).

I had very low expectations that our son would write in his gratitude journal daily, but he did for a whole month! There is also a podcast and tons of resources connected to Big Life Journal. I think the growth mindset focus is fantastic and so important for children to learn early on.

Each Friday we get a new freebie, some we use right away and some we save for later or skip all together - but I do have to say, for being free and consistence it’s quite impressive what they offer and how emotionally great it is for kids children.

Moshi / Free Download $39 per year

Moshi is an App, and it’s not the cheapest App. The good news is that you can download it for free and test it out right away without paying for an upgrade. After a few nights of using the “stories”, we knew it was a keeper. There is a “breathing” option too, which uses the 5 seconds in, hold for 2 seconds, 5 seconds out method, and we us it a lot. One the the characters breathes along with you and it’s very cute. We love this App because it’s not a “screen time” App, we just play the stories, music, and breathing through a portable bluetooth speaker. Each week a new story is released, which is awesome. The offerings according to Moshi:

Remove anxiety and stress from the bedtime routine
Over 145 pieces of completely original sleepy content created by the BAFTA winning Moshi team
Choose from Stories, Meditations, Music and Sounds to soothe kids into a peaceful sleep
Original content released every week to ensure there is always something new for kids to enjoy at bedtime
Audio-only. No need for screens in the bedroom

Calming Music / Free

This has really been a game changer. You just turn on light music in the background and things just seem to calm down bit by bit on their own, more often than not. We put together this huge Spotify list of “background music” to share with you and your littles. It’s not magic, but it helps. Try it for a week or two and see if it changes the mood in your home.

Lana Migliore Katsaros · Playlist · 49 songs · 0 likes