As summer draws to a close, families often experience a mix of emotions. The approaching school year brings both excitement and potential apprehension. We’d like to offer some strategies to help you maximize these final summer days while fostering social-emotional growth and play!
Connect with Nature:
Connecting with nature is an excellent way to ground ourselves during times of change. Engage all your senses and name what you can see, hear, smell, taste and feel in the environment around you! This simple mindfulness exercise can significantly reduce stress and increase appreciation for the present moment (Treves et al., 2023).
Add Play:
To savor these last summer days, we recommend incorporating play! For a creative twist on daily walks, transitions or a hike, try playing the “Flash Flood” storytelling game. Here’s how to play:
- As you walk, take turns telling a story, starting with “One day there was an explorer…”
- Let your imagination run wild and feel free to be silly!
- At any point, someone can shout “FLASH FLOOD!”
- When this happens, everyone must quickly get to “higher ground” by stepping or climbing onto something off the ground nearby.
- Once everyone is safe, continue the story or start a new one.
This game encourages imagination, physical activity, quick thinking, paying attention to instruction, and flexibility and problem solving, all while adding an element of fun to routine walks. It’s also a great way to increase engagement when you are walking somewhere, in a transition or on a hike.
Engage your Senses:
For a sensory-rich experience with a tangible reward, consider blackberry picking, which is particularly abundant in our Washington state. Depending on your score, you can make blackberry drinks (crush some blackberries in water for a healthy juice alternative) or bake a blackberry pie!
By integrating these playful, social-emotional activities and mindfulness practices into your daily life, you can help your child cherish the remaining days of summer while preparing for a positive transition into the new school year. For additional support with transitions, join our Parent Education Series workshop this month on Tuesday, August 13th from 12-1:15pm via Zoom, where Mara will share strategies for helping children and families navigate summer transitions and changes.
Treves, I. N., Li, C. E., Wang, K. L., Ozernov-Palchik, O., Olson, H. A., Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2023). Mindfulness supports emotional resilience in children during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLOS ONE, 18(7), e0278501. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0278501
