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Lack of sleep, extreme weather events, holidays or just a change of activities for the day can cause children anxiety and stress. Maybe it’s just one of those days that your young child is running around like they have ants in their pants, getting into everything, or maybe even bouncing off the walls. That is where this list of calming activities for children comes in.
*** GIVEAWAY AT THE BOTTOM OF THE POST ***
Calming Activities for Children
When feeling angry, restless or frustrated, calming activities can help reduce these feelings and help your child become calm and less fidgety. You may also find that these activities are great for helping prevent meltdowns.
Find a quiet area and set up an activity for your child or have them choose an activity that they want to do and have them help prepare it or prepare it for them.
In this list, you will find a variety of activities that should suit may different children.
Stretching Exercises
Stretching exercises such as yoga, is a great way to calm and relax your child. There are many videos and books that can help teach poses, or you could try these stretching cards and posters, or these exercise cards.
Calming Sensory Bottles or Bins
Sensory objects provide something for children to hold onto or pick up. Easy to make, they help children focus and chill out. Here is a list of some different sensory bottles and bins that you can make:
Gardening
Gardening helps bring nature, and calming, to your child. This healthy distraction offers solace and comfort, reducing stress and anxiety, allowing for recovering from these tense situations quicker.
This will also help teach your child responsibility, as they care for plants and trees or grow their own food. There are many benefits for teaching children to garden. Check out these seven tips for gardening with kids!
Some more gardening resources:
Playdough
Playing with playdough is a fun, relaxing activity that can help them calm down and focus their energy in a more positive way.
Squeezing, rolling and shaping the dough can help reduce stress and anxiety.
While they are calming down, they will also be working on improving their focus while they manipulate the playdough.
Check out this list of playdough recipes! And playdough mats!
Puzzles
Puzzles can be very relaxing and calming for children of all ages!
The process of completing puzzles by doing the pieces together can be meditative to some, helping to calm the mind while promoting a sense of tranquility.
Just make sure to give age-appropriate puzzles or otherwise, they may get frustrated and give up.
Here you will find some great printable educational puzzles for young children.
Scavenger Hunt
Scavenger hunts are amazing for teaching children independence and help them relax. As they search for a list of items, they are able to explore their surroundings, boost their problem-solving skills and add some physical activity to their day.
Painting
Art is therapeutic. It is known to lower stress levels and promote calmness. Painting is a great way for children to release their emotions while they relax and calm down. Try making your own watercolour paints, or try this tape resist art with paint activity. And, what about this gorgeous glitter fireworks art project? It is so much fun!
Colour Matching Activities
Colour matching activities can be done with just about anything. Give your child some different coloured construction paper and have them find things around the house that match them. They can collect multiple objects or colourful blocks, crayons, buttons, or anything you find around the house.
Check out these great colour matching printables:
Blocks
Many kids find building with wooden blocks or Lego type blocks relaxing and calming. However, this does depend on the age of your child. Sometimes, kids can get frustrated with blocks as well.
Cloud Watching
On a clear day, lay down a soft blanket on the grass and have your child lay down and look up at the sky. This is a great outdoor calming activity that also allows children to get some fresh air as they relax. Spend some time looking at the clouds, creating shapes out of them or talking about the colours or birds of the sky.
Children might enjoy learning about the different types of clouds while watching them. They can do this with these cloud formation cards or this cloud flip book.
Relaxing Music
Have children lay down and close their eyes and listen to some relaxing music. If your child plays an instrument, they may enjoy playing some calming music themselves.
Colouring In
This low-stress activity allows children to calm down and focus on being creative. Relaxing music can be played in the background for an extra element, while they complete this activity. Here are some great colouring pages.
Race Cars
Some kids find playing with race cars calming and relaxing. Create a race car track on the floor or the driveway using painter’s tape. The kids will love helping create this portable garage with mini race track. They will have a place to store their cars and then a fun race track to race their cars on.
To extend this activity, allow children to give their cars a wash. They can line them up and wash them one by one in a bucket or under the sprinkler on a hot summers day.
Sand Play
Playing with sand is a fun activity that can help keep your child busy while helping them calm down. This sensory play also brings many other amazing benefits. Have your child help you make your own kinetic sand or sand slime to have on hand for fun times.
Forts
Help your child or let them make their own fort in the house. Grab some pillows and blankets and lay in the fort together, resting and talking when done. Enjoying each other’s presence in this safe place can help calm and relax a lot of children.
Some other great ideas include
- Blowing bubbles
- Using a weighted blanket
- Rocking on a rocking chair
- Tossing bean bags
- Cuddling with a soft toy and blanket
- Using a lava lamp
- Climbing on a playground
- Having a hug
- Balance on a balance board
- Watch a snow globe
- Play with water toys in a water table or a warm bath
- Blow on a pinwheel
- Play I spy
- Look at photos in an album or on your phone
- Paint the house with water
- Pop some bubble wrap
- Decorate with reusable stickers
- Play with scratch and smell stickers
- Use a quiet book
- Paint the shower with shaving cream
- Meditation
- Go on a nature walk
Hopefully, this list will give you a few new ideas for calming your child down.
These activities should help keep your child busy and relax them for a bit.
What other activities do you do to calm down your kids?
*** GIVEAWAY ***
Giveaway ends July 18th at 11:59pm ET. Winners will be drawn and emailed the following day. The winners will have 48 hours to respond to email to claim the prize. By entering this giveaway you will be added to the email lists of the participating bloggers. Please be sure to read the Terms & Conditions upon entering the giveaway.
This year, we’re giving away three $250 gift cards, and the best part is that you get to choose which homeschool curriculum company the gift card is for. Whether you use The Good & the Beautiful, Gather Round, Notgrass, My Father’s World, or maybe you like shopping at Rainbow Resource, this giveaway is designed to help ease the cost of your school year.
The giveaway runs from July 9 through July 18, so be sure to get your entries in.
To enter, simply use the Rafflecopter form below. I know there are quite a few entries, but each blogger has generously contributed to make this giveaway possible. And remember, the more entries you complete, the better your chances of winning.
We hope this giveaway is a blessing to you and your homeschool this year!
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