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My Voice Matters At Home: 8 Ways To Help Your Child Feel Heard

Posted on by Jenny

It’s Children’s Mental Health Week 2024 and this year’s theme is a powerful theme of self-advocacy and self-expression. “My Voice Matters,” is all about helping children learn the importance of their own voices and opinions, whilst also encouraging us grown ups to listen up a bit more.

We understand the importance of empowering your child’s voice at home and how this can be beneficial to their mental health. In this blog post, we’ll explore practical tips and activities to create a supportive environment where your child feels heard, valued, and confident in expressing themselves.

Empowering Voices: A Guide for Parents During Children’s Mental Health Week

Helping children to express themselves and feel heard is important in building your child’s resilience, self-esteem and developing effective communication skills. There are many obvious and less obvious ways to help children feel heard at home, from something as simple as getting them involved in meal planning or making time to talk about our feelings and emotions; help your child feel empowered with our tips below.

1. Cultivate a Safe and Open Space

Encourage open and honest conversations with your child regularly. Create a safe space where they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and emotions. Actively listen without judgment, reinforcing the idea that their voice matters.

2. Collaborative Decision-Making

Involve your child in decision-making processes at home, whether it’s choosing activities, meals, what they want to wear that day or family plans. This not only empowers them but also instills a sense of responsibility and autonomy.

3. Expression Through Art

Provide art and craft supplies for your child to express themselves creatively. Whether through drawing, painting, or crafting, artistic activities can be a therapeutic outlet for emotions that may be challenging to verbalise.

4. Make Time to Talk About Your Day

Designate a special time where everyone can share experiences of their day – perhaps it’s sitting down for a meal or as you’re tucking them into bed. Talking about your day and discussing things you’ve learned or may try differently tomorrow helps children to feel their experiences are valid and builds a supportive environment.

5. Positive Affirmations

Incorporate positive affirmations into daily routines. Encourage your child to repeat affirmations that reinforce their strengths and capabilities. This simple practice contributes to building self-confidence.

6. Mindful Listening

Practice mindful listening by giving your child your full attention when they speak. This not only strengthens your bond but also communicates the importance of their voice being heard and valued.

7. Set Goals Together

Set achievable goals together with your child. This collaborative process not only empowers them to voice their aspirations but also teaches the importance of perseverance and planning. Perhaps you could make a family bucket list of all the things you wish to achieve, do or see together?

7. Use our Resources!

At Be Happy Resources we are passionate about helping children communicate their thoughts, worries and emotions. Our downloadable resources help your children to feel heard by encouraging them to communicate with you about their feelings on a regular basis, whilst supporting their mental health and helping them to build healthy coping mechanisms as they grow. We have more than 800 activities online waiting to be downloaded and used in your home!

This year’s Children’s Mental Health Week acts as a reminder for us all to value the little voices in our lives and make time to ensure their voices are heard and acted on. Children who feel listened to and who feel safe and supported to express their thoughts and opinions build invaluable skills in resilience, communication and much more.

By implementing these practical tips and activities, you’re creating a foundation for their mental well-being that will extend beyond this awareness week.

Want to support your child’s mental health at home? You can sign up and use our resources to help your child express themselves and their emotions from just £2.49!

Empowering Voices: Fun Classroom Activities for Children’s Mental Health Week 2024

Posted on by Jenny

Here at Be Happy Resources, we’re passionate about supporting children’s mental health and empowering young voices. With Children’s Mental Health Week just around the corner, our goal is to provide engaging resources and activities that support self-expression and awareness. In this blog post, we’ll explore some fun and interactive classroom activities designed to resonate with this year’s theme – “My Voice Matters.”

The Importance of Expression in Children’s Mental Health

Before we dive into the activities, let’s highlight why self-expression is crucial for children’s mental well-being. Acknowledging and understanding their emotions, thoughts, and unique voices contributes to building resilience, self-esteem and a positive sense of identity.

Self-expression and feeling listened to are crucial components of children’s mental health for several reasons:
  1. Developing a Sense of Identity: Encouraging self-expression allows children to explore and define their individuality. It helps them understand their preferences, strengths, and weaknesses, contributing to the development of a strong sense of identity.
  2. Emotional Regulation: When children express themselves, whether through words, art, or play, they learn to identify and manage their emotions. This process is essential for emotional regulation, helping children navigate various feelings and respond to different situations.
  3. Building Self-Esteem: Feeling listened to and validated helps to support a positive self-image. When children receive acknowledgment for their thoughts and emotions, it boosts their self-esteem and confidence, providing a foundation for a healthy self-acceptance.
  4. Effective Communication Skills: Learning to express oneself is fundamental to developing effective communication skills. Children who feel listened to are more likely to articulate their thoughts and feelings clearly, enhancing their ability to communicate with others in a constructive manner.
  5. Establishing Trust and Connection: When adults actively listen to children, it establishes a foundation of trust and connection. This supportive environment encourages children to share their thoughts openly, knowing that their voice matters and that they can rely on the support of those around them.
  6. Reducing Anxiety and Stress: Expressing emotions and feeling heard can be a calming process. It allows children to release pent-up emotions, reducing anxiety and stress. This emotional release is essential for maintaining good mental health.
  7. Empowerment and Autonomy: Giving children the space to express themselves empowers them to make choices and decisions, fostering a sense of autonomy. This empowerment contributes to a positive mental health outlook and a belief in one’s ability to influence their own life.
  8. Creating a Supportive Environment: Feeling listened to builds a foundation for a supportive and nurturing environment. This, in turn, is crucial for children to feel secure and cared for, promoting overall mental well-being.
We love this year’s theme, simply because helping children to find and communicate their own voices is integral to their wellbeing, contributing to the development of a positive self-concept, emotional regulation, effective communication, and a supportive environment.

Children’s Mental Health Week Activity Ideas for Classrooms

If you’re looking for ways to incorporate this year’s Children’s Mental Health Week theme into your classroom and curriculum, then we have suggested some fun ways below! Be sure to let us know if you choose to use any of these activities and tag us in your pictures.

1. Say It! Collage Wall: Celebrating Beliefs, Dreams and Opinions

Encourage students to use answer our free Thought Provoking Questions for Kids! These help children to communicate their goals, dreams and views on the world. You could create a vibrant wall display afterwards by cutting out the speech bubbles, making a wonderful collage of their voices, interests, and dreams, visually celebrating the diversity within the classroom.

2. My Most Important Object: Respectful Listening and Communication Activity

Ask each child to bring in something from home that is important to them. Form a circle and have each child introduce their object, explaining what it is and why it matters to them. Encourage the class to be respectful as each child talks about their object, perhaps you could also encourage their classmates to ask thoughtful questions!

3. Expressive Art Stations: Unleashing Creativity

Set up art stations with drawing, painting, and crafting materials. Allow students to freely express their thoughts and emotions through various art forms, promoting creativity as a therapeutic outlet. At the end, each child could talk for 2 minutes about their creation.

4. My Matter Splatter: A Splash of What Matters

A Matter Splatter is a splash of all the things that matter to you. In your Matter Splatter you can put people, objects, places, things, beliefs, values and so much more. Creating a Matter Splatter is the perfect way for children to think about what is important to them, helping them to build their self-identity.

This is a wonderful activity that helps children realise that we are all unique and teaches us to respect the opinions and beliefs of others. Afterwards, you could have your children swap their Matter Splatters to find out what they can learn about their friends and peers.

5. Emotion Charades: Understanding and Expressing Feelings

Play a game of charades where students act out various emotions. After each round, facilitate a discussion on how recognising and expressing these emotions contributes to a better understanding of one another.

6. Gratitude Circle: Building a Supportive and Thankful Environment

Gather students in a circle, ask each child to share something they are thankful for. It can be an object that is important to them or a friend or family member, for example. Exploring gratitude helps us to think about all the good things in our lives and can help children to feel positive and optimistic.  This activity also fosters an environment of respect and builds on listening and communication skills.

7. Hear Me Roar! Ask Children to Write About a Subject They are Passionate About

Encourage older students to pick a subject they are passionate about, such as climate change, the environment and even mental health and write about it. We have a free template you can use! (Coming Soon). You could ask each student to read their written pieces aloud, or ask for volunteers to share their passionate pieces.

8. Healthy Classroom Debate: Sharing Beliefs and Respecting Others

We’ll be bringing you some fun, healthy debate cards this week in the run up to Children’s Mental Health Week. These cards will ask topical questions for your children to debate in a healthy and respectful way, helping them learn to speak up and share their own voices, whilst learning to be respectful of others’ opinions and beliefs.

What do you think of our activity suggestions above? Why not share your ideas in the comments below for others to see!

Our classroom activity suggestions aim to create an environment where children feel heard, understood, and empowered. Incorporate these ideas into your week’s curriculum, and together, let’s make this Children’s Mental Health Week a memorable and impactful experience for our young minds. We believe that every child’s voice truly matters.

Sign Up to The Be Happy Secret Santa 2023

Posted on by Jenny
The Be Happy Secret Santa is back for 2023! Fancy a free, Christmas themed resource every Monday? Sign up now! ***Starts Monday 4th December*** What is the Be Happy Secret Santa? Our Secret Santa worked amazingly well last year and we had over 500 weekly downloads. From discussing and exploring the emotion of ‘joy’ to a fun mindful and printable board game, these are just two examples of our Secret Santa resources from last year. What’s the secret part about? Well, you won’t know what the resource is until you get it! All this year’s resources are under lock and key until they are sent. This year, we expect it to be even bigger. So if you’d like to receive a free Christmas themed wellbeing resource to use in your home, workplace or classroom then sign up below and receive your first free resource right now:

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Join the Be Happy Summer Camp! – A Wellbeing Project for Kids this Summer

Posted on by Brandon Hudson
It’s officially the summer holidays and if you’re looking for fun and low-cost ways to keep children busy and engaged then join the Be Happy Summer Camp! Read more about our new wellbeing challenge below.
The main challenge for every parent over the summer holidays is how to keep children busy for a whole six weeks! Whilst many of us may be off on holiday or planning some fun day trips, we may also be wishing for some fun, mindful and low-cost activities to balance out those hectic days. We bring you – the Be Happy Summer Camp!
 
The Be Happy Summer Camp isn’t just for parents – it’s perfect for holiday clubs, campsites, child minders and more!
 
What is the Be Happy Summer Camp?
 
The Be Happy Summer Camp is a wellbeing challenge that will bring you fun, weekly activities to help your children feel calm and happy over the summer holidays. Each week, we’ll upload two activities to complete and earn our camp badges – at the end of the summer, when your child has completed their badge sheet, you will be able to download a certificate and graduation cap to graduate from camp Be Happy!
 
How does it work?
  • Activities will be live on the Hub page every Sunday starting 30th July.
  • All activities will be printable but you may need to supply crayons, paint, glue or scissors or visit parks and open spaces.
  • You can complete an activity whenever you wish, in your own time, if you don’t have time to do both activities in a week, you can save them and complete them at your child’s leisure.
  • Once you’ve completed an activity, cut out the badge and stick it to the badge sheet – there are 10 to collect!
  • The last two activities will be posted on 27th August, after this, you will be able to download our certificate and graduation hat craft!
How can I take part?
 
The Be Happy Summer Camp is free for all members of the Be Happy Hub. If you’re not a member, you can sign up for £1.99 here. Each week we will post the activities into the Summer Camp area of the Hub which is accessible from the Hub homepage.
 
What kind of activities will there be?
Our activities will be fun, calming and educational. Think scavenger hunts, crafts and more. There will be a total of 10 activities centred around the theme of each of our badges:
  • Explorer Badge
  • Kindness Badge
  • Self Care Badge
  • Sailing Badge
  • Camping Badge
  • Photography Badge
  • Crafting Badge
  • Positivity Badge
  • Fire Safety Badge
  • Nature Badge
Activities are kept a secret until the week before – all our activities are focused on helping your child to feel calm and promoting the ways to wellbeing. Your child will learn about how to look after their mental health and build vital self-regulation skills.
Sign up to take part, or head over to the Hub to take a sneak peak at our first two activities launching this Sunday!

Look Inside: Our Calming Hospital Booklet for Kids

Posted on by Brandon Hudson
Is your child or a child you know going into hospital? Are you looking for ways to help children feel calm and prepared for an operation? Then take a look inside our printable hospital toolkit for kids – featuring over 20 activities to help children learn about their bodies, hospitals and some mindful fun too!
Preparing your child for an operation can seem scary and daunting – especially if they have never been into hospital before. They may have lots of worries and questions. Our printable hospital toolkit can be used with children who have never been into hospital and also children who have had operations previously.
 
Let’s have a look inside at some of the activities!
 
I’m Having an Operation – Our Printable Booklet for Children Going into Hospital
This toolkit features over 20 calming, educational and mindful activities to help children explore their worries and emotions about going into hospital and some fun resources and games to keep them busy whilst they are there. Plus – every page of our toolkit is colourable! So grab the crayons, download and print – you can sign up from just £1.99 to access this toolkit now. But first, let’s have a look at some of the activities:
 
Activities to prepare your child for visiting hospital
The ‘I’m Having an Operation’ toolkit features lots of activities to help your children learn about hospitals, what they might see and who they might meet. Our ‘Operation Road Map’ helps your child understand more about their operation, what will happen during their operation and how this will help them.
 
Explore worries and emotions
Our toolkit also features activities to help your child explore how they are feeling and communicate any worries or fears they have about going into hospital. They can also create their own First Aid Kit, helping your child to identify things that help them when they feel unhelpful emotions around their hospital visit.
 
Help children feel brave and fearless
Help children feel brave and as though they can do anything with activities such as ‘My Courage Cape’ which also doubles as a visualisation technique during times of need. Can your child design an amazing courage cape, and imagine wearing their cape as they head into the operating room? We also have hospital wristbands for your child to wear during their stay to remind themselves just how amazing and brave they are! Other activities include creating their own ID badge to help communicate with doctors and nurses and our Bravery Certificate which they can colour in after their operation.
 
Patch up Patch the Bear!
One of our favourite activities in this pack is Patch Up Patch – if your child fancies themselves as a doctor or nurse then grab the scissors and glue and have fun patching up our clumsy bear. He’ll need plasters, X-rays and some flea spray too!
 
Activities to calm and ground
To help your child self-regulate during those times of big emotions, we have our fun plaster breathing exercise which includes pushing the dots as they breathe in and out. We also have our Pocket Calm Plan, which is a wonderful foldable booklet your child can fill in and take with them.
 
Mindful and fun hospital games to do from their bed
Fancy some fun hospital games and worksheets to do once there? We have Rate my Hospital Plate, a word search and Hospital I Spy, helping to keep little minds busy and calm as they recover.
 
Affirmation colouring pages to help build a positive mindset
Lastly, our toolkit features some affirmation colouring sheets to help your child feel calm and build a positive mindset. These feel-good colouring sheets can be coloured in before, during or after their hospital stay.
 
You will also find lots more fun, calming and educational activities inside. Ready to download this toolkit? Sign up to the Be Happy Hub from just £1.99 now!

Tips for a Successful Summer Transition and 6 Resources That Can Help

Posted on by Brandon Hudson
The countdown to summer is on and with just over a week to go, children will be feeling all sorts of emotions and facing routine disruptions. We bring you six resources to prepare for a successful summer transition and some helpful tips. Check out our other resources too!
The last week of school is always one of the most challenging for parents and teachers. It brings about behavioural and emotional changes in children as the exhaustion from the school year sets in and the excitement of the summer holidays builds.
 
The end of the school year can be harder on children than you think, most often we talk about the transition between school years – but the transition from school to summer can be a difficult one too.
 
This time of year comes with many changes, events and pressures, from school parties, summer fairs, awards ceremonies, performances and assemblies and disruptions to the school day. Children face changing routines and have to re-find their feet as summer begins.
 
Plus we haven’t even mentioned the tiredness that kicks in around this time of year – we know from personal experience just how much of an effect this can have on children. School is hard work – and after 11 months most children are ready for a break!
 
All of these changes, tiredness and mixed emotions can cause some children to feel anxious or out of sorts. This may result in outbursts or tantrums, moments of hyperactivity or regression into old habits and struggles. Here we give you some tips to help you prepare for a successful summer.
 
Tips for a Successful Summer Transition
 
Establish a Routine – and Stick to it!
 
One of the major impacts on children’s emotions and behaviours are disruptions to routine and change. Whether your child is attending a holiday club or staying at home, be sure to set a routine early on – and make them aware of it. Talk them through the changes ahead and help them establish a clear idea of their summer schedule. You could use our Summer Routine resource and display this somewhere visible in your home (more on this below!)
 
Talk and Reaffirm Schedules
 
Be sure to regularly let your child know what their schedule looks like, where they will be and what they will be doing. Get them involved in creating their own schedules – if you’re planning lots of fun trips, grab a big calendar and pop them in together. Each week, sit down and go through the week ahead and what they will be doing and when. If there are any changes, try and prepare your child for these as much as you can.
 
Find Time to Slow Down
 
The summer holidays can be all go, go, go with new social pressures to arrange fun trips and days out. Find the solace in staying at home and having duvet days or self care days, and take time to wind down and do something mindful and relaxing. Whenever you book a trip or fun day out, be sure to balance it out with something calming and mindful. Help children find the pleasure in peace and the mental health benefits will follow.
 
Take Their Lead
 
Children lack a lot of control in their lives and are always being dragged about here, there and everywhere! This lack of control can contribute to things like anxiety, anger and outbursts. Help children regain some control over their summer break, perhaps you could sit down together and create a summer bucket list of all the things they want to do? Get them involved as much as you can in their own schedules, and introduce simple ‘control regaining’ activities such as letting your child pick their own clothes each morning or ask for their help with meal planning. Giving back small areas of control can give a boost to your child’s confidence and overall wellbeing.
 
Open Communication Channels
 
Take time out to sit down and talk – perhaps it’s over dinner or when they’re in bed and feeling calm. Ask how your child is feeling about summer and finishing school. They may answer your questions with one word answers such as ‘fine’ or ‘good’ so try asking more open ended questions. For example, ‘What three words would you use to describe how you feel right now,’ or ‘what is one thing you are looking forward to doing this summer?’ – let them ask the questions too. Facilitating regular discussions also lets your child know they can come to you if they are feeling upset or anxious.
 
5 Resources That Can Help
 
1. Last Day of School Interview
This Last Day of School Interview is all about helping your children process the school year so that they feel ready to start their summer break. With fun prompts and questions, plus an option to rate their year – this also doubles as a helpful communication tool for you.
 
2. Last Day of School Colouring Sheet
Take time to slow down by colouring in our Last Day of School Mindful Colouring Sheet! The last day of school is an exciting and busy day – full of fun and games but also goodbyes to friends and teachers – help children to switch off, relax and disconnect from the day’s stresses and activities.
 
3. My End of Year Journal
Our End of Year Journal (updated for 2023!) is the perfect way to help children reflect on the school year and start the summer holidays, with over 20 mindful activities such as creating a summer bucket list and filling a memory jar. Activities in this journal have been specially designed to support your child’s emotions as they finish school and prepare them for the summer break.
 
4. My Summer Routine
My Summer Routine is a weekly visual chart that helps your children feel prepared for the week ahead. Following on from our tips above, establishing a weekly routine can help children feel confident and calm. Write down their morning, afternoon and evening activities and each week and be sure to give them a few reward stars for completing their busy summer schedules!
 
5. School Transition Toolkit
Our School Transition Toolkit is designed to support children as they embark on their journey from primary school to secondary school. Featuring 21 invaluable resources and engaging activities, our transition toolkit isn’t just for the transition to a new school, but also includes lots of activities to help children process and reflect on their current year and feel ready for summer.
 
6. End of Year Class Activity – My Best Piece of Advice
My Best Piece of Advice is a fun classroom activity that helps this year’s children reflect on their current year whilst settling in next year’s students. What advice would your current class give to the next class? Fill out, make your class banner and display for next year’s students!
 
All paying members of the Be Happy Hub can download the activities and resources listed above. Not a member? Sign up here for just £1.99!

FREE Teacher Gift Printable – Chocolate Bar Wrapper

Posted on by Brandon Hudson
Looking for a last minute, low cost teacher gift? Then don’t go anywhere, because we have something special for you!
We know that most teachers (if not all!) prefer those little homemade gifts with a personal touch – so if you’re yet to hit the shops and fancy something a little more unique check out our new free printable.
 
Thank You Teacher Chocolate Bar Wrapper
 
We think all teaching staff deserve a huge thank you and some recognition for the amazing work that goes into shaping little minds, but we also know that for many money is extremely tight. We picked up three of these 180g bars from Home Bargains for £1.35 each.
 
Our free Thank You Teacher Chocolate Bar Printable fits perfectly onto a standard 180g bar of chocolate – if you want to gift something a little smaller or larger, you could even adjust your printer settings and it will still fit!
 
There is space for your child to personalise their wrapper, write a thank you message and draw a picture. You can use glue or sticky tape to secure the wrapper in place. Check out our video and download it below.
 
Watch our video for instructions:
 
 
Download it now for free by clicking the PDF below!
Best Teacher Chocolate Bar Wrapper FREE2023F
.pdf
Download PDF • 836KB
 
Next, why not read our summer transition tips and check out our resources to help get children ready for the summer break?
 
Check out our other resources you may like:
 
Thank You Teacher Printable
Our Teacher Printable Activity is a great way for your child to show appreciation for their teacher and add a personal touch.
 
No1 Teacher Trophy
Download, print and fill in our Teacher Trophy for a number one teacher! You can even cut out and back on card ready for your child’s teacher to proudly display in their classroom.
 
Rainbow Thank You Card
This card is all about feeling grateful and helping your children to practise the wonderful art of gratitude – whilst making a wonderful homemade card for their teacher. Write down all the things they are thankful for about their teacher this year, colour in and decorate, write a message and gift to an amazing teacher.
 
My End of Year Printable Journal for Kids
Our End of Year Journal (updated for 2023!) is the perfect way to help children reflect on the school year and start the summer holidays, with over 20 mindful activities such as creating a summer bucket list and filling a memory jar. Activities in this journal have been specially designed to support your child’s emotions as they finish school and prepare them for the summer break.
 
Sign up to the Be Happy Hub for just £1.99 to download our resources above and access over 700 more wellbeing resources for children!

Look Inside: Our School Transition Toolkit PLUS See What Else Is New!

Posted on by Brandon Hudson
Take a peak inside our new School Transition Toolkit and find out more about our new magical resources for wizards in training and then browse the rest of our resources.
Looking for school transition resources for your year 6 class or is your child about to take the leap to secondary school? Our School Transition Toolkit is full of fun activities to help children feel prepared and confident about this next step in their lives.
 
About Our School Transition Toolkit
Our School Transition Toolkit is designed to support children as they embark on their journey from primary school to secondary school. Featuring 21 invaluable resources and engaging activities, our transition resources are designed to help your child navigate change and encourage a smooth transition.
 
Moving up to secondary school can be an exciting yet daunting time for children. Our School Transition Toolkit has been created to address their specific needs during this time, with each activity designed to target key areas. From reflecting on their time at primary school to navigating new pressures and building new friendships, our school transition activities will help your child feel confident and prepared about moving up.
 
Help children get to know their new school
Our school transition worksheets encourage your children to explore their new school – what is their new journey like? What will they learn? Will they join any clubs? What rules do they think their new school has? What will their uniform look like? Perhaps they can ask siblings or family members who may already attend to help them, or maybe they could browse the school’s website to find out more? Helping children know what to expect on their first day can help them feel calm and confident.
 
Reflect on their time at primary school
Our resources can help your children to reflect on their happy memories and write down the things they wish to remember, such as in our Memory Jar activity. Think of the memory jar like a time capsule that will keep those memories safe forever! Our End of Year Interview also helps children to process their final year, helping them to self reflect and feel ready to move on.
 
Explore emotions and worries
Going to secondary school can come with many mixed emotions and some fears and worries too. Your child may feel excited about this new chapter in their lives, perhaps it comes with more independence and responsibility – but they may also feel worried, scared or apprehensive. We have created activities to help children write down and release their thoughts and worries and communicate any emotions they may be feeling about this new chapter in their lives.
 
Prepare for new pressures
Secondary school comes with lots of new pressures – peer pressure, making friends and school work can all have an impact on our mental health. Our school transition activities can help your child to know just what to do when they are faced with these new pressures and feel confident in exploring new friendships.
 
Look forward to the future
Let’s not forget that this is an exciting step and there is lots to look forward to! Help children to think positively about their new school and create new goals. Perhaps your child’s new school comes with a club they’ve always wanted to join or a subject they’ve always wanted to learn, help them realise what amazing things are coming their way.
 
New to the Be Happy Hub: Our Harry Potter Themed Resources!
 
We all need a bit of magic in our lives and our new Harry Potter resources are perfect for any wannabe wizards out there – designed to help children with anxiety, grief and self esteem.
 
Harry Potter and the Worry Wand
Explore worries with Harry and his Worry Wand and banish those worries with a simple word! This fun visualisation activity encourages your children to ‘release’ their worries with a bit of magic.
 
Directions: Colour in the worry wand then have your child write their worry in the cloud, then wave their imaginary wand and shout WORRYARMUS! Once your child has completed this activity, they can imagine waving their Worry Wand anywhere – visualising the worry temporarily disappearing until they are able to talk to someone they trust.
 
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Grief
Harry lost a lot of people he loved throughout his battles with Voldemort – how do we think he managed afterwards? With the Goblet of Grief of course! This three part mindful and explorative resource will help children process their grief with Harry.
 
Harry Potter and the Cabinet of Confidence
Let’s make a confidence potion! What ingredients do we need? Write them in the bottles and then imagine mixing it up and taking a sip. This is another fun visualisation technique children can do from anywhere when they need a dose of self esteem!
 
Updated for 2023: Our End of Year Printable Journal!
Our End of Year Journal – the perfect way to reflect on the school year and start the summer holidays, with over 20 mindful activities to help your children destress and process the school year. You can download this from the Be Happy Hub now!
 
This week’s *FRIDAY FREEBIE!* – For Mailing List subscribers only
TRY Again!
The saying goes that if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! This resource is all about helping children overcome failure.
Rugby is a great game to teach the concept of trying again, as opponents battle on the field to score against each other with tries or goals – sometimes they win, sometimes they lose – but they always try again! In this fun resource, we’re using the rugby ‘try’ to help children learn the importance of trying again.
 
Directions: Have your child think about a time they had to try again, can they write or draw it in our rugby ball? What did they realise after trying again? This is also a great discussion resource – you can ask children how they felt before and after they failed and had to try again.
 
Join our mailing list to receive our future Friday Freebies – just scroll to the bottom of any page and input your email.
 
You can download all the resources above from the Be Happy Hub. Not a member? You can sign up here from just £1.99 a month.

8 Resources Perfect for Father’s Day

Posted on by Brandon Hudson
Here, we bring you 8 fun resources perfect for Father’s Day, including a resource for those missing dads this year. Plus we’ll bring you more information on what’s new to the Be Happy Hub. Keep reading to find out more!
Father’s Day is fast approaching and it’s the perfect day to make dad’s and kids feel good. We have 8 resources to help your children celebrate their father figures, all with a wellbeing focus – and a resource for children who may be mourning a loss this Father’s Day.
 
Father’s Day Resources for Schools, Parents, Professionals and Community Groups
 
Father’s Day Thank You Card
This resource is our record-breaking Friday Freebie! Our most downloaded free resource in a 24 hour period.
 
Our Father’s Day Thank You Card printable is for role models everywhere, helping your children to express what they are thankful for. Gratitude has amazing benefits for mental health and this activity is all about helping your child feel thankful for a special person in our lives – whether that’s Dad, Grandad, Uncle or someone else.
 
Directions: Ask your child to choose their special person and write all the things they are thankful for in the stripes of our rainbow. Don’t forget to have them draw a picture of themselves and their special person in the medal! Then colour it in, fold and write a special message inside ready to gift to their loved one.
 
If you’re on our mailing list, you should have received this resource for FREE! If you missed this resource, you can download it from the Be Happy Hub now. (Paying members only). Sign up to receive future Friday Freebies by scrolling to the bottom of this page.
 
Design a Tie
Get those creative juices flowing and design a tie for Father’s Day, cut out and add some string and gift it to a loved one! This mindful activity requires supervision.
 
Happy Socks
This Father’s Day why not ask your children to design dad some socks with all the things that make him happy? Bonus points if they can make a fun pattern. Mindful, calming and full of happy vibes!
 
Dad Jokes
This hilarious resource is all about making children laugh! Can they find out their dad’s favourite joke? They can score it on our Laugh-O-Meter and then make up a joke themselves.
 
My Favourite Memory
Have your children draw their favourite memory with dad – or any special person in their lives – on our watch.
 
I App-reciate You!
Another gratitude themed resource for you this Father’s Day, ask your child to write down all the things they are grateful for about their dad or father figure in our apps.
 
No1 Dad Tie Craft
Have your children fill in the prompts on our tie, cut out and gift to their dads!
 
My Missing You Plan – Resource for children missing father’s and loved ones this Father’s Day
This resource is for any child missing their dad this Father’s Day. Bonus – this resource is non-specific and can be used for any occasion, event or loved one. This worksheet encourages your child to come up with a plan for a difficult day so that they feel prepared and are able to cope with grief.
 
We have even MORE resources on the Be Happy Hub! Why not sign up for just £1.99 a month?
 
What else is new?
 
My Pocket Worries
My Pocket Worries is all about helping children to notice, write down and explore their worries.
 
Directions: This two part activity helps children to explore their worries by first asking them to sort their worries into three pockets – their big, medium and small worries. This gets children thinking about which worries are bothering them the most – so that you know which ones to tackle first. When they have a worry, they can imagine putting it in their pocket until they are able to find someone to talk to about it.
 
OR – and now for the second part of our resource – they can use our Worry Pockets! Cut out and keep these lying around your house or classroom for children to fill in and pop in their pocket ready to talk about. We know that worries can come at unexpected times and there may not always be an adult present who they feel comfortable talking to, our Worry Pockets allow them to feel temporary relief from the worry by putting it in their pocket until they are able to talk to someone they trust.
 
Stress Busters
Stress Busters gives your children (and you!) some things to do when you’re feeling stressed. Plus we included a blank template for your child to explore their own stress management techniques
 
Flip the Thought
Challenge unhelpful, critical or intrusive thoughts with this fun CBT-themed resource and thought reframing activity. Using the visual element of flipping a pancake, this gets your children thinking about how they can flip a thought from unhelpful to helpful.
 
I’m Bored!
Boredom is actually good for children – it inspires creativity and develops imaginations, but for us adults, keeping little minds occupied can be hard work! Next time your children say they’re bored, why not give them this worksheet to do?
 
My Capacity Cone
While you might be familiar with the capacity cup, we believe that ice cream brings a more enjoyable summer-themed twist! The Capacity Cone is designed to help your child feel in control of stress – helping them to recognise when their stress is becoming unmanageable and when they need a bit of help.
 
Invite your child to jot down all their stressors in the cone. As the cone starts to fill up, it serves as a reminder that it’s time to employ some stress management techniques.
You can combine this with our new Stress Busters resource to introduce some fun stress management techniques and use the worksheet to explore some of their own.
 
The Worry Warrior
The Worry Warrior loves to fight your child’s worries! This activity is all about helping children manage worry by thinking of three ways to ‘fight’ the worry when it appears. This can also work as a fun visualisation technique where children can imagine their Worry Warrior coming to fight their worry away.
 
Anxiety Armour
Help children and young people to recognise their anxiety triggers and how anxiety affects them in this new resource. Just like armour was used to protect warriors in battle, we want your children to use our armour resource to protect them when they feel anxious. This resource works by exploring anxiety triggers and the body’s response to anxiety, helping children to become more self aware.
 
This resource also asks your child to write down things that help them when they feel anxious and things that don’t, so that they know what to do when their symptoms start appearing.
 
Bonus activity: When your child feels anxious, they can close their eyes and imagine their anxiety armour wrapping around them, bringing instant relief and calm. Their anxiety armour helps them feel safe and as though they can accomplish anything!
 
Summer Mindfulness
Using our senses to explore the world around us is a great way to feel calm and grounded. Connecting to the environment and feeling present in the moment in this way can give a huge boost to your child’s wellbeing. Plus it gives you a fun activity to enjoy outside during the wonderful Summer weather!
 
Mario Mushroom Emotions
You loved our Super Mario Affirmation Colouring Sheets so we thought we’d bring you some more gaming themed resources! Our Mushroom Emotions check in is all about helping your child explore their emotions and communicate how they feel.
 
Mindful Gaming Resources
We know from personal experience that children feel all sorts of emotions whilst gaming – a lot of them unhelpful! Help children manage their emotions whilst gaming and explore and learn about their emotions using our Mario-themed gaming sheets.
 
Want to download one of our resources above? Sign up to the Be Happy Hub now for just £1.99.
 

What’s New? Our 20 Page Toolkit to Help Children Navigate Divorce is Here

Posted on by Brandon Hudson
See what’s new to the Hub this week – including our new toolkit to help children experiencing parent separation and divorce.
Did you know that nearly half (42%) of all marriages in the UK end in divorce? And that this report here states that half of children in the UK come from separated households?
 
Whilst every child’s experience with their changing family will be unique, it can sometimes cause emotional distress. Studies also show that children whose parents have separated are more likely to develop emotional and behavioural problems, although, we know there can be lots of other factors too.
 
Why does divorce impact children’s mental health?
 
Children can experience many emotions when parents and caregivers split up and can be faced with big changes ahead. They may have lots of questions and the future may seem uncertain – who will they live with? How will their time be split? Who will take them to school? Even if children feel relieved at a family break-up – for example, where violence or abuse is present – most children will still go through some loss and grief.
 
Take a look at our new toolkit the help children with Parent Separation
Our coping with divorce toolkit has over 15 activities to help children cope with change, manage their emotions and communicate their thoughts and feelings. We’ll go through some of these activities with you below.
 
Resources to help children cope with change – Children thrive on routine and when families break up this can be a huge change to the routine they are used to. Some break ups may require a change of school or some family members may move further away. Children may also have to deal with not seeing either caregiver as much. It can be hard to cope with unknown change – our activities can help children to explore what is changing and how they feel about it.
 
Resources to help children manage unhelpful thoughts and worries – Studies show that children who experience parent separation can feel more insecure and have more self-critical thoughts. In our coping toolkit, we also have activities to help children explore what’s on their mind and help them communicate their worries and unhelpful thoughts with an adult that they trust.
 
Resources to facilitate open communication and questions – As with all of our resources, our divorce resources for kids have a huge emphasis on helping your child communicate their emotions, thoughts and needs with you. You’ll find resources to help them to explore their own thoughts and questions and write down things they want to ask/explore with you. We would always recommend finding time to sit with your child to go through any questions they have.
 
Children who are part of changing family dynamics will no doubt have lots and lots of questions. Some will have easy answers and some may not have answers at all. Particularly, children in emotional distress may have many ‘why’ questions – ‘why is this happening to me?’ for example. Even though we can’t provide clear answers to these questions, we can help to alleviate some of the worry through discussion and coping tools.
 
Resources to explore emotions and coping tools – This moves us naturally on to the next part of our toolkit, where we explore the complex emotions of grief and change. Plus we have lots of activities to help your children learn vital coping skills that they can take with them throughout life’s ups and downs, such as breathing exercises and more.
 
Encourage positive thinking and daily self care practises – Finally our toolkit finishes with helping children explore ways to look after themselves whilst your family finds a new routine. From introducing self care concepts to helping children to find the positives in each week.
 
If you’d like to download our toolkit to help your children through divorce, you can sign up for just £1.99 here.
 
What else is new to the Be Happy Hub?
 
Disney Princess Affirmation Colouring Sheets
These feel-good sheets combine some very well-known Disney characters with some much-needed positive vibes! We have 10 Disney colouring sheets to choose from – or you can use them all. From Belle to Moana – these are great for children of all ages!
 
Super Mario Affirmation Colouring Sheets
Not a fan of princesses or Disney? Then we have another gaming-themed option for you! Also new to the Hub this week are our Super Mario themed affirmation colouring sheets for kids – featuring popular characters such as Luigi, Toadette and Princess Peach! You can download these from the Be Happy Hub now.
 
My Doodle Hearts
My Heart Doodles is a fun, calming resource with a twist – you can keep your child’s doodles forever! We have collaborated with our friends over at Olive & Pip to bring you an inspiring and calming new activity. My Heart Doodles is all about doodling for calm – with fun prompts to help your children write feel-good messages and sketch inspiring illustrations.
 
Directions: Doodling is a great way to help us feel calm, express anger and process emotions – just by putting pen to paper. But it can be hard sometimes to know what to draw. Our poem of prompts will help your child express what’s on their mind, helping them to draw things that make them happy and write inspiring messages to themselves and others. Simply print and doodle away!
 
If your child has written a message or drawn something you’d like to keep, you can then head over to www.oliveandpip.co.uk and use our template (provided you have used black felt tip!) to get it printed on a sew on or iron on patch
 
We know just how many children these heart patches have helped – from easing separation anxiety to providing fun daily reminders (or secret messages!), they also make great gifts for family, friends and teachers.
 
Barbie Emotions Worksheet
We’re always trying to find new ways to help your children feel in tune with their emotions by creating fun resources around the things they love! With the news that Barbie has designed a new diverse range, including a doll with Down’s Syndrome, and with the release of the movie on the horizon, we wanted to bring you some fun Barbie-themed emotional literacy resources to celebrate! This worksheet helps your children to explore three basic emotions – happy, sad and angry. Optional: Can your child act out some scenarios featuring these emotions with their dolls?
 
Design a Doll
How often do you ask your child how they’re feeling and they say ‘fine’ or ‘good’? Children find it hard to vocalise their thoughts and emotions, that’s why our activities are designed to support your child’s mental health and help them communicate what’s on their mind, including our new Design a Doll activity.
 
Design a Doll helps your child to engage their imagination – with the release of Barbie’s new diverse doll range – we want your children to think of what Barbie they would design if they could. Would she be a scientist? An astronaut? Or perhaps she – or he – would be just like them! Then, our worksheet will ask core questions to help your child think about what makes their doll unique and how she feels.
 
This week’s *FRIDAY FREEBIE!* – For Mailing List subscribers only
CHARGE YOUR BATTERY!
On our mailing list? Then you should have received our weekly freebie! This week we’re looking at charging our batteries. How can we make sure we stay in the green level and feel fully charged?
 
Directions: Have your child think about the emotions in our battery levels. Can they think of and write down some things to do when they are in each level to help them move up? When they’ve filled in their battery, ask them which level best describes how they feel – what do they need to do to feel fully charged and ready to go? Place this resource where they can see it and use regularly to help with self regulation.
 
Join our mailing list to receive our future Friday Freebies – just scroll to the bottom of any page and input your email.
 
You can download all the resources above from the Be Happy Hub. Not a member? You can sign up here from just £1.99 a month.

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