These 8 ways to connect with your child are a great way to strengthen your relationship. With children’s mental health week of “Let’s connect” we have came up with these easy ways you an connect with your child.
And here are some simple ways we can connect with our children:
Cook together
When you haven’t got time out of your daily routines to do something, a simple invitation of asking your child to help you cook can be a lovely way to bond. Even if their contribution is small it can give children a sense of responsibility and boost self esteem, feeling as though they have contributed to cooking the family meal.
Play together
Play is important for all ages (including adults), but you may change the type of play depending on your child’s age and interests. Toys, playing a physical sports game and playing a board game or video game, are all fun and enjoyable ways to play and connect with your child.
Laugh together
Laughter is a certain way to boost yours and your child’s mood. Children love to laugh and hear us laugh and can release stress from a long day. Laughing is not only an emotional release, but it also reduces cortisol levels (a stress hormone) in the brain.
Go for a walk
Going either for a walk or outside for some exercise is a great way to support positive mental health in children. Studies also show that being in nature can be beneficial to mental health.
Create Art
Creativity is an easy and fun way to improve your mood and change the focus away from anything stressful going on in your life. Being creative is enjoyable and creating art can be calming and theraputic. Art can also build self esteem and provide a sense of achievement. There are plenty of ideas online to give you some motivation to get started, check out chamelifun on Instagram for some ideas.
Listen to music
Music is a fun way to elevate mood, depending on the music you choose. It could also be fun to choose music you can both dance together to.
Pray together
Praying is a relaxing way to bond and connect with your child with a positive purpose. If you are not religious you could try meditating together instead. This can give you a sense of calm and togetherness.
Read a book
Reading is a lovely way to bond and can be enjoyed at any time during the day. It can be nice to incorporate books into your bedtime or morning routine and can give you fun and interesting topics to discuss. Tatty Ava has been created with the intention of promoting speech and language and can be a perfect opportunity to bond through finding the Chamelifun and Rainbow Unicorn fish on each page Tatty Ava is on!
If you found these ideas useful, you may also like reading “10 tips for positive mental health”. This is another blog post written as part of “Children’s mental health week” and it’s theme of “let’s connect”.