5 WAYS TO MOTIVATE LETHARGIC CHILDREN
Do you have children who are lethargic or bored or need some inspiration? Well, try these five quick tips and your kids will be leap-frogging into the world with wild abandon and getting out into nature with a twinkle in their eye.
1) Do a dinner party with the kids: No electric lighting and just use candles. Get them to dress up. Invent names for yourself. Lady Snufflepuffle and Lord Tinklewinkle etc. Pretend it’s 1720. Act out scenarios as you eat supper. Everyone will love it.
2) Write a family story: Start off writing a chapter of a story with cool character names and then get your child/children to write the next chapter. Take it in turns (it's like a literary version of the game Consequences) and then once a week (or daily) read out the story at bedtime. Children will love it and it inspires creativity and fosters their imagination etc.
3) Rough-and-tumble: Play the game 'mummy or daddy prison'. The aim of the game is to get away from you, while you do everything you can to stop them by holding on to them. Think WWE wrestling with someone half your size! Your kids will love it and it always results in laughter, letting off steam and re-connecting. Letting them win is crucial because it makes them feel powerful in a time when they so often feel powerless. Afterwards you can cuddle and feel-all-the-feels together.
4) Play spot the difference: Get your kids to look out of the living room window every day and spot three things they haven't seen before or things that are unusual or different. It will increase mindfulness, self-awareness and make them really look at their environment.
5) Gratitude day: Get your children to write a love letter to someone, either yourself, their sibling, your other half, a friend or another family member. Ask them to write down three things they like about that person and then give that letter to that person, either by hand or in the post.
These ideas have all come out of the Cultivating Wonder family, the world’s first online course combining photography and mindfulness for children aged 5-9 and 10-16. Designed to awaken a sense of wonder about the world, taking children on a voyage of exploration and creativity through photography, hundreds of parents and children (from 17 different countries in the world) have so far enrolled on the course.
Book your child’s space via this affiliate link from 1st March - the course begins on 22nd March.
