To honor the International Day of Charity on September 5th, our foundation donated lots of basic art supplies to elementary classrooms in California, South Carolina, Illinois and Georgia and more to classrooms that want to use art to enhance academic learning, with the help of DonorsChoose.org.
Life is busy, messy, intense and stress happens. So, it’s good to get a plan for staying calm and carrying on. But our kids feel plenty of stress too, and they need to know how to calm themselves when their mind starts racing, or they’re feeling anxious thoughts.
What can we do to help our kids? Even when the world is safe and there isn’t anything to be anxious over, once those feelings of panic, confusion and powerlessness have been triggered, it’s best to focus on helping your child calm his body down.
Ok, so art might not cure your child’s anxiety, but doing art has been proven a successful antidote. And since all our kids are participating in an anxiety producing global pandemic, it’s time to load up on whatever is going to help them.
I just heard the best story about an 11-year-old boy who has been drawing through this pandemic to help him manage his anxiety. And now that he has started drawing, he doesn’t want to stop!
I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve walked past my grandson’s computer and seen a quick flash of Roblox. It’s a quick flash because an adult walking past reminds him to hide the evidence and get back to distance learning. And I’m pretty sure we’re not alone in this struggle. So what can we do?
‘Tis the time of year to celebrate all we’re thankful for and while distance learning is not something we expected to be thankful for, let’s put it on the list. I’ll start with my thanks…
When we started this pandemic, most of us never considered that 9 months later we would still be keeping a safe distance from those outside our homes. Have no fear, I have created a list of activities and accommodations to make the togetherness of the holidays shine through even if we can’t physically be together.
Distance learning is well under way and you may have the perfect set up happening already. But I wanted to share some pictures and thoughts we’ve been gathering, in case there are a few tweaks that would make things even better for you.
“Art, specifically drawing, is a form of controlled communication. If a child with autism has difficulty with receptive language or sharing himself or herself verbally, drawing provides them a unique outlet.”
