“Guess what we made!” my girls exclaimed while bursting into my home office. My husband had taken them on a daddy-daughter date so I could focus on work deadlines. I expected to see a bamboo fishing rod, scrapwood Hot Wheels ramp, or some other outdoorsy-type thing. Instead, the girls tipped a sealed mason jar full of colored water and glitter upside down on my desk. The silver sparkles ever-so-gently floated down while the girls watched, transfixed.
While glitter jars look pretty, they are also a pretty cool way to help young kids manage big emotions, including stress and anxiety. Introducing stress-relief strategies at an early age empowers your child with essential coping mechanisms and protects her mental well-being. Try these 16 other ways to offer stress relief for kids, whether at home or at school.
How to Make the Most of This List
Kids of all ages experience stress, even toddlers. And stress relief for kids can look different for different ages, personalities, and situations. Use these ideas to help your child find which coping skills work best for her.
- Pick one or two to try. Gather what you need beforehand.
- When you notice an uptick in stress, give your child two options by saying something like this: I can see that you’re stressed. I have two things that can help. Would you like to try this or that?
- Afterward, talk about how your child felt before, during, and after. Bottom line: Did it help?
At-School Stress Relief for Kids
1. Be mindful of breathing. – Stress can cause your child to take faster and more shallow breaths. So, teach him how to slow it down. Take a slow breath in through the nose and hold it for a few seconds. Then, exhale slowly and quietly through the mouth. Repeat until breathing slows down and you feel less stress. For a little extra stress relief, place one hand on the belly and feel it rise and fall with each breath.
2. Check on your senses. – What does your child see, hear, smell, feel, and taste? I see my pencil. I hear the teacher. I smell the pizza from the lunchroom. I feel the top of my desk. I taste the pizza that I can’t wait to eat in 10 minutes. This helps your child focus on the world around her, instead of the stressful thoughts in her mind.
3. Take it back(ward) now. – Count backward from 20 or recite the alphabet in reverse order.
4. Speak kindly to yourself. – Create and practice positive self-talk statements to replace the words your child may say to himself when he feels stressed. For example, “This seems hard, but I’m a problem solver.”
5. Color counter. – Pick a color and then count the number of objects of a particular color in the classroom.
6. Time to rhyme on a dime. – Think of a word and then silently come up with as many words that rhyme with it as possible.
7. Roll with it. – Do gentle neck stretches, like tilting the head from side to side. Or slowly roll the
shoulders a few times.
8. Say a little prayer. – Teach your child the Five-Finger Prayer. Or make it super simple by encouraging her to say, “God I feel stressed. Please help me. Amen.”
At-Home Stress Relief for Kids
9. Ice it out. – Put an icepack on the back of your child’s neck or drink ice water. Cooling down the vagus nerve lowers stress and anxiety. This works for mom stress, too!
10. Weigh it down. – Cozy up under a weighted blanket or a weighted stuffed animal. While this can be especially helpful for children with ASD, many kids find it soothes stressful feelings.
11. Bring on the bubbles. – Deep breath slowly in. Deep breath slowly out. It’s a must-do both for bubble-blowing and relieving stress.
12. Get glowing. – Draw a bath for your child. Turn off the lights and drop some glow sticks in the water.
13. Listen to a stress-less playlist. – With your child, make a playlist specifically for stress relief. Your child may find it helps to listen to Taylor Swift, the soundtrack from Cars, or the lullabies you used to play during naptime.
14. Journal your cares away. – Create a short story. Keep a diary. Draw or use watercolors. Use a guided journal with specific questions to answer.
15. Take a brain break. – Stress relief for kids comes in handy around homework time. If your kid shows all the signs of being overwhelmed, teach him the importance of stepping away for 10 to 20 minutes doing something else, such as one of these 18 ideas.
16. Sweat it out. – According to research, kids who are physically active at least an hour a day experience less stress than kids who don’t. “Regularly active children seem to have a reduced physiological stress reaction in general,” notes Manuel Hanke, lead author of the study.
How do you recognize when your child feels stressed?
