Spring Strategies for Self-Regulation
Spring is always a unique time in a school.
Days with lots of sunshine and natural sensory input alternate with rainy stretches cooped up at school or home. Chaotic birthday parties alternate with lovely walks and spontaneous gatherings. The pace of life can feel suddenly too fast, and contrastingly too slow.
Energy fluctuates more than usual in the springtime.
As a parent, it’s helpful to have some strategies at hand.
It’s easy to feel like taking time for self-regulation sounds nice but is actually impossible. I used to feel this way, too, in a busy classroom with 20 learners for whom I was responsible. The day I started consciously stepping back and pausing was the day I became a much better adult for young children.
For yourself:
Feel your feet on the floor.
Slow your pace as you move through your home life and daily routines with your child. Walk more slowly to start. Go through your actions - of packing a backpack, or loading the dishwasher, or putting toys away, with less haste and more care.
Stand still and take three deep breaths.
Look out a window and focus on what you see.
Sit down on the floor, close your eyes, and just be for a minute.
Pet your dog or cat, slowing down as you do so.
If you have flowers, potted plants, or a garden, take some time and check on them, appreciating changes and growth.
Try to remember that you can deliberately step back, pause, or refocus for yourself - not stepping away because of a work email, or because you need to make dinner, or because the laundry has to be changed. Because you choose to take a few minutes for yourself, to do any of the above. Your child may be right beside you all the while, but you will reclaim some of your own capacity.
With your child:
Get outside. Aim to be calmly glad about it - look forward to it, try not to rush yourself out the door, appreciate it when you get there.
Notice the unfolding of spring - the vivid greens of new leaves, the sun on your face, the latest blossoming flowers.
Take a five or ten minute walk, with a simple, low-stress destination.
Put your hands to nature - in the soil, on the bark of a tree, or gently touching new leaves or the stems of flowers. This could be in a park or outdoor garden, or in a pot of mint or a vase of flowers in your kitchen window. Be present to the sensory feedback - the cool dampness of the soil, the textures of a tree trunk, the shades and shapes of leaves, the scent of the earth or blossoms.
Avoid situations that feel too chaotic. Yes, you truly can. It will not damage your child’s social development.
If you don’t get outside, don’t feel bad about it. Consider doing some food prep or flower arranging to bring components of nature into your home. Read some good books together.
Have a dance party to music you actually enjoy (that is still language-appropriate for your child!).
Self-regulation is a practice - and one of the best uses of your time, no matter how busy you are.