Counselor's Corner

This May, we are joining the national movement to prioritize Mental Health Awareness. Our goal is to break the stigma and remind our students that it is okay to not be okay—and that there are tools available to help.

💡 3 Small Ways to Support Mental Health at Home

You don't need to be a therapist to support your child’s emotional well-being. Here are three simple strategies:

1. Name the Feeling: When your child is upset, help them label it. "It looks like you’re feeling frustrated that the LEGOs fell." Naming an emotion helps move it from the "reactive" part of the brain to the "thinking" part.

2. The "High/Low/Buffalo" Game: At dinner, ask for one good thing (High), one hard thing (Low), and one weird/random thing (Buffalo) from their day. This opens the door for emotional sharing without the pressure of a "serious" talk.

3. Check Your Own "Battery": Kids are like sponges; they pick up on our stress. Modeling your own self-care—like taking a deep breath when you're stuck in traffic—shows them how to handle life's stressors.

🛠 Tools for the Toolbox

If your child is feeling overwhelmed, try the 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique together. It helps bring a racing mind back to the present moment:

• 5 things you can see

• 4 things you can touch

• 3 things you can hear

• 2 things you can smell

• 1 thing you can taste

(Master's School Counseling and Educational Leadership)

Office: 479-750-8874

Email: ewaterman@sdale.org

SAY IT: Perseverance: Refusing to give up when life gets hard KNOW IT: ASK A GROWN-UP: • Tell me about a time in your life when you showed perseverance. • When has it been hard for you to persevere? ASK A KID: • Can you think of some ways you can show perseverance at home or school? • What is the toughest thing about showing perseverance? SEE IT: We can all admit that sometimes life gets hard. It is difficult to keep on working on a goal when we face challenges or setbacks. If you have ever watched the Ice Age movies, you have been entertained by the antics of Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel who is obsessed with getting an acorn that keeps getting away. Gather the family around and watch Scrat demonstrate amazing perseverance in this clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAmIHa-Rztg. While it is funny to watch Scrat chasing after his acorn amidst challenge after challenge, we can all agree showing perseverance when things get hard isn’t usually that much fun. BE IT: Take some time as a family and write down some goals. These could be fitness goals, educational goals, household projects, saving for a big purchase or vacation, or maybe just a goal to spend more quality time together. Create a poster or vision board to display the goal for the family to see every day. As you are working together to reach this goal, talk about the challenges you are facing and how you can work together to refuse to give up no matter how hard the challenges get. Continue to work together as a family to show perseverance as you encourage each other to keep working hard even when life gets hard.

Email: ewaterman@sdale.org
Website: www.sdale.org
Location: 1701 S. 40th Street Springdale, Arkansas 72762
Phone: 479-750-8874

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