Children’s Mental Health Week

Week Beginning 7th February 2022

The 7th February 2022 marks the first day of children’s mental health week. The theme this year for children’s mental health week is growing together. A rather fitting concept and idea, in the early years we spend a lot of time supporting children’s growth and emotional well-being through our relationships, nurturing, and stimulating environments and through supporting parents/carers. Although, we should be focusing on children’s mental health all year round, heading into next week is a great time to focus on how we support children’s emotional growth, as well as their physical and cognitive growth in the first 5 years of their live.

A lot of the research around children’s mental health out there is about children over the age of 5 years old. For example, we know that 1 in 6 children between the ages of 6 and 19 years old suffer with their mental health (Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner 2021). This is a shocking difference to 2017 figures of 1 in 9 children suffering with their mental health, this is an issue that deserves it time, reflection, and dedication to support our children. More and more, although it is not discussed as much, I hear practitioners talking about children who are experiencing mental health problems in the early years.

So, this mental health week I am going to encourage you to take the time to reflect on your practise and consider how are we supporting the mental health of children in the early years. Especially, focusing on this year’s theme ‘Growing Together’. When it comes to emotional growth, it doesn’t stop when we become adults it is a lifelong journey, but the children do start that growth and all-important foundations when they are with us in the early years. Foundations that will be built on for many years to come. And a pivotal part of that is learning to identify, talk about and recognise our emotions.

Places2be have developed some lovely resources for children’s mental health week, focusing on growth. These can be found by clicking here. For example, using stories about growth such as the very hungry caterpillar and taking the opportunity to talk to children about their own growth from birth to now. As well as resources from previous years that can be adapted for early years settings.

We also have some resources available on our website that can help you to support children’s mental health, emotional well-being, and personal social and emotional development in the early years. You can find these in our online shop by clicking here.

Have you filled your bucket today?

A wise friend once asked me what do you do to fill your bucket? The idea behind this is that in order to give love, compassion, patience, kindness and are all for the children in our care and our colleagues that we work with that first we have to fill up our bucket; because we can’t give to others and help others if we are always running on empty.

As we come up to the hustle and bustle of Christmas at the end of a very uncertain year with lots of challenges, added pressures and a pandemic that has certainly changed all of our lives. I think now more then ever is the time to take stock and think, how do we look after our own well-being and ensure that we don’t run on empty. Whether, that be having a bath, going to the allotment, snuggles with the dog on the sofa, a nice relaxing walk or cooking a lovely meal. How do you give to yourself and show yourself compassion and kindness?

We currently are half way through our second lockdown (we hope) and this has been a challenging time for all of us on so many different levels. And although we know that we are doing all of these things to protect those we love and everyone, it can be incredibly hard on our well-being and mental health.

Together as a company we were very lucky to get an allotment just a few days before this lockdown, the growing together allotment for Susan and myself. Today as I pottered around the allotment on my own digging and pulling out weeds and raspberry bushes which we have in abundance. I thought how blessed I am to have this space outdoors, but also how important it is to me; this is one of the things I do to refuel and fill my own bucket up. I love being outdoors and just taking it all in, going outdoors and most importantly having that relationship and connection with nature (which most of us have lost in recent years – Richard Louv calls this a nature deficit disorder).

So, my challenge to all early year’s practitioners, teachers, professionals and parents is to fill up your bucket in the coming weeks so that you can support and give the children in your care and your colleagues all that they need from you, without causing yourself to run out and run low.

Research from Harding et al (2019) concluded that there was a strong association between student’s mental well-being and psychological distress and their teacher’s well-being and psychological distress. It is estimated that in the UK 1 in 6 people in the past week have experienced a common mental health problem (Mental Health Foundation, 2020).

If you are interested in learning more about well-being in relation to the children in your care, we offer a range of webinars that begin to explore some of this, such as:

·         Nature Connection and Well-Being in the Early Years (book on by clicking here)

·         Emotional Resilience in Early Childhood (book on by clicking here)

·         Supporting Pre-School Children’s Emotional Intelligence (book on by clicking here)

By Pauline Milsted

Director of Growing Together

(Photo credit: Jeff Kingma)

The Growing Together Allotment

“Mummy!  Look what I’ve found!  Come see!”

It was hard to make out the green-grey structure as it swayed gently in the wind.  This wasn’t helped by the gentle tip tap of rain on my hood, and the daylight getting darker by the moment as the dusk and night drew in.

We helped each other unzip an arch into a makeshift greenhouse, only slightly taller than my 5”4 frame, and found our way in.

“Look at these jewels, Mummy!”

She wasn’t wrong.  Hanging from beautiful green branches, there were shiny red and green jewels everywhere with glints of orange dotted between.

“Wow.  What lovely tomatoes!  Shall we pick them?” 

It was the third day of November and we had made our first visit to the allotment or rather, the “Gardening patch” as Poppy likes to call it.

All three of us were excited, especially now Pauline had joined us.  We moved about the patch like treasure hunters on an island, scouring the earth for gems.  I found beetroots, onions and one delicious raspberry that fell about in my mouth.  Poppy found a cave for her “baby,” a throne to sit on and a patch to plant her tulip bulbs in.  The polytunnel was renamed the “Princess Palace”.  Pauline found spring onions and salad leaves to last a few lunches that week.   Before we knew it, the sky was inky black and the stars beginning to shine through.

Our adventure had begun.

The Growing Together allotment

If you are anything like Pauline and I, the idea of a second lockdown was disappointing.   The prospect of being cooped up inside, working from home, with the shorter and darker days of Winter approach felt almost unbearable.

I was determined, this time round, to make the best of it for me and for my family.  So, when the advert in the Parish Council newsletter appeared, I jumped at the chance of making an allotment application.  A couple of weeks later, I had paid my £18 for the year, signed a tenancy agreement and had managed to get Pauline to agree to share the site with us.

We have only been to the allotment a handful of times to assess the site and the hope is this blog will not only keep us accountable, but will also help us watch our own story unfold.

Our mission is two-fold:

-          Create a space for peace and connection with nature and each other;

-          Grow fruit, vegetables and flowers;

We want to share this experience with you and encourage you to share your experiences with us.  Will you join us?

By Susan Hughes

(Director of Growing Together)

We Love Autumn…

Today whilst walking in the woods I was reminded of the natural beauty and majestic nature of autumn. Autumn has always had a special part in my heart and soul, a time of the year that I find uplifting, exciting and enjoyable. A brisk walk in the autumn air, as the leaves, acorns and conkers fall around you. A changing landscape of colour and regeneration all around you. A chance to take a deep breath pause and just take in the world that is so rapidly changing around you and appreciate the wonderful world that we can see and the unique connection we all have with nature. Just spending 30 minutes outside a week is said to improve our well-being and I don’t know about you but being outside to quote a good friend “blows away the cobwebs in our souls!” – that nature connection is not just a personal one but also a spiritual connection.

The complexity of this incredible world around us, like the way trees know to drop their leaves, to reserve the limited energy they will get from the sun in the cold winter months, in order to regrow and stay alive in the coming years. The way nature is forever changing around us and easily taken for granted or not understood. Autumn is also an exciting time to for children and a real opportunity to connect with nature, we love to collect conkers, acorns and leaves just like us Early Years Practitioners. I couldn’t help but, on my walk, today collect a few conkers, I think it is ingrained in us to do so to make the most of it.

After all conkers are a wonderful free resource for early years practitioners. From using conkers as loose parts, to tuff trays full of them for filling emptying, to using them for mathematics activities matching numbers to amount or conker rolling painting. There are just so many opportunities for that one conker! I personally love them as natural loose parts in the small-world and mathematics areas as I always think children find something amazing and incredible to do with them.

For example, I remember one child who spent hours engrossed in conker play, who had collected kitchen roll tubes from the art area and his conkers and he explored dropping them through the tubes, standing the tube down and seeing how many he could fit in what would happen if he picked the tube up and so much more. There were high levels of engagement, involvement, problem-solving, application of mathematical skills, working together with others as more children joined him and developing his ideas as they poked sticks through the tubes to see what happened next. As well as building upon his trajectory schema of learning, this child loved to drop things and watch things full and this supported his schema of learning.

Over my many years of working with young children I have been humbled by there understanding of the seasons, but have always found that Autumn just has a really special spark in them. I remember one child, many years ago, who thought “the sky was falling! The world is going to end!” because acorns, conkers and leaves were falling of the trees in the nursery garden. Obviously, we followed this the only way possible by reading the book ‘Chicken Licken’ which became a nursery favourite and doing many activities exploring the season of autumn; for weeks and weeks on end as this little boy and his interest grew and grew and was infectious to all of his friends around him.

But more then this autumn is also a magical time to see the world through children’s eyes. Last year whilst collecting coloured leaves with a group of children to make a physical pictogram on the floor outside, looking at numbers, sorting, colour, more and less and so on. I posed the question to a group of two to four year olds, “Why are the leaves falling of the trees?” To which one 3 year old replied, “Because it is autumn and the trees need to breath!” What an incredible insight and poetic way of putting it and it is very true in a way, the leaves drop in order to allow the tree to have the energy to live.

As people such as Richard Louv talk about a nature deficit and the fact that children are becoming more and more disconnected with nature, for example, many children could not identify trees by leaves anymore. It is a dying art, we do not know the trees around us, even me on my forest school training who loves nature and being outside, this is something I tremendously struggle with. But I always think autumn is a great time to explore this with the children. Take out some ID cards, match the leaves to the picture cards, sort them, look at size, look in detail at the veins on leaves as you do leave rubbings and printing.

A top tip I have when leaf printing is to use cotton buds on the back as you will not end up with to much paint and get a wonderful clear print of all the veins and details of a leaf. Other ideas, are to take your magnifying glasses with you and draw natural sketches with children. I think some of my happiest most memorable experiences with children that I have cared for has simply been, playing with the leaves outside in autumn. Sweeping them up, making pretend bonfires, throwing them in the air, repeating, singing songs around our bonfire or having tea outside around our bonfire. Simply magical times we have had together!

We hope you all have a magical and lovely autumn, wherever you are and whatever you are doing. We are running a webinar ‘Nature Connection and Well-Being in the Early Years on Wednesday 14th October 2020 at 7:30pm and you can click here to book. Or we are running the same webinar again on 21st November 2020 at 2pm and you can click here to book.