Parent-Child Educational Activities Together
One of the most important things parents can do is spend time with their children in ways that support relationships, caring, learning, and fun. The South Carolina Family Literacy Website can help. It’s a day-by-day interactive website with songs, games, activites, crafts, and health tips. Information is in English (https://www.daybydaysc.org.) and Spanish (Carolina del Sur Día por Día). Here are some additional supports:
- Practice the smart habit of listening to each other with empathy and understanding. Listening begins with a pause and some eye contact. When we listen to understand, we try to hear the emotions and the meaning of what someone else is saying. An empathetic listening response is to then paraphrase. Some paraphrase stems follow:
- “You’re feeling _______________ because __________________.”
- “What you want is….
- “______________ is important to you.”
- So on the one hand, you __________________, and on the other hand, you ______________.
Then pause again and keep listening.
- People who do things together build relationships in the process, especially when they talk about how they feel about the experience before, during, and after. Watch a show, cook a meal, clean a room, work on a project, take a drive. Then ask some of the following:
- What are some things we enjoyed most about _______________?
- What about our experience made it something we might want to do again?
- What were some ways our individual personalities were reflected in how we went about doing _________________?
- What are some ways we were encouraged by this experience?
- Based on what we have learned, what might we want to make sure we pay attention to in the future when we do things together?
- How has talking been helpful?
- One in five people struggle with mental health issues. The National Alliance on Mental Illness offers family education and resources, all for free. Go to: https://www.nami.org/Home. Locally, contact Lou Hanna at email@example.com; 843-413-1500 or Carol Hill at firstname.lastname@example.org; 843-615-2915.
- Concerned about a person in crises? Help is available 24-7. National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255.
- Violence is never caring. Not feeling safe for yourself or your children in your own home is not acceptable. There is help 24/7 for people experiencing domestic violence. Call 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) to speak to someone in more than 200 languages or go to https://www.thehotline.org/help/
- You can access free books for readers of all ages using your phone or another device. Click on this link: https://readanybook.com/
- The Florence Public Library system has free resources, including books, movies, and computer access. People with library cards can also access resources online without going into the library: https://florencelibrary.org/
- 4-H is the nation’s largest youth development organization, and it has free resources for at-home projects. For more information, click on https://4-h.org/about/4-h-at-home/
- Story-telling supports children in learning how to organize thoughts, develop vocabulary and voice, and provide details. For a long list of story-telling starters, go to https://www.literacyshed.com/the-story-starter-shed.html and get ready to laugh.
- Improvisation activities honor creativity and free verbal expression for there are no wrong answers. For some suggestions on some possible improvisational activities, go to https://kidactivities.net/improv-games-and-exercises/
- Virtual Tours expose children and families to cultural and community information and resources. Click here for some links to some free virtual tours.