By Shanta Smith
Summer is almost here. The beautiful weather has emerged. The playgrounds are open. The birds are chirping. The sunshine is warming the earth.
As we sit and ponder our journey over this past year, we have many pleasant reflections that may surface in our minds. This pandemic has forced us to explore different ways that we take care of our mind, body, soul and heart. The things that mattered the most to us in life took center stage in a very forceful manner to reveal the depths of humanity within all of us. It is my hope that you have taken the gems from this journey forward with you.
At Greenwich Public Schools, one of our norms is to care for ourselves and others. This school year at Hamilton Avenue School, we have enhanced our social emotional learning and connection with humanity through the development of our emotional intelligence. We have learned to take deep breaths more often, practice several aspects of mindfulness in short and long dosages, optimize our periods of reflection, celebrate each other virtually and in person, stay fit as a school community through a virtual workout, connect with others in a socially distanced way, and walk through the day knowing that each moment should be cherished and valued. These memories are a sweet reflection of our time together and how we have emerged stronger as a learning community.
As we move into the summer months, I challenge you to share your sweet reflections detailing how you care for yourself with your family and friends. Share your successes or how you want to take better care of your body, mind, soul and heart. Be specific. Make a plan to accomplish your self-care goals.
This summer, turn your family outings into family educational scavenger hunts to improve your child(ren)’s self-care and academic prowess. Make sure each child has a journal and a personal reader, a book that they have decided to read. Encourage them to put their personal reader, journal and a pencil or pen in a bag. Challenge them to find math, language arts, science and social studies in everyday life and our world. Allow your child(ren) to write or draw journal entries showcasing their observations or wonderings. Journaling may help them to articulate their opinions and ideas in a manner that provides them with agency. Coupling this practice with daily reading in their personal reader may help to decrease the summer slide and capitalize on moments of calm curiosity during the summer months.
To further support the family’s efforts to rest and relax this summer, create a family self-care tool box using a shoe box. Decorate the self-care box with pictures and inspiring words. Write down self-care ideas that you use that have helped you in the past and put the ideas inside the box. Throughout the summer, if you engage in new self-care practices and routines, write them down and put them into your box. Pull the self-care practices and routines out of the self-care box periodically and reflect upon your success and/or growth in the area that is written on the paper. Please feel free to amend your self-care strategies or routines to strengthen them or to innovate a new approach. If you do so, please make sure that you notate the change and place the self-care idea into the box.
At the end of the summer, share your box of self-care strategies and routines with your family and friends. Engage in conversations with them about your self-care strategies. Tell them how you felt before, during and after using these strategies. Celebrate the self-care journey you have taken and plan for the steps ahead. Reflecting and creating through the celebration of caring for oneself helps us to prepare for a dynamic upcoming school year with students and families because it will augment your ability to manifest your best selves individually. This will assist us collectively as we work collaboratively together to emerge with strength, tenacity, and excellence with new beginnings for the school year 2021-2022.
