Some great ideas to look after your wellbeing at home

PUBLISHED 27 March 2020

WELLBEING AT HOME 

It’s really important while you are at home that you don’t spend all day in front of a screen simply making your way through all the work that has been set – you will not learn well, or enjoy what you are learning, without a break!  

So we would recommend that you get up at your usual time, get dressed, eat breakfast and have a structure to your day – take some time out from schoolwork to look after your wellbeing – whether that is physical, emotional, spiritual or social.  

Here are some great examples that you can try at home to break up your day and look after your wellbeing.   

Try one of the activities and ask a parent or guardian to send a photograph to news@akslytham.com – we will do our best to share as many of the photographs with our online community.  You might inspire others to have a go! 

• Try a new hobby – how about giving sign language a go! 
• MAKE a card for a relative and send it to them.  
• Get some fresh air daily – at least open your windows or have lunch outside if the weather permits!  
• If you have a garden – get out the swing ball or other garden games like boules.  
• Get the garden ready for spring planting – tidy up the flower beds and plant!  
• Look around your home and garden and take ‘guess what this is’ pictures on your phone.    
• Play hop scotch in your garden.  
• Facetime, or find an app, that allows you to play remote games with some friends or family.  
• Do daily exercise – our PE Department have put together a number of short video workouts that you can do at home.  They can be found in your year group PE TEAM, by clicking on “files.” 
• Find your board games – do a different one every day.  
• Do a Jigsaw. 
• Karaoke – do this on a group chat for a bit of fun and laughter! 
• Dust off your skipping rope and set yourself a challenge to jump for several minutes! 
• Go on your trampoline or do star jumps in your garden – see if you can get to 100 without stopping, it’s great aerobic exercise. 
• Listen to music and dance around your room. This one will make your parents/carers smile!  
• Discover a new skill – baking, cook a new recipe, basic car maintenance, sign language.  
• Organise your wardrobe.  
• Make a hand puppet using an old sock! 
• Do you have coloured chalk – draw  ‘mandalas’  patterns on your paths.  
• Always wanted to do the splits or touch your toes? Get stretching and start practicing. 
• Lego!  
• Research a job you know nothing about.  
• Visit an online museum – find out 5 fascinating (to you) facts.  
• Keep a diary of what you did and how you felt during time away from school.  
• Take a breath - download an app for example  ‘breath’  and practice deep breathing, great if you begin to feel stressed or anxious.  
• Rediscover your senses – take 2 minutes – look out the window, what do you hear, see, smell, taste and touch.  
• Do some art! Paint or draw. 
• Mindful Colouring in.  
• Get out the Playdough and see what you can create!
• Plan some healthy snacks for the week – try a new fruit.  
• Make a smoothie.  
• Write a short story.  Make up your own title or try one of these: ‘Never in a million years …………’ or ‘ The winner of X Factor is …………’  
• Keep a gratitude jar – each day write on a slip of paper one thing you are grateful for.  When you feel stressed you can empty the jar and remind yourself of the positives in your life. Start the jar off by writing one person, one memory, one skill, one food, one holiday, one toy/game you are grateful for.  
• Visit the Mindmate website and explore the resources – there is lots of advice about mental health and wellbeing.  
• Do some housework without being asked.  
• Sit outside in your garden / balcony with a picnic. 
• Write a blog.  
• Do some origami – find instruction on the internet. Challenge yourself!  
• Crosswords.  
• Learn how to knit or crochet. 
• Get on your bike – with a helmet.  
• Keep a sleep diary – notice how you feel if you sleep well and from a reasonable time .  
• Video call some elderly or vulnerable relatives or friends.  
• Read a book – maybe you could start a WhatsApp book club for your classmates.  
• Send a ‘thank you’ email to any ‘key workers’ you know.  
• Produce a poster for your window to make your post person/delivery person smile.   
• Build a bug house in your garden. 
• Play a silly game in the garden – look at a cloud in the sky and say what you think it looks like! 
• Turn up the music and just sing or dance. 
• Get pebbles or rocks from the garden – and using paint, turn them into an animal (eg ladybird). 
• Make a set of binoculars out of toilet paper rolls and look for birds and other wildlife in your garden.  List them on a piece of paper and research them online. 
• Find different items in your home and garden that are your favourite colour. 
• Get a piece of string and learn how to play Cat’s Cradle – this can be done individually or with someone. 
• Play a game of cards. 
• There are also some great ideas on the Scouts website