Managing The Stress Of Your Children During The Holidays

Real Talk for Real Teachers with Dr. Becky Bailey and special guest Jill Beck

Episode Summary

What was your experience as a child during holidays?  Do you find them stressful now?  How do we help students prepare for extended holiday breaks?

The holidays can bring stress and disruption to daily routines.  These times can result in an escalation of stress and misbehaviors in the classroom. Maintaining structure and routines during this time helps create predictability. Predictability helps create and maintain a felt sense of safety. Visual routine books and pre-holiday rituals built on a healthy family model help support children in managing the stress of holiday breaks.

Listen in as one 5th grade teacher, Jill Beck, shares her most powerful strategies for helping every child feel safe, loved and ready to learn as the holidays approach.

Essential Takeaways

• Maintaining classroom routines pre-holiday breaks maintains a felt sense of safety in the class family.
• Utilizing a healthy family model to create structure and rituals within the class family eases the stress of holiday breaks.

Steps for Tomorrow

• Make a routine book for things that will be out of routine before the break.  Create the book together with the students and read it often in the weeks before the break.
• Be aware of your own emotional state and what you are bringing to the classroom
• Do something that builds classroom family that replicates your own home family
• Have open conversations about feelings that arrive during the time leading up to holiday breaks

Important Links

• ConsciousDiscipline.com

Product Mentions

• The NEW Conscious Discipline Book – Expanded & Updated
• Feeling Buddies Toolkit for Classroom

Show Outline 

• :22 What is Conscious Discipline
• 1:20 Introduction of topic and stressors associated with preparing for the holidays
• 3:43 The executive skill of flexibility and what happens when it goes “off line”
• 6:40 Introduction of guest teacher Jill Beck
• 10:38 Creating a School Family with 5th grade students
• 13:36 Student behaviors approaching holidays and how to help
• 15:49 Creating a countdown to holiday break routine book
• 18:27 Pre-holiday break rituals
• 20:14 Talking with students about worries and excitements as the holidays approach
• 20:53 Easing the stress of testing before holidays
• 23:19 Playing “Rob your neighbor”
• 24:53 Returning to the school family after long holiday breaks
• 26:57  Steps for tomorrow

Thank You for Listening

There are many ways you could have spent this time today, but you chose to spend it with me and I am grateful. If you enjoyed today’s show, please share it with others via your favorite social media platforms.

Also, would you consider taking 60-seconds to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes? Your feedback is extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and I love to hear your feedback! Also, don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live!

On behalf of our Conscious Discipline family, we wish you well.