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Wooosaaah Part 4




They have boundless energy. We get tired just looking at them. And yet, we still need to help them learn how to relax and develop focus.


Our children’s lives can be so over-subscribed. With all of the sports and after school activities, school work, balancing family time with peer time, and let’s not forget video games, it can seem like our children never have a moment to themselves. They don’t! Taking the time to slow down, do quiet activities, and spending alone time, goes along way to teaching our children to tolerate being with themselves. All of these activities are busying and tiring for the body as well as the mind. Children learn to process their day rather than being so exhausted by it that the only time they get to process is at night when they’re sleeping. Quiet/unstructured time benefits children in a number of ways:

1. It helps them to develop creativity. When not engrossed in a computer/ cell phone/ social media activity, children are able to explore their environment and create other ways to “ be” with themselves.

2. Alone time helps them to develop autonomy, encourages development of self-direction, and, hopefully gives them some insight into what it’s like to have to be responsible for themselves.

3. Alone time also provides them with opportunities to practice all the things you’ve taught them about responsibility for themselves-like cleaning up after themselves, keeping track of their possessions, and most importantly, demonstrating that they can exist without electronic devices and they will not disintegrate!

4.Finally, how they spend the time helps you to get an idea about their maturity and provides the chance to learn about the areas where they still need support.


Overall, helping our children to learn how to be comfortable with unstructured/quiet time when they are young, improves their ability to think through their feeling and teaches them how to self-soothe and self-regulate. These skills are invaluable as the grow into adulthood, for their will be many days when they have to rely upon themselves to manage events in their lives. Developing this habit early in life empowers them with a great coping strategy they they’ll undoubtedly need in the future.

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