Warm Winter Greetings!
Our February Theme: Love
We are practicing the Seven Grandfather Teachings this whole year. Each month we highlight one teaching. This month we are highlighting Love.
Love means different things to different people. Love also looks different so for the purpose of highlighting this Grandfather teaching with our students, we think of Love in terms of what we say and do in three areas of our lives:
At School: We show love by keeping our school clean, taking care of materials and putting supplies back for others to use, by holding doors open for others, by cooperating with classmates on projects. Students and staff had the opportunity to take part in Giving Hearts Day on February 9th this year by raising over $500.00 for the Food For Thought program sponsored by the Moorhead Legacy Foundation. We show love through our words by practicing our Second Step lessons on empathy and showing kindness to others as found in the January edition of our Counseling Corner tips
At Home: Children show love by LISTENING to their PARENTS and CAREGIVERS and doing what they say! Children can take part in chores that help their families run smoother. They can and should pick up their toys and clean up their areas so they feel a sense of responsibility and ownership in the family system. Families just work better when everyone does their part. Share kind words with each other. Tell others what you love about each other and say it often. Your family unit has this precious time together now. Children grow up and move away. This time is precious together.
For Ourselves: We celebrate Valentine's Day by showing love for others but what about showing love for ourselves? We show love for ourselves by taking care of ourselves… body, mind and spirit. We take care of our bodies by eating healthy food. Treats should be kept to a minimum so children don’t mistake them for major food groups and expect them on the regular. Another way we show love for our bodies is by giving ourselves enough sleep. It is recommended that elementary aged students get 10-12 hours of sleep a day with teenagers actually needing more.
Finally, keeping our brains healthy involves monitoring what goes into them. More and more we are seeing the negative effects of kids spending too much time online. Research now shows the correlation of a growing mental health crisis with what children are doing and how long they are doing it online. Mental health IS health.