Confidently Back to School with Elisha Galambos

Hi, and we're live again. So I am joined by, this time by Alicia, and it is 5 o'clock in the morning where Alicia is. So I want to give you a massive thank you and a massive round of applause for— because I'm a morning guy, but 5 o'clock is, you know, even for me, way before my time. So thank you very much for coming on, Alicia. That's great to see you.

You're very welcome. It's my pleasure. Yeah, it's great to be here. I'm Alicia Glambath. I am actually the director and founder over at EH Innovation, where we provide families with mental health education. So it's so great to be able to talk about back to school and work with you and your audience on getting them some tips. in supporting them.

Brilliant, that's fantastic, that's lovely to hear. You know, it's clear that you've got a big heart and you're bringing that big heart to bear to help families, so that's brilliant. So what would you like to share with our viewers today? What have you learned about this stuff that you think would really help?

Yeah, so for me, I'm all about empowering children to, when they go back to school, they have tools in their toolkit that they're able to pull out and use independently to make them feel safe and comfortable? So, I recommend 4 things, and the first one is giving your child an agenda. For parents, we might have calendars, we may have our schedules, whether they're digital, whether we're still using pen and paper, but giving kids the same option. Giving them the agenda makes them feel empowered, organized, in charge of their own schedule, and allows them to manage What they're able to do. So, for example, if a friend asks them to come round at this time, they're able to look at their calendar already and know that they have swimming practice or they have a soccer or football game. They're able to say, I have this, can we do it at this time? And that takes away a lot of that going home, being upset that they have another activity planned. Or another thing scheduled because they're able to better plan time with their friends by themselves. They're able to plan out their homework, especially older ones. I usually recommend this, particularly age 8 and up. They get a great understanding of how this works because they've seen their parents do it all the time. And at that age especially, they just want to be adults.

Mm-hmm.

So, it's definitely an effective tip, one of the effective tips.

Yeah, yeah, so it's about, as you say, it's a sense of empowerment and independence, but in a very practical way. So we're giving them something that they can do rather than just talking at them.

Exactly. Another one that really goes in line with it And helping them manage is one of those water bottles with the lines as to how much they've drank throughout the day. It's obviously so important that we're getting water for our brain health, improve their ability to study and focus. But beyond that, giving a child a water bottle that's not just one that's child-sized or has your favorite character on it, It might be giving the one that has the lines available because they're able to control and manage how much water they're drinking throughout the day and actually take charge of their own health.

Yeah.

Like, giving them independence now, either at school where they're now responsible for feeding themselves and ensuring they get that water. It's really important to make sure they're having a schedule skill in place that they can either use drinking water at the self-serve or know when they need to go fill up their water bottle. It definitely gives them independence versus waiting for a teacher to say it's time to have water or you can get your water bottles. You really want to encourage them to take steps early on for a healthier and a more efficient lifestyle too.

That's brilliant. I'm just thinking, going back to your first point about the diary, the agenda, maybe that could be something that they look— we look at the agenda for the next week in terms of, you know, what we're going to do when, and we're kind of like, we're involving the child, our son or daughter. in creating the agenda before we go back to school.

Exactly, that is great.

The agenda is like, almost like the starting point for the conversation so that we're planning stuff together or we're asking them what they think and we're putting stuff in there. I'm trying to think because it's a great, great idea, the agenda, and then let's make it relevant to Now and, you know, we can relevant to the rest of the, the rest of the term. Let's talk about it now in terms of like focusing on short-term stuff. So that's great. So, so, uh, agenda, um, uh, water bottles. So we're putting them in charge of their— putting them in charge of their schedule, we're putting them in charge of their intake of, uh, of water for, for brain health and, um, and keeping ourselves hydrated, which I guess— If sleeping patterns have changed, definitely going back to school, then there's— I've heard a lot of research around, you know, we feel more tired when we're not drinking enough water. So that could be part of the conversation as well, couldn't it?

I agree as well. Something I actually talk about in one of the tips I was thinking about sharing was using a weighted blanket, because sleep can be so challenging for a lot of children, especially right now with some back-to-school anxiety occurring. And regardless of that anxiety in general, whether they're going through a stressful time like GCSEs or other exams, it's important to give them something that they know they can use to improve their sleep. So, weighted blanket is one of those things that they're able to either grab from their cupboard when they need it, use when they want it. It could even be something sitting at the edge of the bed to help support them in those sleeping habits. Giving them— instead of saying, we're going to do this every night to help us fall asleep, it's great to have a routine, but it's important to give the child other resources So, it's not the middle of the night, and if they have technology in their room, if they're older, they're not going on that, or if they're younger, they're not going into the parents' bedroom asking for a glass of water only to fall asleep a few minutes later. So, giving them a blanket that's weighted can really be empowering, and beyond that, it's sense for them to know that they have the ability to reduce their anxiety. Through the actions they take. And even the weighted blanket can be transferred into a school environment, obviously not bringing in the physical blanket, but using a hug. So a breathing hug, just a child being able to wrap their arms around themselves to calm their parasympathetic nervous system can be really beneficial. And talking to them about these things, talk to them about why a weighted blanket works. When might they use it? What can they do if they're at school and they're feeling similar distress? I think that is really helpful to give them tools in advance before they even need them, before they're in a situation where they're feeling an extensive amount of panic and aren't able to control it or know how to regulate it, especially when we're working with younger kids around 4 5, just starting school, it can be an incredibly challenging time. And I found resources, although it seems quite simple, they work. And that's why—

Yeah.

They make them, they sell them. And even if you can't afford it, or it's out of your reach, or you're unable to find one, teaching your child to do the self-hug can be an amazing compassionate exercise. They can use even if they just go to the washroom for 2 minutes at school.

It's the ultimate portable, isn't it? Self-love. Yes, self-love, self-love. That's, you know, because we talk a lot about self-love for adults, but self-love for kids is as simple as a hug. I love that, that's a great one. It's funny you talk about the weighted blankets because I need a lot of weight, you know, even in the summer unless it's really red hot, which, you know, I live in the north of Yorkshire, it's definitely not hot at night. Very rarely is it hot at night, but I like a lot of weight on my duvet. And my wife, she's just like, why do you have to have it so hot? And no, no, I don't have anyone. But yeah, for kids. So is there anything else? I mean, I'm very intrigued by this this connection between the kind of like people talk about, you know, the body, body-mind, body-mind connection. But I'm very intrigued that you're bringing it to a topic like kids going back to school. So you're talking about, you know, weighted blankets so that we sleep better. If we sleep better, then we're going to be more refreshed in the morning. We're going to be more alert during the school day. If we keep hydrated. Is there anything else on the kind of the—

Similar to the agenda and what you brought up about parents discussing this with their child, giving them a space to journal. And I know they're already overwhelmed with homework, and sometimes when I suggest this, parents will tell me they do so much writing already, but the writing they're doing for school is not the same as the writing or the drawing they're going to do for themselves in their journal, especially now with COVID-19. And I know here at least children are still going back to school in what's very much a pandemic state. They might feel a little bit separated from their friends, from their community. Having a space where they can go every day to write or draw or doodle or whatever is relevant for them Yeah. To talk about not only what went on in their day, but how it made them feel, and give them a safer space to express those feelings. Because at school, most frequently, there's not time for that. Teachers are overworked. They're now being required to be healthcare providers as well. And teachers, we know, often take on that social work role to begin with, unfortunately. Because there's just such a lack of services there. But having a journal would really give them the opportunity to reflect, think, and it's something they can talk about with their parents or their guardians. If there's something they want to share, or there's a specific element of their day, it's really important to keep those pathways of communication open where these conversations are Not forced, the child just knows they have a safe place to go no matter what happens, even if the journal is something they wanted to bring to school or something the family decides to create a gratitude practice around. And if everyone's doing it, maybe collectively the family would—

Oh, wow, yeah.

Yeah, we take time to write a couple of things of gratitude and the child is open to share Or not, or it's about taking time to write 3 minutes of their day. And families collectively, I've had families who put journal prompts on their fridge, especially with older ones, around 7 and up, I would say typically, is today I felt fearless because— and they'll give their kids sentence starters or even more fun ones. Like my favourite movie is because— and giving them topics that they can talk about that might lead into deeper conversations is incredibly beneficial.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you ever seen the older kids— have you seen anybody doing like video journals and stuff like that?

Yeah, I work with a lot of clients who start vlogs because of their experiences in life. Teenagers, not so much. What I find is they use social media as their open journal, which is a good and bad thing. But a lot of the time, especially with creative, more creative teens who are passionate about art, they'll use a couple of sites to show their artwork and share their story. In that way, I do think vlogs are helpful. It's all about the comfort level, how personal we're looking to get, and whether they feel like it's the most effective choice for them.

I was, I was thinking, um, so I started writing a book, um, about my, uh, about my life. I haven't been back to it for a few weeks, but I— because I mean, I've been in publishing before, so I was in education publishing before I did this sort of children's happiness expert stuff, which has been the last 7 years. I can't stop editing and proofreading my own work. Yeah, so if I'm typing something, I can't just let it flow. I look at a sentence, you know, I find it very hard to know Whereas on video, because I'm no good at video editing at all, I don't try and do it. So what I did was I set up a little private Facebook page that nobody else can see. I haven't told anyone. Well, I've told a couple of people about it. And I just did a— I just spoke to the camera. I wrote the book to the camera, telling my story. And then my plan was to, you know, maybe use one of those, you know, one of the artificial intelligence things to turn that, to turn what was video into text. Yeah.

Yeah.

But the idea that you talked about journals, like some kids don't like writing, but they love videoing, but they could create, you know, just create the video, not on social media, because social media is social, I meant like a personal video, you know, or like they could use the voice recorder. The older kids have got a voice recorder, they could just talk into there, they could just do it on their phone. And, you know, depending on what, you know, some people like to, as you say, the artistic people like to express themselves through pictures, through people that like writing, like expressing themselves through words, typing away, or with a You know, I've heard that writing with a pen actually brings us far more out of ourselves than typing away at keyboards. But some people like to record stuff, people like to hear stuff, so let the child— I guess it's about what's right for the child, isn't it?

Exactly. Yeah.

Let them express themselves personally or openly, you know, how they feel.

Exactly, it's about what makes the child feel, I always call it that warm and fuzzy feeling, what brings them the most joy.

Yeah.

In regards to that point, I've had clients make videos on Adobe Spark. That's where they add in their images, especially if they're able to find those online or other, even stock footage, other videos. And they do a voice recording over it. And a lot of the times they'll do that and talk about their week that way. I have clients who like to make PowerPoints in regards to their experiences and will come back and let me know about how it went and will show me like the PowerPoint of their week and even do things like mood boards or collages. Mm-hmm. And find more visual ways to express their feelings. And for those who don't like writing, Google Docs, which is absolutely free, has a voice typing option. So a lot, although it might mess up along the way, in terms of your voice, it is quite effective if there's a bunch of things that you want to express and not have to go back and transcribe Keeping like clearly dated audio files on your phone is a great way. That way you're able to look back at your week or share any of the experiences that were happening for you or took place, either that created a strong feeling or strong action.

Yeah, that's brilliant. Okay, Alicia, so where can people— have you got anything else that you'd like to share?

No, these are my big 4 for this back-to-school year of things that I've been recommending to the families I work with. If anyone does want any more information, we are posting a bunch of back-to-school tips, a lot of journal prompts coming up as well too. We'll be having free workshops over the course of September, so just check out our Instagram. @EHEInnovation. That's the best place to find out more tips, more resources. If you're sending us a direct message, you'll be getting in touch with myself directly. I manage the account. And you can also find us on the website online. We do free 30-minute consults no matter where you are in the world. We're happy to work with you. It's www.eaginnovation.com. We're very easy to find, and you can always reach out to us.

I'll put those in the chat. That's why I was putting my glasses on, so I could see what I was doing when I was typing. So EAG, so that's your initials, I guess?

It is, yes. They say don't name your company after So, um, that was my way of letting folks know that they're being supported by me and, um, my team members. And yeah, it's always great because I get to have a conversation about what the name means.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, that's brilliant, Alicia. Thank you very much for, uh, for joining us, and, uh, I hope you have a, a great day. Hopefully we can connect again soon.

Definitely. It was a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much.

Bye-bye. Bye.