This is part one, of a five-part series, on easing anxiety in students. Subscribe to Chaos Appreciation through your favorite reader or email and guarantee you don’t miss anything!
The anxious student
Ever have your child scratch out “Review” on their math worksheet and replace it with “Poop”? It seems my very bright ten-year old doesn’t care too much for the field of mathematics. I notice that almost every day we sit to do work, even basic review work, she will lay her head on the table and cry about how “she can’t do it”. I’ve noticed that most of the time she’s not even looking at the problem; it just looks long or complicated and she panics. I’ve also noticed that video games or board games that involve big, complicated math do not bother her at all. She excels. Then I noticed that she and her sister did all their work with less fuss when they were given an opportunity to fidget, twitch, tap, rock, or do another activity often used by adults for stress / anxiety relief. That is what gave birth to this series: Five ways to ease student anxiety. I’ll post each Monday and send out a full recap of all five posts in our newsletter.
Homemade Stress Balls
Stress balls
This weekend we made our own. I had made some of these years ago and my family loved them.
Supplies
- Birdseed ( I recommend either not getting a mix with sunflower seeds or cracked corn or hiring my mom to sit and separate it – which I did* )
- Balloons – the only ones we had today were tiny ones, next time I’ll use regular sized balloons.
- Funnel
- Pencil (not pictured)
Directions
- Blow up several balloons to stretch them out. DO NOT TIE THEM.
- Put first balloon on the end of the funnel.
- Holding the neck of the balloon, add birdseed to the funnel.
- Take your pencil and use it to push the birdseed into the balloon. The balloon will stretch and hold the birdseed.
- Push the pencil down into the balloon, stretching the balloon into a long ‘tube’, allowing you to find a piece of the neck with no birdseeds in it. Pinch, remove the pencil, remove the funnel and tie in a knot.
- Take a second balloon, one that you stretched out previously, and stretch it over your filled balloon. Once you get one balloon inside another balloon you can blow up the second balloon, allowing the seed filled balloon to be moved around and laid near the bottom. Release the air, and tie. Cut off the end of the balloon (leaving the knot)
- Repeat step 6 with a third balloon.
- Squeeze
*No, I didn’t really hire my mom. I mean, she DID separate them but I didn’t pay her. She loves me and she enjoys doing things like that.
**Please ignore my horribly half painted nails. I never paint my nails. I was trying to “girl up” a bit and knew the were starting to look rough. We spent the weekend helping my mom move in to her new apartment and I didn’t have time (or energy) to fix them. But I will. Promise.
*** I’ve also seen these made with cornstarch or rice. I actually prefer the feel of the bird seeds squishing around.
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and packing tape,
