One of the best things to do when you are feeling stressed, anxious, or angry is to BREATHE. This is true for children as well as for adults.

I teach the children in my preschool class to breathe deeply by pretending to “smell the flowers” and then to “blowout your birthday candles.” We even pretend to hold a flower up to our noses as we breathe in, and then we put up our pointer finger to be a candle when we blow out.

If you spend anytime with kids, you know that you sometimes need to take a deep breath just to keep yourself from completely losing your mind. I encourage you to remember to “smell the flowers” and to “blow out your birthday candles” at least three times when you feel yourself nearing the edge.  And as you model this for the kids, they will learn this important skill too.

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