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Quote of the Week
"When anger rises, think of the consequences." --Confucius
Five Steps To Help Kids Transform Anger Into A Force For Good
This week's featured article from Greater Good provides parents with a framework to help their children understand and manage anger in healthy, constructive ways. The main goal is empowering kids to channel their anger wisely, helping them recognize its human nature, understand its physical signs, regulate its intensity, and express it through healthy communication. Here are five takeaway lessons:
- Normalize Anger: Help children understand that anger is a natural emotion, neither good nor bad, and that everyone feels angry at times. This acceptance is key to emotional regulation.
- Recognize Anger in the Body: Teach kids to notice physical signs of anger, such as tightness or racing heartbeats, so they can recognize it early and respond before it escalates. Modeling mindfulness is essential in this process.
- Regulate Intensity: Anger can be overwhelming, especially for younger kids. Parents can help children find strategies to regulate their anger, such as deep breathing, movement, or stillness, depending on what works best for them.
- Look Beneath Anger: Encourage kids to explore the softer feelings or unmet needs beneath their anger, like sadness or a desire for fairness. This helps transform conflict into meaningful conversation and connection.
5.Repair and Empower Action: Teach kids how to repair relationships when their anger leads to mistakes, and empower them to take positive action, such as standing up for themselves and others.
Reading Corner
 Title: When Sophie Gets Angry-Really Really Angry
By: Molly Bang
Ages: 3-5
"For children, anger can be very upsetting. Parents, teachers, and children can talk about it. People do lots of different things when they get angry. In this Caldecott-honor book, kids will see what Sophie does when she gets angry. What do you do?...Bang's double-page illustrations, vibrating with saturated colors reveal the drama of the child's emotions....an elegant and thought-provoking book for...children learning how to deal with emotions."
-NY Times Book Review
Recommended by Kindful Editors
Be The Change
Watch this video for more tips on how to help kids (and adults!) cope with anger. Try out one or more of the suggestions with your kids.
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