Hello from our School Captains                                                     25 August 2021 

I'm bored! 

Surely you're not hearing those words at home (from your children)? Whilst we'd all love to be doing some things that are temporarily impossible, this is also an opportunity for children to develop some strategies and hobbies that support them to be comfortable with their own company, or connect to others. This eNews provides some ideas for families, and details of another useful parent webinar.

We're also delighted that our School Captains wanted to reach out to LPS students via video, and encourage you to share these videos (and their thoughts about Lockdown) with your children. Thank you Ethan, Felix, Jane and Lucy.

Responding to I'm bored! 

As well, here are ten suggestions (easily Googled) of how parents can respond to 'I'm bored' in ways that encourage children to find some solutions:

• Hmmm.. I wonder, what could you do?
• I’m sure you’ll figure out something to do.
• Boredom can lead to great imagination. I think your mind is trying to tell you you should try to make or do something!
• It’s okay to feel bored! What do you want to do now?
• Should we brainstorm a bit? What does your mind say it wants to do?
• That’s nice; feeling bored is a good thing.
• "Hmm” or “Okay” (Just acknowledge them).
• Great! That means you’re about to think of a terrific idea, let me know what that is.
• Sometimes I feel bored too. 
• Tell me one thing you haven’t done in a long time.

You may have noticed that our LFH pages include some practical, hands-on activities, to inspire your children and support their wellbeing. If you need inspiration, there are so many ideas online, to use after LFH each day, for keeping children focused and occupying their time productively and this one has 150 ideas to try.

I love the zipline for toys; worth a try for some fun! Or one of my other favourites:

Looking forward to having lots of resilient, accomplished jugglers returning to school!

On the other hand, if your children like a checklist, here's one that's ready to print: 52 Ideas for when you're bored.

Father's Day

As we approach Father's Day, and despite the creative thinking from Parents Group, we're so disappointed that the LPS Father's Day Breakfast is unable to proceed. It is time, however, to remind families of the important role that dads and other role models can play. We'll send a couple of articles this week about these special people, starting with this one:     What Kids Learn from Fathers

Webinar: Tips to help families cope during lockdowns: Monday 30 August at 8 p.m. 

Parents/carers may be interested in this free webinar, led by a panel that includes Dr Michael Carr-Gregg.

During this discussion, a panel of health and wellbeing experts along with community members, will provide insights and tips on how families can work together to manage through lockdowns including the role parents can play, maintaining hope, tips to improve motivation for young people and more.

Register here.

Finally, you may have heard preliminary reports about NAPLAN results in today's news. As always, this precedes any information available to schools, students or Year 3 or 5 families. We are expecting to receive further information in September and will provide results to parents as soon as we can.

Stay safe!

Kim