Upper Elementary Counseling

Dear UES Parents,

Welcome to the 2020-2021 school year. As the ASD community adjusts to living life in a pandemic, we hope you are able to continue to focus on the positives life brings you. These times are tough and it is important that we acknowledge that people are going through their own personal struggles, which makes it even more essential that we work together to support one another as we try to make the best out of this difficult historic world event. We have been challenged to build our resiliency so we can focus on the good in our lives and to be grateful for the daily joyful moments. What do you want our children to learn from this chapter of their lives? I know I want my children to reflect back on this experience understanding the importance of self-care, self-awareness, and making connections with others. As this challenge continues, we hope you keep in mind the ASD values of respect, honesty, compassion, and responsibility, to build upon our strong community.

It is important that we take care of ourselves first, before helping our children and others. Just like the flight attendant tells us when flying, “Put your own mask on first, before helping others.” The best way to help your children is for you to use your self-regulation strategies first and then you have the energy to look empathetically and with calmness in support of your children.

Tips to help manage anxiety:

• Social connections - make sure you are reaching out to your community
• Create daily routines - don’t forget to add fun to plans to give you something to look forward to
• Sleep - sleeplessness breeds anxiety
• Physical activity - at least 30 minutes a day, if not more
• Fresh air - at least 30 minutes a day, even in the Doha heat
• Keep informed but not too informed - check updates no more than once a day and not before bedtime

We will continue to offer Social Emotional Wellbeing (SEW) classes as part of your child’s school schedule to support your children to learn self-regulation skills. We use many resources to support our SEW curriculum but we thought we would share the main ones so you could familiarize yourself with them.

• Mind Yeti- teaches mindfulness
• www.self-reg.ca- Self Regulation helpful parenting tips, free resources, and self-reg courses
• Zones of Regulation - taught in grade 3 and concepts follow them throughout UES and MS
• MindUp- continues to build upon positive mental health and wellbeing
• Second Step- a research-based curriculum that promotes the social-emotional development, safety, and well-being of children

As counselors, we are here to help. Please let us know how we might be able to support you and your family this school year.

Kind regards,

Sara MacDonald smacdonald@asd.edu.qa

Mike Olsen molsen@asd.edu.qa