Exploring Shadows to Ease Fear in Young Children
This year has gone by so fast. Halloween supplies are already working it’s way into the local stores. Soon everywhere you go will have something creepy crawly or dead hanging around.
This time of year kids deal with a lot of fears that they do not face year round and some they do. New fear pop up brought on by Halloween “fun.” the good thing is this opens up opportunities to talk about these fears with your child. To give them tools that they will use for the rest of their lives.
If your child finds themselves afraid of the shadows in the night, dark and scary things decorating the world right now you can use shadow puppets to explore those fears and work through them. This idea was inspired by Mother Goose Time that sent these shadow puppets with the September 2016 Me and My Family (The same ones that were found in the Sights and Sounds of Winter theme I did not get much content up for.)
You can get these shadow puppets by ordering the September theme that is shipping now. You can also make your own shadow puppets easy for this particular activity. Simply cut shapes of out of black construction paper. Attach to craft sticks and you are ready to explore shadows. Just add a kid friendly flashlight and a dark room.
Mother Goose Time recommends the book, Moonbear’s Shadow by Frank Asch for this day’s activities. We did not have a copy to read but I trust the books Mother Goose Time sends or recommends for the kids so I figured I would mention it in case your library has it on hand.
Using a flashlight in a dark room create a lighted area on a wall to play with the shadow puppets. Show your child how the puppets cast shadows on the wall. Discuss how the light creates this shadow and how sometimes things look scary till you see what they really are.
Ask your child a few questions and encourage them to ask you questions too
What are you scared of? When was a time you were scared until you seen that it was not really scary? How can we help you feel safe?
Find more Halloween fun with this fall harvest sensory bin,pumpkin craft with printable, and pumpkin pie spice sensory play. Try building gross motor skills with this pumpkin smash activity.
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