by Liz Elmquist

Mental health during childhood is something that is often overlooked and misunderstood; however, the lingering effects of the COVID pandemic are bringing more light to this important topic. Childhood mental health is arguably just as important as social, emotional, physical, and cognitive/academic development and when children are mentally healthy, they can thrive across a variety of settings and situations.

We continue to see, feel, hear, and experience the complex challenges shaped by our collective experience of COVID, and children are demonstrating signs, symptoms, and behaviors that are asking us (parents, professionals, teachers, etc) to take notice.��

How is mental health showing up in the school setting?��

Many children continue to struggle with readjusting to social interactions, making friends, and getting the support they need. There has been an observable increase in anxiety, noticeable low self-esteem, difficulty with peer relationships or conflict with peers, and in some instances, school avoidance. We have also seen an increase in anger and behavioral problems, which are often an externalization of how children are responding to/navigating the emotions of their internal world. What feels overwhelming on the inside comes out in intense behaviors, emotional outbursts, tantrums, or dysregulation.��

What are some signs of anxiety or depression in children?��

Anxiety in children typically presents through physical symptoms: stomachaches, headaches, difficulty falling or staying asleep. It can also look like irritability/anger, defiance, lack of focus, overplanning (must know every aspect of their schedule, struggle with any changes in routine), negative thinking, and avoidance (people, places, or tasks). Depression can look somewhat similar, but also includes feelings of sadness or hopelessness, social withdrawal or isolation, changes in appetite or sleep, increased sensitivity to rejection, fatigue/low energy, loss of interest or pleasure. Please do not diagnose your child based on this constellation of symptoms; rather, if you are concerned about something, please seek professional consultation.��

What are some things I can do at home to support my child’s mental health?��

Establish a sense of structure or routine. Children thrive when they have predictability and consistency. Of course, this may not be possible all the time for a variety of reasons, but folding in routine when you are able, is a helpful foundation for healthy regulation for children. Allow your child to ask questions. Respond to your child in a developmentally appropriate way. Sometimes saying “I don’t know,” is the best answer in the moment! Try to see if you can listen more rather than speaking/responding – kids want to feel heard! Validate and acknowledge their feelings. This helps kids feel seen and understood. Observe and respond to the cues of your child. Sometimes kids need hugs, sometimes they just need someone to listen and help them feel heard. Sometimes they need to run around and have a physical release. Kids will need different things based on how they’re feeling and how they process their world. Notice changes in mood or behaviors.�� Look for signs or symptoms that feel different than usual and ask for help if you are unsure about what you are seeing. Be mindful of your own feelings and reactions. Children feel our energy and our stress. Take a deep breath for yourself and consider what you are modeling in any given moment. Do your best and remember you are human!��

Toolbox for helping your child cope:

– CONNECT with each other or with friends/family.��

– Put your screens/devices down and provide undivided attention for 10 minutes!

– Model talking about your feelings in a developmentally appropriate way.

– Journaling (for younger kids you could have them draw a self-portrait to depict how they’re feeling)

– Make a meal together and notice the different smells, textures, colors of what you are making.��

– Do something new together.

– Let your child pick an activity.

– Make art or color together.

– Mindfulness activities ( geared for ages 5-12)

– Exercise together or separately

– Deep breathing exercises ( there is also a YouTube channel with videos)

– Go on a mindful walk and practice noticing your environment using your senses (What do you see? Hear? Smell?)��

– Create a worry box (have your child write down their worries/fears and place them in a special box; they can choose whether they want to read/look at them later. If they choose to revisit the worries, be present with them and let them lead the conversation)

– Help your child create a toolbox for his/her/their own helpful skills (create a physical toolbox of things they can use when dysregulated or having a big feeling. When having different emotions, kids may need different tools in their toolbox. E.g. some children like to draw or journal, while others may need a physical activity.)��

The Birthing Tree

Growing Up New Mexico

Growing Up New Mexico focuses on bringing people and resources together to ensure the success of every child. They provide essential services such as providing capacity building for families with home-based childcare and home visits, providing pre-k and childcare through Kaune, and providing prenatal and postpartum support to families in need.

resolve

Resolve teaches children, adults and the elderly in Northern and Central New Mexico a research-based, trauma-informed curriculum on violence prevention and safety skills. Conceptual seminars teach the origins of violence and how to assess risk and set boundaries for healthy relationships. Experiential classes teach hands-on interpersonal skills and strategies to prevent and stop assault. Resolve reaches individuals and communities through partnerships with schools and other nonprofits, community groups and Pueblos, as well as classes for the public.

VOICE Amplified

Though Voice Amplified is a national organization, it is co-founded and directed by �������� parent, Mendy Marsh. VOICE is a diverse, women-led organization revolutionizing emergency response systems to prioritize and protect women and girls and other at-risk groups locally and globally. They support feminist movements addressing conflict, disaster, climate change, mental health, and economic justice issues through an anti-colonial, intersectional feminist lens.

It’s always real gearing up for the holidays with little ones (both big and small!). We wanted to share some tips and resources that can help set the family up for success during the season.

1. Bring the kiddos in on the fun!

We often forget that children are capable humans who want to do meaningful work and contribute to their surroundings. It’s what the Montessori approach is all about and you can weave it in at home! Having your children participate in the holiday mayhem does require a little extra planning, giving projects a little more time, and giving up on some perfectionism but it can limit challenging behaviors, increase your child’s confidence, and create priceless moments of connection. Check out this past blog post for age-specific ideas of how to include your student into the holiday fun.

2. go easy

We talk a lot about how important schedule and routine are for all humans, but especially the small ones who haven’t built up the same immunity to chaos as we adults have. While the holidays can be a time for special connection, love, and family, they also disrupt the daily routine and can introduce relational dynamics that can feel really sticky for many families. Whether you’re traveling or staying home, try to build in down time during the holiday breaks to make room for some of the emotions that can come up from the shift in routine. Maybe this just means getting to sleep in one morning, or taking a break from seeing family for an afternoon, maybe it means only making 2 pies instead of 4. Wherever you can fit it in, give yourself and your kiddos permission to ease up on the plans and have some time for unstructured connection.

3. get curious about traditions

The Montessori approach aims to share age-appropriate and accurate information for all students. Get curious this holiday season as questions arise around your family traditions and the reasons for the seasons. One great way to start practicing this (it can be harder than you think!) is to start learning about your family heritage and seasonal traditions. Where do your ancestors come from? What are some celebrations from that region or community? In what ways can you weave in those threads into what you do with your family today? There are so many rich and beautiful ways that humans across time and geography have created special moments to reflect on gratitude, pay attention to the passing of time, and to make space to honor our relationships to one another.��

4. stay connected

We live in a land rich in history, community, and natural beauty. , meet up with other families to go for a hike, support local artisans at one of Santa Fe’s many holiday fairs (our is on 12/2 from 10am-1pm). Whether you’ve been here all your life or only just moved to town, there’s always something to learn and something to explore in our amazing corner of the world.

“…the Cosmic Plan can be presented to the child, as a thrilling tale of the earth we live in….”

— Maria Montessori

Part 1. An involuntary hiatus leads to a landmark Educational Innovation

In 1940, when Maria Montessori was already 70 years old, WW2 broke out while she and her son Mario were giving a training for Primary teachers in Mumbai. Because India was still under British rule, and Italy was allied with Germany, the Montessoris were held under house arrest, and barred from traveling back to Europe … as it turned out, until 1947.��

They had no idea how long they would be detained, but it wasn’t long before Mario became worried that his mother’s life’s work would come to an involuntary end. The Montessoris’ Italian passports marked them as enemy aliens, but there was no animosity toward them from the communities they were permitted to live and work in. War was happening a world away. In rural India, they were welcome and respected.

To make the most of their stay, they decided to develop a plan for the materials and methods of the elementary classroom. Steeped for almost a decade in a rich, rural culture, and surrounded by diverse and (mostly) mutually tolerant eastern spiritualities and philosophies, it’s not surprising that they placed a holistic understanding of an unfolding and thoroughly integrated universe at the center of Montessori’s elementary curriculum. Far from being a “forced retirement,” their stay in India proved to be a formative period in Montessori’s thinking, allowing her to see the elementary years and develop the elementary curriculum from a more global and universal perspective.��

Maria Montessori had a gift for telling stories. She didn’t gather children in large groups often, but over her many years in classrooms, she enjoyed telling short, dramatic, non-fiction stories, especially to�� elementary aged children, who always pressed for more details. Often she would illustrate parts of her stories on large chart paper as she told them. Sometimes she would use simple experiments to demonstrate the ideas she was describing. Her collaborators noticed that certain stories seemed to be her favorites.��

In time, her stories actually became central to the curriculum she was developing for the second plane (6-12) child.��In the next part… discover how stories became the secret sauce of the Montessori elementary curriculum.

One of the best ways to celebrate spring and shake off the winter doldrums is to get in the garden. Just think – gardening downright saved Colin in The Secret Garden, imagine what it could do for you!

By Liza Frolkis

I’ve spent a decade of my life dedicated to learning all I can about and from plants. I’ve worked on farms across the States, including my own food-growing business here in Santa Fe. Growing plants can be tricky up here. Things certainly don’t spring to life just by looking at them, as they do in Northern California, and they don’t grow as big and strong as they do in the Blue Mountains of Virginia or my mother’s garden in Cleveland, Ohio, but still successful gardening at this altitude and aridity is possible! Below I’ve sketched out some gardening go-to’s, local businesses to support, and a guide for when to seed and when to buy the plant instead.

All of these things can be done alongside your children. Sit down together to look through seed catalogs and ask what they want to grow, get tools that fit their hands, lather up in sunscreen and spend the day outside in the garden as a family.

Spring Makeover for Your Garden

Whether you’re working on your existing garden or planning on starting fresh this year, there are a few things you’ll need to do to get started: irrigation, soil, aeration, and mulch.��

Now get yourself some rich, living soil to work into existing beds and to create new ones. I’ll admit that the available soil that I’m aware of in and around Santa Fe is not the most inspiring, but you can find something that will work. If you’re going with bagged soil, look for straight compost or basic blends (there are several mixes specifically for garden beds). I like to add what I think of as “dessert” for the garden as well – like worm castings – that can add more nutrients for your plants to soak up. I stay away from mixes that use peat – great for gardens, but the mining process is not so great for ecosystem conservation- or that smell strongly of ammonia. If you are going to be getting a load of soil delivered or loaded into your pickup, head over to Payne’s Soil Yard and get their Soilutions Garden Mix (made regionally). Alternatively, you can get garden soil from the local Reunity Resource (in my experience, this garden soil does not lend itself as well to direct seeding because it is chunkier).

As you’re working your soil into your new or existing garden, do what you can to create a bed like a fluffy feather mattress. We want to pamper our plants so give them somewhere luxurious to reside. If you’re really dedicated, get yourself a serious broadfork (my number one favorite garden tool) but make sure to get a very sturdy one. A flimsy broadfork will bend in our compact soils and generally make you sad. You can find them at Modern General and while the price may make you balk, it’s not far off the mark from what you’ll find for a good one elsewhere. Alternatively, a pitchfork and a shovel will do (and you can rent some from Habitat ReStore if you don’t have any yourself). A word to the wise: try to keep your soil levels separate and intact. A general rule of thumb is not to combine soils from more than one shovel-depth. So dig a shovel-full of soil, break up clumps, and aerate with your pitchfork.

If you’re wanting to get really fancy you can attempt some , which is like the Rolls-Royce of garden bed prep.

Local Resources for Garden Prep

for soil and occasionally organic straw (but you have to pay separately for the straw)

for garden soil, compost, and worm castings

for bagged soil

for irrigation and water catchment supplies

The Feedbin (on Alameda) for non-organic straw

occasionally has organic straw

for a broadfork and ogling beautiful and very expensive garden tools

Making Flowers Grow: Seeds and Transplants

Thinking of what you want to grow in your garden is one of the most exciting things about having a garden. Your imagination will soar and you’ll likely buy way more seeds than is reasonable, but embrace it – it’s all part of the glorious process. There are several things to consider when figuring out what you want to grow: climate, seed vs. transplant, and care.

With the right set up, we can grow basically anything anywhere. But the right set up can be cost and energy prohibitive and just plain absurd especially on the scale of a home garden. As you’re dreaming up your gardenscape, think carefully about what may want to grow where. For example, your salad greens will not thank you for seeding them in the hottest part of the yard and your tomatoes will laugh at you for planting them in the shade. Learn what your plants love and adapt and plan to try your best to get them what they need. You may find, after a bit of thinking and trial and error, that some plants are just not for you. I’m going to say something that will be sad for many home-growers: you may not want to grow tomatoes. While our daytime temps are great for this staple fruit, our daily temperature fluctuations are too extreme for them. If tomatoes are a necessity, try planting them next to a south-facing wall that holds onto heat, or consider getting yourself a small high-tunnel with sides that you can roll or push up when it’s hot and bring down as it gets cooler. On the other end of the spectrum are cool-loving greens. Grow them at the ends of the season or create a shade zone for them using row cover or shade cloth. In other words, you will need to create different climate zones within your garden if you want to grow a wide variety of plants.

Now, how do you decide what you want to seed? Because it’s so cost-effective, it’s easy to just think “I’ll start ALL my own seeds” but BEWARE! Not only is it a ton of work to tend to plants from seedings to transplant, it also doesn’t always make sense. For example, tomatoes, basil, and peppers should have already been started (in January) so it probably makes most sense to buy those. While it feels good to be self-sufficient and start all your own plants, remember that interdependence is also a wonderful thing and connects us with our community. So embrace buying beautiful plants from good places. Below is a rough table of what common garden plants make sense to start in trays (ideally in a place that gets even light and on a heat mat), what you should direct seed in the garden, and what you should just buy. I’ve also included rough quantities for what you’ll need to make use of your food.

Most edible plants will need some care throughout their lives. Weeding, watering, pest management, and nutrition will all be important to keep your plants healthy and thriving. Weeding is much easier if you’ve employed cardboard to mulch. In places where that’s not possible (like your salad bed) just keep an eye and pick weeds as needed so they don’t take over. Water regularly and ideally before the sun rises or after it sets (unless the temps are especially low). Some crops do well with “dry farming” or much less water than usual. Tomatoes and peppers, for example, get much richer flavors with less water.��

If you have scientific tendencies, you may have a lot of fun geeking out about different nutrient ratios and which ones you want to give to what plants. I’ll admit that I don’t get terribly excited about such things and generally stick with one or two products on-hand to help give my plants a boost several times throughout the growing season. I like a good fish emulsion to mix with my water once a month or so. I try to keep the ingredients as basic as possible and I don’t mess around with what I put on edible plants. Think of it this�� way: everyone�� does best on a diet of whole foods and in a diverse environment. Plants are no different. Give them and the soil real food (ie: fish emulsion over a synthetic chemical) to bring biodiversity to your soil and your plants strong. Keep your fertilizer non-toxic and even then, don’t harvest on fert days.

Resources for Seeds and Plants

for plants

for seeds, annuals, many herbs, plant food and potting soil (Batch:64 Moonshine is my favorite)

for seeds, perennials, and native plants

for seeds and some plants

for trays, row covers, and pots (it gets expensive fast if you source these locally) as well as seeds and hand tools

for seed and hand tools

plant sales

for seed inspiration

for seeds and row covers

for seeds and rare plants