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DIY Mental Health Check-In for Your Kids

GRAB SOME POSTER BOARD + STICKERS TO MAKE THIS INTERACTIVE CHART

Article by Hayley Hyer

Photography by Stock Images + Provided

Before the times of quarantine, Good Morning America reported a heartwarming and encouraging story, This Teacher Created a Mental Health Check-In Chart for Her Students, that tells of a high school teacher who made this mental health chart for her students. If you are homeschooling your kids right now or just want a creative way to see how they are feeling each day, you can DIY your own version of this chart and even get your kids involved in the decoration process. Just grab some poster board, stickers, glitter pens, post-it notes and whatever else you want to use.

Each morning, you kids can pick a post-it note to put next to how they are feeling, and you can give them the freedom to move their post-it note throughout the day to easily communicate with you any shifts in their moods. This will hopefully lead to more communication and openness among siblings and everyone else in the family!

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Erin Castillo, an educator at John F. Kennedy High School in Fremont, California, created a mental health check-in chart for her students. Now, she's inspiring teachers around the globe to make their own versions of the chart for their classrooms.

Castillo is an English and peer counseling teacher. She said a friend and fellow teacher launched a mental health community for teachers on Facebook, which inspired her to create a platform her students could use in the classroom.

When using the check-in chart, students are encouraged to grab a post-it, write their name on the back and place it next to the statement that best matches their feelings for the day.

READ MORE: This Teacher Created a Mental Health Check-In Chart for Her Students