What in the world does parenting have to do with the elements of water, fire, air, or earth? Let’s explore all the different facets of your relationship with your child, and you will begin to see how these are connected.
Water
Our emotions, creativity, and how we interact with each other are like water. In parenting, water is the focus on helping your child self-regulate, self-soothe, and show kindness towards others.
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Spending time with your kids discussing stories, shows, and real-life situations can help you grow this dialogue. Create space to discuss characters’ emotions and problem solving so they can translate into their lives without the pressure of learning through their own experience. This is also true for adults! This can be a great activity to do with a partner to build awareness of each other!
Fire
I am not referring to actual fire; in the spirit, fire can be related to passion and energy! While it is wonderful to stoke these flames, they might need some boundaries and self-awareness to ensure they are done in a safe way.
This could include spending time with your child in physical activity or in an activity that fuels their passions, such as art, science, or history. Helping your children identify their passions can create a lifelong path of intrinsic motivation!
Finding ways to channel physical energy for kids can be difficult. Living in Albuquerque, we have many options available including afterschool activities, summer camps, and several parks and places to hike!
Air
The air element is often connected to our intellect, including the ability to critically think and use logic. Air is additionally considered part of our communication and ability to clearly state our thoughts and ideas to others.
To encourage your child in the element of air, challenge them! Find ways to build their skills of discernment, reason, and understanding of how systems work. Encourage self-expression as well to keep their communication clear and strong as they grow older!
Earth
Our feelings of being grounded, nurtured, and safe are usually connected to the earth element. This can be through spending time outside, collecting gemstones, or solidifying your plans of self-care. Equally important, we can nurture our earth element by making plans and goals, building steps to complete these, and following through.
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For our children, we can cultivate this groundedness by encouraging a relationship to nature. We can show our children the vastness of our beautiful planet and how we are all connected.
We can help them learn how to set goals. When we empower them to reach that finish line, they develop a strong sense of self and follow through. Also, encourage your child to find ways of comforting themselves physically through touch. My daughter and I enjoy spa days and soaking our feet to re-ground!
The Gift of Understanding
Looking at all these elements combined, we find a more complete picture of our child. We can see them as the individuals they are growing to become. If we are able to gift them with understanding along their journey, trust and communication can be strengthened as well.
You may also take these elements from a more literal perspective and find ways to play with kids to explore each one!
Furthermore, exploring the science of water, fire, air, and earth could be an awesome project for homeschool or self-exploration. You could take a multi-faceted approach by first learning about the science of the elements. Then you can ask your child to connect their own experiences and feelings to what they learned.
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ABQ Mom, its executive team, other contributors to the site, its sponsors or partners, or any organizations the aforementioned might be affiliated with.
