Top 19 Mental Health Activities for Kids in 2025

The year 2025 is a significant period of advancements in which every parent desires to witness the success of their children at every stage of life. If you are a parent of a child who is battling with any mental illness, then you should first prioritize your child’s mental health and help them get mental stability. Some mental health activities help children manage their stress, increase their confidence, learning skills, and achieve overall well-being. Most common mental health activities for children include a gratitude jar, mindful breathing with bubbles, a nature scavenger hunt, music therapy, etc. 

If you want to know more about the ‘’ Best Mental Health Activities for Kids in 2025’’ and what their benefits are for their mental health, then read this article. 

What are the main benefits of Mental health activities for kids?

As a parent, you should be concerned with the mental wellness of your child. Children have to face multiple challenges in each phase of their lives. They not only have to tolerate the academic pressure, but they also have to struggle with communication and making bonds with their loved ones. But it’s your responsibility to develop and implement such strategies that can help your child navigate all such challenges. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has also highlighted the importance of mental care provided by parents, teachers, or caregivers. If they all take well-informed decisions to develop highly productive strategies, then the mental health of children can greatly improve.  

1. Decreased stress and anxiety

Mental health activities help children reduce their anxiety and enjoy a calm state of mind.

2. Strengthened relationships 

By regularly practicing mental health activities, children can better express their emotions and thoughts and also communicate with others. They can better communicate with their friends and loved ones and develop a stronger bond with them.

3. Social skills

Mental health activities also make individuals capable of dealing with issues that they mostly have in social interactions. They learn social skills and make a productive contribution to each social gathering. 

4. Developing mental resilience

Mental health activities give a positive, friendly, and secure environment where they can consider their potential to deal with all challenges and attain mental resilience. 

5. Increased self-confidence & self-esteem

Participation in new, healthy, and engaging activities gives children a chance to increase their self-confidence and self-esteem.

6. Increased emotional awareness

Some mental health activities, including drawing, journaling, can help children express their emotions in front of others. Moreover, they not only understand their feelings but also those of others.

7. Enhanced cognitive abilities

Some common mental health activities, like puzzles, can also enhance the cognitive abilities of children. 

Top 19 Mental Health Activities for Kids to Promote

 

Emotional Well-Being

The following are the leading mental health activities for children, which are widely recommended by the experts.

1.Mindful breathing with bubbles

Blowing out bubbles is considered one of the best ways to relieve stress and calm the mind. It is a highly fun and engaging way to release stress and practice mindfulness. Experts recommend this mental health activity for children to encourage their positive mindset. However, any individual, including children, can benefit from this mental health activity.

How it works:

To do this mental health activity, you should guide your child to do the following steps:

• Get a bubble solution and blow soap bubbles slowly and progressively.
• While making bubbles, take a slow and shallow breath. Inhale air into your body and exhale out your stress.
• Do not just blow the bubbles; analyze each and everything at that moment, such as your breaths, the movement of bubbles, the way they float in the air, and then pop up. 
• While doing this activity, think in your mind that every bubble is taking away all your mental worries and making you a free soul.
• Repeat this activity for a few minutes until you feel relaxed. 

Benefits:

Major benefits of this activity include:

• Enhanced focus and concentration
• Diminished stress and anxiety
• Increased emotional stability
• Relaxation of mind and soul

2.Yoga for kids

Yoga is one of the best practices that not only improves the physical and mental state of children but also their overall well-being. The yoga for kids includes:

• Mindfulness techniques
• Some playful body movements

Benefits of yoga for children

• Emotional resilience and serenity 
• Mindfulness
• Strength training 
• Improved concentration
• Development of strong memory
• Enhanced learning skills
• Increased confidence and self-esteem
• Development of social skills

3.Deep breathing exercises

Usually, children do not take an interest in yoga, but parents and teachers can engage them by  the help of some fun games or activities, music, or other interesting sounds, etc.

How it works:

There is a variety of yoga poses, but the choice of poses should be based on the age of the individuals. 

Simple yoga poses: As children can not take the difficult poses so for them, simple, highly secure and enjoyable poses are preferred, such as:

• Tree pose
• Cat-cow 
• Downward dog
• Cobra pose
• Mountain pose

Engaging environment: Make the environment interesting and engaging by doing multiple things, such as:

• Playing music 
• Placing some toys in the room
• Colorful mats

Breathing: Ask them to breathe slowly while doing yoga so they feel mentally calm and relaxed. Teach them some breathing techniques, such as butterfly breath or balloon breath. 

Short Mindfulness techniques: You can also teach them some short mindfulness techniques, such as:

• Body scans
• Guided imagery 
• Freeze dance yoga
• Sound meditation
• Mindful walking

4.Mindful posing

Mindful posing is a strategic way to build awareness regarding emotions and thoughts. In addition, it also incorporates the elements of mindfulness. This involves holding a specific body position. 

How it works:

Guide the children that they have to participate in fun and engaging activities in which they have to take some poses that make them feel strengthened and happier.

Most common poses in mindful posing include:

The Wonder Woman

In the Wonder Woman pose, females stand straight with a wider leg position, more than the width of their hips, and their hands are placed on the side of their hips. By doing this, they feel high confidence and self-esteem and consider themselves strong enough to do anything. Moreover, there is also a decrease in the stress hormones and an increase in happy hormones. 

The superman

Superman is another pose that involves standing erect with wider legs and arms up towards the sky. This also shows the power of any victory.If children regularly try these poses, then there are greater chances that they can stay protected from the common mental health issues. 

5.Gratitude jar

A gratitude jar is also a powerful and highly effective mental health activity that can work to improve the mental state of children. 

How it works:

• Get a jar for your child and decorate it with some interesting and catchy elements, and then give it to your child. 
• Then instruct your child to take paper and write down the things that they are grateful for. After this, put that paper in a jar.
• Ask your child to do this every day
• Whenever you feel that your child is anxious, you can tell him or her to open that jar, read the things mentioned on paper, and boost their happiness. 

Benefits of a Gratitude Jar

The top benefits of a gratitude jar are as follows:

• Better emotional expression
• Developing a sense of gratitude 
• Obtaining mental stability
• Development of communication skills 

6.Nature Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt is a mental health activity that teaches children the significance of teamwork. 

How it works

• Plan a short trip with your children to visit any nearby park or forest.
• Then ask them to find and collect some attractive or interesting things from nature, such as colored leaves, stones, or any wooden pieces.
• With this activity, they can understand and feel a closer connection with nature. 

Benefits

• Elevation of mood
• Reduction in stress and anxiety
• Learning social skills
• Learning problem-solving skills

7.Rainbow of emotions art 

Drawing is the best way that helps individuals, especially children, to express their feelings, emotions, and thoughts. Making a rainbow of emotions art is a renowned mental health activity for preschoolers. When children are unable to express their emotions in words then they can take advantage of drawing. 

How to do it:

• Tell your child to draw a rainbow on paper.
• Then assign the names of different emotions to each color. For example, green for happiness, red for anger or worries, and blue for sadness.
• Then tell them to fill the rainbow with colors.
• Considering the colors, you can get an idea of what they are feeling.

Benefits:

• Enhanced emotional awareness
• Bringing out the creative skills
• Mental exploration of thoughts 
• Relaxation of mind and soul 

8.Mindful coloring

Mindful coloring is also recommended by the experts to improve the focus and concentration of children. 

How it works 

• You can get some coloring books or pages for your child.
• Tell your child to color the images or designs with their favourite colors or crayons, or markers.
• Also, instruct them to do this activity at calm places where they never feel any distraction.
• While drawing, they have to stay in the present moment and completely focus on what they are doing instead of wandering their minds.  

Benefits

• Decrease in stress or anxiety 
• Focus on the present moment. 
• Promotes a sense of relaxation
• Improved creativity skills

9.Safari 

Safari exercise is also a useful mental health activity for children. It helps the children to stay focused in the present moment by practicing mindfulness techniques. With the help of this activity, you can transform your child’s simple, boring day into a new and exciting adventure. 

Tell your children that you are planning to go on a safari adventure. Instruct them that they have to focus on everything around them. Listen to the sounds of birds and animals, bugs, and even small creepy insects. Moreover, guide them to listen to the sound of even water drops falling from the trees in rainy seasons. 

With all five senses, you have to maintain your focus on how nature presents itself around you. By doing this regularly, children can regain mental stability and have the potential to overcome mental issues. 

10.Spidey senses

Spidey senses is also a mental health activity that assists children to focus on their senses while staying in the present moment. By introducing the sense of superpowers, they feel more interest in this activity. 

How it works

• Tell your children to focus on their senses and feel just like they are Superman or Spiderman. 
• Guide them to focus on their senses and become completely aware of their surroundings and what’s happening, and how.
• Then tell them to engage all their senses.

Sound: Try to listen to the sound of birds, traffic, people’s voices, and even the sound of wind and air.

Sight: Move your eyes around and observe all the things in a close periphery, such as shapes, colors, and textures of all nearby objects.

Touch: Move the hand and feel the texture of everything present around them, such as the toughness of any rock or wooden material, the softness of a pillow or clothing item, etc..

Taste: Let them taste different types of food items and feel their flavors, such as a sweet brownie or any spicy or sour thing. 

Guide them to sustain focus on each sense until they get complete awareness regarding it. 

Benefits of Spidey senses:

• Increased rate of attention
• Enhanced sensory awareness
• Emotional resilience 

11.Feelings Charades

Feelings charades is ideal for those children who are unable to express their emotions in words. With the aid of this mental health activity, children learn the ways to effectively communicate with each other and maintain their relationships with others.

How it works

• Tell the children to write the names of any object, movie, or anything they like to write on paper. In addition, most of the parents also ask them to write different emotions on paper. 
• Then each child takes turns and guesses the name or emotion with expressions and without using any single word. 
• Children can also do this with their friends and guess the emotions or current feelings of each other.

12.Act of kindness calendar 

Teach your child to always show kind behavior towards others. For this, making an act of kindness calendar is one of the best practices to lift the mood, boost energy, and reduce stress and anxiety. 

How it works 

• Guide your children to make a calendar and write any one or more acts of kindness on that at the end of the day. That act could be helping someone, fulfilling the need of any person, or becoming a reason for someone’s smile.
• As soon as that calendar gets filled, read all the things mentioned on the calendar and then focus on those acts of kindness that make you and others happy.

Benefits 

• Boost in confidence and self-esteem.
• Sense of belonging
• Sense of empathy

13.Guided imagery

In guided imagery, experts guide individuals to imagine any positive and calming scenario in their minds. This helps them to relax their mind and soul and effectively deal with their common mental issues.

How it works

• Guide the children on how they have to visualize any soothing scenario in their minds. 
• Ask them to also indulge their five senses in their imaginary world to make a better explanation of sounds, textures, or smells.
• This practice teaches them to link their positive feelings with imagination, which in turn helps them to navigate all the challenges in the future. 

Benefits

The benefits of guided imagery are as follows:

• Stress management
• Pain management
• Emotional stability
• Improvement in creativity 
• Improved sleep patterns 
• Mental Relaxation

14.Board games

Board games are not just a mental health activity, they also act as a source of cognitive development in children. Children are engaged in a diverse range of fun and engaging board games, which include:

• Memory match 
• Clue
• Chutes and Ladders 
• Mancala

Benefits

• Improved cognitive abilities 
• Development of problem-solving skills
• Improvement in social skills
• Enhanced memory and learning behavior 

15.Role playing

Role-playing is a mental health activity in which children play different roles of others and learn to explore the varied emotional landscape. 

How it works 

• Children act out distinct roles, which could be based on fiction or reality. 
• They identify the emotions behind each different personality. 

Benefits

• Exploration of emotions 
• Better emotional processing
• Enhancement of cognitive skills 
• Developing coping skills

16.Music therapy

Music is considered the medicine of the soul. Experts widely recommend music therapy to teach children different ways to deal with mental health challenges. 

How it works

• Decide on a place in your home or outside and ask the children to play and listen to their favourite music. 
• They can also play any instrument, such as the guitar and also perform other activities such as singing, making music, improvising, or writing lyrics. 

Benefits 

• Improved emotional expression
• Development of cognitive skills 
• Reduction in stress or anxiety

17. Positive affirmations 

Practicing positive affirmations daily is also the best mental health activity for children. Positive affirmations are the positive phrases or statements that any individual, including children, can repeat in their mind to promote a positive mindset. 

How it works 

Ask the children to repeat such kinds of sentences in their minds regularly:

• ‘’ I’m capable and I can do anything’’.
• ‘’I am strong enough to deal with all life challenges.’’. 

If children make a habit of regularly practicing this mental health activity, then their mind automatically starts thinking positively and replaces negative thoughts into positive ones.

Benefits

• Increase in confidence and self-esteem.
• Sense of self-love
• Emotional stability 
• Increase in motivation 

18.Silly dance breaks

Laughter is the best therapy for each age group of individuals. When you are sad or not happy and start dancing or smiling, you can feel a sudden boost in your energy and an elevated mood. 

How it works

• Select your favorite music and put the volume high.
• Start dancing with your child and make some funny moves so your child laughs a lot.
• Let your child feel happiness with an open heart.

Benefits 

• Mental calmness
• Rise in energy levels. 

19. Quality time with loved ones

Spend some quality time with your children so they feel listened to and acquire the confidence to speak their hearts out in front of you without any hesitation. Take some time and discuss all the matters with your child. 

Seek Professional help 

Children Psych is a leading and renowned platform for offering the best mental health services for children and adolescents. We have professional and board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioners who provide comprehensive mental health solutions that cater to the individual needs of each child or adolescent who is battling with any mental illness, including anxiety, depression, OCD, bipolar disorder, and ADHD, etc. 

So, if you are concerned with your child’s mental health and looking for the best psychiatric services for children, then we are here to help you. You do not need to look around for the best child psychiatric nurse practitioner near me, as we have the best experts who can help your children overcome their common mental health issues.

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