Understanding Your Child’s Emotions: The Sponge Brain Explained 🧠🧽💛

Children’s brains work hard all day to manage feelings, behaviour and big emotions 😮‍💨❤️. The part of the brain that helps them stay calm and think things through is called the prefrontal cortex — think of it as the brain’s “control centre” 🎛️. It’s the part that helps children pause, listen and make good choices 👍🙂.

But this control centre can only handle so much before it becomes overwhelmed 😵‍💫.

🧽 The Sponge Metaphor

A helpful way to imagine this is to picture the brain as a sponge:

• Throughout the day the sponge fills up with “water” 💧: noise, emotions, expectations, changes, tiredness, screens, routines and worries.
• As the sponge gets full, children can become unsettled 😕.
• When the sponge overflows, children can’t think clearly or stay calm — this is when we see behaviours linked to fight, flight, freeze, fawn or flop 🏃‍♂️😶‍🌫️😨🫠.
• Just like a real sponge, an overflowing emotional sponge needs time to “wring out” ⏳🧽.
• The thinking part of the brain takes around 15 minutes to reset and come back online 🔄🧠.

Why Children’s Sponges Fill More Quickly Today 📱⏰🌍

Children and young people often have fuller sponges than ever before because:

📱 Lots of screen time

• Blue light from phones, tablets and whiteboards can be stimulating and addictive.
• When screens are removed, children can feel stressed or unsettled 😣.

⏰ Very busy lives

• Many children have long, full days with less time for calm connection or quiet play 🧩💬.

🏠 Household pressures

• Family stress, financial worries and parents working from home all add to the emotional load 😔.

🌍 Big world events

• Some children still carry stress from the pandemic or from seeing worrying news 😟.

Our Sponges Matter Too 🧽❤️‍🩹

Adults also have limited sponge capacity. When we’re stressed or tired, it becomes harder to stay calm or respond with patience 😮‍💨. Children pick up on this quickly.

Taking care of our own emotional “sponge space” helps us support our children more effectively 🌿💛.

How We Can Help Children Regulate 🤗🧠

The goal is to support children without overfilling their sponge — or our own.

One simple strategy is take‑up time:

1. Give an instruction once 🗣️.
2. Pause for a minute or two ⏳.
3. Allow the child time to process before repeating or stepping in 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♂️.

This short pause helps their brain settle and reduces stress for everyone 💛.

🌟 General Reminders
Socks  Needed 🧦
The British weather has left lots of children with wet feet, and we’ve now used up all our spare socks in school. Please could each child bring a spare pair of socks in their bag each day. If you have any clean, good-quality socks your child has outgrown, we’d be very grateful for donations too. Thank you for your support! 💙

Please can you bring in any small to medium glass jars for our growing project this term. Diolch yn fawr.

🌟 General Reminders

Marchnad Dewi Sant - As part of our upcoming Marchnad Dewi Sant celebrations, we kindly ask for donations of fresh produce to help create a vibrant, traditional market experience. Items such as flowers, fruit, vegetables, herbs, or homemade Welsh goods would be greatly appreciated - Diolch!

Reading - Please continue and ensure that reading is being done at home during the half term break. 2 pages a day would be fantastic!

Spelling - Reminder to practise spelling words with your children at home, doing this goes a long way in ensuring your children are climbing up the spelling bands.

Finally, have a fantastic half term! Relax, switch off and we will see you all when we return on the 23rd Feb.

🔔 Pod Pry Cop – Friday Reminders

Please ensure pupils bring the following every Friday:

• Wellies and a coat for Y Goedwig

  • Without these, pupils may be unable to take part — especially on wet or muddy days.

• PE top:

  • All pupils are expected to change for hygiene purposes and to prepare for expectations in comprehensive school.

Thank you for your support!

Bwyty Mish Mash - Please see your emails regarding the upcoming event. 
Please complete the form below, once you have completed your booking.
Pry Cop Bwyty Mish Mash - Dietary Requirements  – Fill in form

Please note this form closes on February 27th 2026.

Pod Pengwin: Australia because I want to see the tarantulas!

Pod Pysgodyn: I would go to Mallorca because it is always sunny there... however, if you step on the sand you will burn your feet! So maybe, I should go to a cold country and go skiing... but then you might get cold! 

Pod Pry Cop: Norway, I love going skiing - I like to go really fast!

Support Our School – Easy Fundraising & Abertawe Lotto

Did you know you can support Llanrhidian Primary School at no extra cost?

🎁 Easy Fundraising – Shop online with your favourite retailers and raise free donations for our school. It’s quick, easy, and makes a big difference! Join Here

🎟️ Abertawe Lotto – Buy a ticket and support us while being in with a chance to win cash prizes. Every ticket helps our school community grow. Buy Tickets Here

Thank you for your continued support!

https://www.gov.wales/school-essentials-grant-help-school-costs