It's Friday!!
Hello everyone. How are we all doing? It is Friday already! If you have been doing any of my activities let me know, I’d love to hear what your favourite one has been!
As we have been very busy all week, let’s take this Friday for some relaxation. Let’s give both our bodies and our brains some well-deserved rest!
Children can find meditation difficult, so we take a different approach with younger children.
- Alert the children to their breath. With or without a straw have the children blow a feather/ pom-pom/tissue from one end of a mat/table to the other. What do they notice? The bigger the breath the further the item goes. Maybe they notice that smaller breaths give them more control over where the item goes. Once children start to recognise their breath and see how we can control it they will be in a better place to be able to calm themselves.
- You can find other breathing activities here, I especially like the Tumble Dryer one!
https://www.cosmickids.com/five-fun-breathing-practices-for-kids/
- Just two minutes of this balloon/belly breathing will bring great benefits:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PcCmxEW5WA
- This feelings song is calming and also introduces children to more vocabulary around emotions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-J7HcVLsCrY
- Colouring time. Quiet colouring time/drawing is a good relaxant for the children. If possible, try limit distractions and put on some classical music in the background. The children could even draw in response to the classical music. When playing the classical music ask the children what does it make them think of? Maybe they are imagining they are in a forest full of fairies and flowers or perhaps they are at the seaside relaxing on a boat. Ask the children to draw what they are thinking. Talking about the picture, the music and how they feel listening to the music are great opportunities to develop language also.
- Peace out for some guided meditation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_vEZTrmtyA Some children have difficulty staying still for the duration of the meditation, they can still move and fidget, sometimes rolling a tennis ball or having a toy to play with when they are listening to the meditation helps the child to focus. Peace out have some lovely guided meditations and are very nice to play at bedtime.
- This website may or may not be of interest to parents:
https://www.headspace.com/meditation/kids