Behaviour
Making Mindfulness Fun
Swap sitting still for games like dragon breath and texture hunts, and children can pick up mindfulness without noticing they're learning it.
- 24 minutes
- 7 modules
- Certificate
Members
Parent membership: all 50 courses for parents and carers, £40 a year or £4 a month after 14 days free.
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What you'll learn
- Explain mindfulness simply, as noticing what's happening right now
- Run sensory treasure hunts, from texture walks to counting sounds
- Turn everyday routines like eating and getting dressed into mindful moments
- Use playful breathing games to help a child calm down
- Play noticing games that help children see familiar places afresh
About this course
Asking a lively child to sit still and focus on their breathing usually goes about as well as you'd expect. Luckily they don't need to. Mindfulness is about noticing what's happening right now, and children can learn that through play.
The games need next to nothing. Send children on a hunt for something bumpy, something smooth and something spiky, or close your eyes in the park and count the sounds you hear. Brush teeth at snail's pace, then at speedy-train pace, and talk about what felt different. Let a Malteser melt on the tongue before anyone bites. When tempers rise, try dragon breath, or blow a feather and watch how far a long out-breath sends it.
You don't even have to call it mindfulness. To the children it's just a game, and the ones they enjoy are the ones they'll ask to play again.
7 modules
Open in order
- 4 min
Introduction
- 5 min
Mindful treasure hunts
- 3 min
Mindful drawing
- 6 min
Mindfulness in the mundane
- 3 min
Activation of the breath
- 4 min
Noticing the new
- 2 min
Wrap up