Mindful Minis had a great start to 2017! It was wonderful to see the children again after the holidays and it was great to welcome some new little faces who were giving mindfulness a try for the first time.
The theme for this term is INCREDIBLE YOU! I am drawing inspiration from the beautiful book with the same title by Dr Wayne Dyer. He writes many wonderful adult inspirational books as well and I love his work.
The lesson this week was titled “Share the Good” and I read an excerpt from the book to the children:
“There is good in you and in everyone.
Sharing this good with others is fun.
You have so many ideas inside your mind.
Set them free; you are one of a kind.”
We discussed some of the things that the children are good at and how they can share that goodness with others. Some mentioned that they are good at drawing, and love making pictures and cards for their friends and family. A lot of the boys said that they are good at lego and that they can share this by playing lego nicely with their friends and siblings. One little boy has a new baby brother (aged 6 months) and he mentioned that he is good at being gentle with his brother and playing kindly with his brother. Another little girl told us how she likes being friendly and loves saying hello to people and giving them a hug. There was lots of love being shared!
We discussed how each us has LOADS of things we are good at doing. We just need to remember to share this goodness with others. I asked the kids to think about some of the things they are good at doing and see what they can share with others in the upcoming week, and then report back to me next week.
I then showed the kids a collection of clam shells that I had found on the beach. One little boy was quite concern about where the creatures that previously lived in the shells were now. I assured him that I only picked up shells that had been abandoned by their owners that had moved on to other, better homes! I asked the children to notice that, when looking at the collection as a whole, all the shells looked the same. But when we looked closely at the individual shells, we could see they were all different. I asked each child to choose a shell from the collection and look at it closely. I asked the children to notice anything special or different about their shells. They picked up that the shells varied in colour and in size. Some kids mentioned different patterns they could see on the shells. Others mentioned different textures that they noticed – rough and bumpy on one side, smoothly on the other. The children did really well with this sensory mindfulness exercise in noticing what they saw, felt, smelt and even heard when the scratched their nails on the shell’s surface.
The shells were also a great way for me to explain to the children that, although all of us are the same in that we are people, we are all special and unique. We discussed how each of us is very important and that we all have things about us that are different to others, but those things are what make us so special.
We then did some deep breathing and the children had lots of fun learning the elephant breath and eel breath. The regular Mindful Minis were super keen to show the newbies how to do eel breath which is a firm favourite in the group.
It was then time for the guided visualisation. A time for the children to relax their bodies and minds. As always, the weighted blankets were a wonderful addition for those who used them. The story this week was about finding a special lake in nature that showed the children, in their reflections, all the things they are good at doing. I suggested that some might see an image of themselves running fast on a field or maybe riding their bikes in the park. Maybe an image of them singing a beautiful song to their granny or grandpa. Or maybe an image of them playing gently with their baby brother or sister. Or maybe an image of them being kind to someone at school who doesn’t have anyone to play with on the playground. I gave many varied suggestions so that each child had a few that they could identify with to enhance their self-confidence and self-belief.
After the guided visualisation, we held hands as we said the Mindful Minis mantra. It was wonderful to see some of the kids joining in with much gusto. And wonderful to see them shout out the last line “I AM IMPORTANT!”. Perfect for today’s theme.
It was then time for some artwork – the highlight of the class for many. I asked them to draw what they saw in the lake during the meditation. As always, the children really got stuck in and there were some wonderful, creative interpretations of the story.
So, it was a great start to 2017! I looked forward to the rest of the term following the “INCREDIBLE YOU!” theme – designed specifically to build your child’s self-belief and let their greatness shine through!
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