This season, we began encouraging children as young as six-years-old to begin practicing mindfulness at home. It’s been awesome! As part of our positive behavior structure, kids in classes are rewarded for having fun, doing their best, and following our class guidelines. They also learn and practice mindfulness. We’ve been teaching children in class to learn the basic foundations of mindfulness and now we’re gently suggesting that they start a daily practice.
For 20-30 seconds, we’re asking our kids to practice mindfulness at home when they wake up or before bed. The feedback from the children and their families has been great! To see children begin to form this habit at such a young age is incredibly promising. To watch their evolution and understanding of mindfulness this school-year has been astonishing. We’re excited to continue to move to the next levels of mindfulness training for them, as they start to utilize their new skills for more interpersonal conflicts and challenging situations at home. With the integration of mindfulness training into their sports in class, we hope that all of these children can learn not only what mindfulness is but how to use their self-regulation strategies in a variety of circumstances.