October is here, and my kids are in full back-to-school mode. Math, Reading, and Science are all part of the curriculum at our school, and so is mindfulness.
While there are many mindfulness programs aimed at adults, more and more schools are bringing Mindfulness, Kindness, and Social Emotional Learning into the classroom.
Why kids need mindfulness?
The school environment can be very stressful as kids deal with issues from home, bullying, and performance in class, etc. Having a mindfulness program in school can help change this environment.
At my children’s charter school here in Truckee, CA, we are lucky to have a program called Life Ingredients, which empowers kids to navigate their days with a greater sense of calm. Life Ingredients provides daily audio lessons that teachers play for their students. Each morning my kids listen to a five-minute audio session to start their day.
Life Ingredients founder Deb Kelly, lives here in Truckee, but you can sample her audio lessons for free here. Life Ingredients also provides an amazing mindfulness program for parents and kids to listen to together at home. By giving our students the tools to live a more intentional, purposeful, and self-aware life, we can change the future
Bring mindfulness to your school
Mindful.org offers ways to contact the teachers and administrators in your school to add mindfulness to your school’s curriculum, but, as always, the best way to teach children to be mindful, is to demonstrate mindfulness in our own homes and in our daily lives.
Does your school offer mindfulness program? We would love to hear about it.
