Easy Ways To Support Mindfulness in Toddlers
Growing evidence suggests that teaching mindfulness to children can help with learning, decision making, emotional intelligence, self-confidence and connectedness to others. Here are 2 fun ways to teach your little ones mindfulness and help express their feelings.
1. Mindful Posing
A simple and fun way for your toddler to dip their toes into mindfulness and strengthen the mind-body connection is through mindful body poses. Let your child know that doing these fun poses can help them feel strong, brave, and happy:
- The Superman: this pose is practiced by standing with the feet just wider than the hips, fists clenched, and arms reached out to the sky, stretching the body as tall as possible.
- The Wonder Woman: this pose is struck by standing tall with legs wider than hip-width apart and hands or fists placed on the hips.
For added effect, have your child pretend her senses are heightened by superpowers, then ask her what she can smell, hear, see, and taste. Ask your child how they feel after a few rounds of trying either of these poses. You may be surprised!
2. Expressing Emotions Through Art
Creative experiences help toddlers to express their feelings and thoughts, and for parents to talk about feelings with their child. Talking about feelings is an excellent exercise to build trust in each other and create dialogue about our inner worlds. Ask your child to choose a feeling such as happy, angry, sad or excited and provide crayons, pencils, paint, markers, clay or playdough to use to express these feelings or to draw a picture of a time that they felt that way. The possibilities are endless!
- Encourage your child to think about what colour/s the feelings are; what shape/s the feelings are and whether they are big or small.
- When done encourage them to talk about the colours they’ve used, the marks or images they’ve painted and why they made that choice.
Learn more about our holistic approach to learning with toddlers at Day One ELC.
