8-Year-Olds in Despair: The Mental Health Crisis Is Getting Younger (The New York Times)
Anxiety and Coping With the Coronavirus (Child Mind Institute)
The Child Mind Institute’s experts say that dealing with your own anxiety can be the most powerful way to make sure your kids feel secure. If you or your children are feeling worried, learning how to deal with that anxiety in a healthy way can help the whole family be more resilient, both now and when the pandemic is finally over.
The Big Question: How Can Kids Practice Kindness From Home? (National Geographic)
As nerves understandably become a bit frazzled the longer we stay at home together, one thing seems to help: practicing kindness. Studies report that showing compassion or gratitude can boost those feel-good hormones (serotonin and dopamine) in your brain. So encouraging children to bring a snack to someone without being asked or to give a random hug to an annoying sibling isn’t simply being nice—it might also be helping to boost their mental health.
Rethinking your child’s relationship with screens during the pandemic (National Geographic)
Mindfulness to be taught in 370 Schools in England (BrightVibes)
Happy 2020 everyone! We are excited to see that the UK is taking teaching kids mindfulness techniques very seriously. Hats off to the social and business leaders in England who have pushed this remarkable initiative forward; because of their efforts, the next generation of UK kids will be calmer, more able to deal with adversity/difficult emotions and more self-aware. Positioning kids for boosted EQ means the whole society reaps the rewards (with less antisocial behaviour, lower costs for treating mental health, lower crime and increased productivity). How great is this? Let’s allow this to be a template for all countries, so that kids can be empowered in this fundamental way.
The Numbers Don't Lie - Kidevolve's Imaginarium is Reaching Kids Globally!
Last June we launched our first Apple Podcast - Kidevolve’s Imaginarium - to warm, enthusiastic reviews! Along with Apple, we’ve also been picked up by: Castbox, Listen Notes, Podtail, TuneIn, Chartable, Poddtoppen, PodParadise, and iVOOX… just to name a few. We’re so excited about the momentum here, and in this post we share some engagement stats that we hope will get you even more motivated to listen in, share, care and subscribe.
Mindfulness for Children - Well Guide for Infants (part 1 of 2, from The New York Times)
The New York Times has recently released a series of Well Guides describing how children of all ages can benefit from mindfulness - the simple practice of bringing a gentle, accepting attitude to the present moment. In this installment we look at impacts on infants. In our next installment, we'll continue on with how mindfulness training can impact Toddlers, Young Children, Older Children and Teens...
ClassDojo Big Ideas
We are so excited about ClassDojo and their amazing video series - short, engaging vignettes for young children on amazing topics like empathy, kindness, perseverance and mindfulness! Kids will love the characters and learn all about these important topics in a fun and entertaining way... check it out!
8 Ways To Raise Calm, Happy Kids + Boost Their Social Skills (Sean Grover)
Kidevolve has just released our first ever 'Creative Mind Journeys' into beta testing (new mindfulness audio tracks developed specially for kids aged 5-10), and our Family Testing panel (located all over the world, from Canada and the US through to Singapore) is well underway giving us feedback straight from the mouths of real kids, parents, educators and researchers. The science is out, whether it's boosting social skills, improving performance at school, encouraging independent thinking or augmenting overall creativity, teaching children mindfulness techniques has big benefits... Delve into this article by child development expert Sean Grover, to learn more about recent studies and confirm why it's important to take time to teach and expose kids to these key life skills...
Mindful Eating by Randima Fernando
Mindful eating for kids?! You bet. This article from @Mindfulschools shares a mindful eating tool that Kidevolve uses in our own physical programs. It's simple, fun and extremely effective in encouraging kids to experience real foods using their senses. The mindful steps urge kids to slow down, appreciate how rich and interesting even the most simple foods can be, and reminds kids to check in with how food makes them feel. Imagine if people (of all ages) engaged in a little more mindful eating? We might just have better eating habits?