With high-stakes tests beginning in some elementary schools, increasingly overscheduled afternoons and pressure to do more demanding extracurricular activities at ever-younger ages, many kids are feeling overwhelmed.
Mindfulness (or 'body fulness', as this article mentions) is proving to be a grounding influence to counteract all of this swirling stress...
Back to school can be exhausting. Kids are stretching their minds and attention spans. Not to mention figuring out how to sit still for hours on end! The September transition can be overwhelming for multi-tasking parents trying weave work demands around their kids' needs (read - no time to stop and reflect on how either parent or child is really doing).
Why not wiggle two minutes out of your day to stand tall as a tree and breathe? Roll up some blankets, lay on a mat and close your eyes for a few minutes? Even if you and your kids only do this a few times a week, it can make a difference in your overall ability to handle transition times. Below are some simple yoga-inspired movements for after school, or on the weekend.
**Let us know if you have any other helpful tips on how you've managed to move through September**
What Is Self-Regulation?
Just about everywhere you turn these days you come across someone talking about the importance of enhancing children’s ability to self-regulate. This is because of a growing number of studies showing that self-regulation lays a foundation for a child’s long-term physical, psychological, behavioral, and educational well-being (Shanker, 2012).
We highly recommend this important reading by Dr. Stuart Shanker
York University: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/childcare/selfRegulate.html
Can movies think? This is a longstanding critical question, usually answered in the negative. Literature, the thinking goes, is uniquely able to show us the flow of thought and feeling from within, but the camera’s eye and the two-dimensional screen can’t take us past the external signs of consciousness.
