Mindful Kids and Teens

Posted 01/05/2019

My training as a Mindfulness facilitator has started (prácticas de empresa). I’m so very excited!! It is a great privilege to have the opportunity to share all the knowledge acquired specially this year with the students of this English speaking school in my own municipality chosen as practice placement setting. I feel welcome and well received.

why kids and teens

When I became a Mum fifteen years ago, I realised parenting is not as easy as it seemed at first! I became very aware of the consequences our actions and decisions as parents may have in the future of our kids. My wish was to help my precious girl and boy grow up into responsible persons in their adult life. In my spare time I started to read about Emotional Intelligence and got trained. My whole intention was to teach my kids Skills for Life. This latest training at the University of Malaga [PINEP UMA] has given me the chance to share all the experiential knowledge of all these years with other kids and teens. And I am loving it.

A detailed description of the presentations and the sessions will follow, which I am happy to share with other fellow Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence facilitators. I would very much like to hear from your own experience!

warming up sessions

The program gets introduced to the staff first before beginning the actual practices with their students. At their weekly meeting . The teachers listen carefully to ‘What is Mindfulness, its benefits and origins’. After the talk and interestingly curious questions from the participants we start with the first dynamic: gratitude.

Basing the students presentations on Sitting Still like a Frog by Eline Snel, the teachers are told their students will be talking about a Miss Frog during the coming weeks. Miss Frog is coming to teach them some concentration skills and how to regulate their emotions.

Frogs are given away to be spread out in the classrooms so the students are reminded to do the «breathe in – breathe out technique» when they feel it is needed.

Some of the staff come up with the phrase «I need some frog time myself» which I loved! In fact I would very much like those who attended this session to share their experiences with us all.

Special thanks to the PSHE coordinator for a well organised meeting, to all the participants for making it possible, and very dearly to the Headmistress for having an open and curious mind enabling this to happen.

Here are the slides used for the staff session and the quiz previous to it. You may also find it useful for your presentations to watch this Ted Talk by Andy Puddicombe.

So that a final group gets selected to participate in the actual 8-week program, it is agreed that some groups of students of different ages will have a 30-minute presentation on Mindfulness as well.

Miss Frog gets introduced in their classes. The first Mindfulness practices begin: simple and easy, just to get familiar with the technique «breathe in – breathe out – focus on breathing only – bring the air through your nose down to your belly then out again through your nose». Some Emotional intelligence dynamics are introduced too.

Every group is different, every session is just amazing. I am sharing the slides and quizzes too.

Hope you find these useful – comments, suggestions or sharing are most welcome.