Kindness to Self

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” 
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today the kids were especially enthusiastic and excited about performing on Arts Night.  We used this opportunity to investigate how our breath feels when we feel excited.  Most of us felt our breath also racing with excitement.  Continue to explore your child's breath with them by asking them if their breath is racing, warm, cold, fast, jumpy during different parts of the day.  It is amazing to see and learn how our breath changes based on how we feel.   

In the spirt of being kind to ourselves we did Story Yoga with the book called "I'm Gonna Like Me."  This is a positive story that teaches kids that the key to feeling good is liking yourself because you are you.  We explored a lot of new yoga poses such as Warrior pose, mountain pose, lion pose and lotus pose while reading the book, and I was amazed at how the kids creatively used the poses that they have learned to come up with their own variations.  The story lend itself to many opportunities to discuss how we can use our breath and breathe in the " Big Me," when we are feeling down or when we make a mistake.  This will teach us to be resilent and ground ourselves when things are not the way we would like them to be.

In the spirt of being kind to ourselves we did Story Yoga with the book called "I'm Gonna Like Me."  This is a positive story that teaches kids that the key to feeling good is liking yourself because you are you.  We explored a lot of new yoga poses such as Warrior pose, mountain pose, lion pose and lotus pose while reading the book, and I was amazed at how the kids creatively used the poses that they have learned to come up with their own variations.  The story lend itself to many opportunities to discuss how we can use our breath and breathe in the " Big Me," when we are feeling down or when we make a mistake.  This will teach us to be resilent and ground ourselves when things are not the way we would like them to be.

We are part way through this book with the younger kids and I have promised the kids that we will finish off on Friday.  The older kids took some time to reflect on reasons why they "Like Themselves" and expressed their ideas creatively through art.  

Suggested Activity:  Extend the idea of reasons why we like ourselves to now discussing reason why they like different members of the family.  Have fun with it, create a family bouquet of flowers, assign a flower to represent each member of the family.  Then use the petals to write the reasons they like each member.