Connect & Grow © innovative mindful activity programme for schools from Be you Mindfulness. Using Fun, imagination, curiosity to enhance the wellbeing of our children.
Connect & Grow© uses themed interactive magnetic puzzles that take the children on a journey of imagination. The children get great delight in randomly selecting a puzzle piece, completing the activity from one of 6 categories as a group and searching for the place on the backing board that the puzzle fits in. There is a lot to see and find as they start to build the puzzle revealing the picture and hidden elements – what will they see? Further information on what’s included click here
Another Mindfulness Programme???
Yes, we know that mindfulness is definitely a buzzword at the moment and is continuing to grow and be embraced within the NHS, police, government, private and the education sector. There are many different approaches in how this can be brought in to our schools to from classroom based courses to online courses. The positive outcomes of bringing mindfulness in to schools are really promising and can help with many areas of the children’s lives from social and emotional skills to their academic performance.
I have been lucky enough, over the last few years to be part of this movement and have seen first hand the positive impact teaching mindfulness to children can have. There is nothing better than seeing 30 children let go and notice the sounds around them, lie or sit down, and just be – nothing else to do in that moment but just be….and they love it!! Of course it can be challenging to begin with as it is so different from their normal fast paced, ever on the go world. But once they get it, my goodness it is amazing, you can literally see their faces soften, their bodies become still and relaxed and the stress and pressure just melt for that few minutes.
The Research
I adore teaching mindfulness and love working with the children, staff and parents. Over the years of delivering various amalgamations of mindfulness and relaxation programmes in schools, including relax kids, youth mindfulness, mindfulness based stress reduction, mindful movement activities. My vision was to create some sort of resource for schools to use to help continue to build on and keep developing what they had put so much effort in to start. After many discussions with teachers, parents and the children themselves of what they would like to get from a programme, my answers were clear.
- Something practical and sustainability,
- Different from existing programmes
- Imaginative and fun
- No extra preparation for staff
- Versatile
- Something the children themselves could be in charge of
- Something that captures the children’s attention.
I want to give schools something they can feel confident to use to begin bringing in these types of techniques with children from an early age as well as continue to grow and develop skills and techniques after they have started to learn – should they have had previous experience of mindfulness. It is so important to get this right and bring it in in the right way so I have developed face to face twilight / in-service and online training for staff to introduce mindfulness and have fun using and getting to know the programme. Contact for further information.
So what’s different with Connect & Grow© ?
My biggest inspiration is the children themselves and I wanted to ensure they were at the heart of whatever was created to ensure they get to be ‘kids’, to be able to use their imagination, bring an element of their own interpretation where possible to the exercises and to encourage curiosity by giving a full hands on experience which they can lead the majority of the exercises, (with a little help). The exercises also needed to be transferable in to lots of different situations and my vision is that these fundamental skills are taught early so that can be called upon as well and accessed when needed as well as continue to be developed. Lets normalise taking the time to take care of our minds as well as our bodies. Find out more about Connect & Grow
I would love to hear from you to discuss how we can bring the Connect & Grow© Programme in to your school – Please contact Kelly at hello@beyoumindfulness.com
