Stressbusters-Relaxation and Visualization Scripts

Relaxation and Visualization Scripts

        It is a warm summer day, and you are outside enjoying the beautiful weather. You choose to lie down on the warm, green grass and look up at the beautiful bright blue sky that is peppered with the whitest, fluffiest clouds.

        As you relax deeper into the fresh cut grass you hear the sounds of the birds chirping as you watch the white, fluffy clouds move closer together. You begin to notice that the clouds are moving into recognizable shapes, fun shapes, shapes like animals in a parade. 

        You see a cloud right above you that is forming an elephant, its trunk begins to rise in a greeting, and you see him begin to fade away slowly. You look beyond the elephant and see a man; he must be the ringmaster bringing the animal parade to you.

        You may have spent countless hours in your childhood, enjoying clouds and hours of relaxation that came with the fun of using our imagination. Think back to your childhood? Were your evenings filled with sports, homework, extracurricular activities or did you have time to watch the clouds float by?

        Now days, not everyone has the opportunity to sprawl out on the grass and spend hours enjoying the clouds or daydreaming. This is where visualization scripts can take a child on a journey in their imagination and come out relaxed, refreshed and inspired.

        A visualization script can help produce a quiet mind and body in children and adults and engage their creativity and imagination. When we are relaxed, our heart rate slows, our bodies let go of tension, and we are able to quiet our internal chatter and the distractions of the outside world.

Below is a sample relaxation script for children... and adults too! 

For more information on how to write visualization scripts along with other ways to combat stress in children, check out our 2 hour training that is great for ECE professionals, parents and caregivers.

For more information Click HERE.

Stressbusters- Yoga

     

   When you think about yoga, what is the very first image you see in your head? I would hazard a guess; it is of an uncommonly quiet room, with highly flexible people bending over backwards. While this yoga is beneficial for adults, it isn’t what doing yoga with young children is about.

        Granted some children may be able to be still and quiet while practicing yoga, but not all younger children will. If you are sharing yoga with younger children, making the poses fun can be just as beneficial as the silent yoga practice we see in media. As children grow older, you can transition to a silent practice, but there is no reason not to make yoga fun for all.


        I love the laughter that happens when young children try new poses and master old ones. Yoga with kids can be free flowing and less structured than a regular class, this allows for fun, exercise and relaxation. Children’s bodies are meant to move and their minds need to learn. Why not share yoga with them, let their bodies move, let their minds learn to relax, share in some fun times and enjoy your time together.

        Yoga can be fun and games if you make it so. When doing poses make animal sounds, read a poem about animals while holding the pose, practice listening to your breath, sing, or just be still in the pose. It is about starting a lifetime of love for yoga and relaxation more than finding perfection is a pose.

          If you are interested in a fun and easy way to introduce Yoga to young children, check out our yoga deck of poses. Visit LKA Childcare Training for more information on the Deck of Poses!

 Each deck contains 26 yoga poses demonstrated by preschoolers. When you flip the card over, you will find written directions for each pose and ideas to use with the children.

Stressbusters!

Some days there isn’t enough stress at my house…who am I kidding. I run a home daycare with 8 lovely children under the age of 5; have 3 teenage daughters and all the boy troubles that come with them. Not to mention bills to pay, grocery shopping, cleaning and so on and on. I could keep going but I am sure by now you the idea… stress is everywhere.

How do I stay sane in a world where there is constant chaos…by the way my husband tells me I thrive on chaos. I don’t seem to believe him when I am in the midst of my madness but when it is all calm and peaceful. I can see how he thinks that, it isn’t easy being a master of chaos but somehow I can pull it off.

Can you believe that our children are just as stressed as we are? We don’t really notice it all the time because their stresses are different. I can’t count how many times I have said that I wish my only problems were what to wear, who to play with and what’s for lunch. With that being said children live in a different time then we did. When I was growing up kindergarten was a fun place to play and maybe learn to write your letters.  Now they have homework, take standardized tests and don’t get as many recesses as we had back in the olden days. 

I don’t know about you but for me combating stress before it overtakes me and makes me cRaZy is the most important thing I can do to keep myself sane and healthy. Now I wish I would have learned the simple things when I was a child, it sure would have made the teenage years, the sleepless parenting years easier. Giving children the tools to alleviate the symptoms of stress is just as if not more important than taking care of your stress. 

 I made a list of a few things that help me and the children at my place keep my stress under control and will share them next time. But until then , share what you do to for stress busters for yourself and the children in your life. Just leave a comment to share!

If you are in need of training hours in Early Childhood Education...check us out at LKA Childcare Training.

Announcing our new Online training!

We are please to announce our new training~ Combating Stress in Children- Relaxation and Yoga. Be sure to check it out http://lkachildcaretraining.com/combatingstress.html

All about Bones!

Our week brought to you by the book Dem Bones!

This week in daycare was all about bones thanks in part to the
Book Dem Bones  and the interests of the
children at Little Kidette Academy. 

We had many conversations on why we had bones,
what they looked and felt like,
what they did for us and how many we had. 

 The kids loved that their bones protected their insides
and even the pizza in their stomachs.

We played with the skeleton on the magnet board and
 even had a timed race to see who could put the Skeleton together the fastest.

I found the awesome skeleton at The Toy Maker!

We watched the Skeleton dance !

 

We traced our bodies and drew our bones and insides on the paper. We had hearts, rib cages, fingernails,  bones, lungs, and whatever the children felt like drawing.

We played doggy , doggy where’s my bone!
One child leaves the area and
another child sits on a paper bone to hide it.
When it is hidden, they invite the other child back to the group by singing,  “Doggy, Doggy, Where’s your bone? 
Someone stole it from your home. Guess who?”
The child who left the room tries to guess who has the bone.  

We looked at pictures of animal’s bones and x-rays of our own.
Built Skeletons with blocks, of course every time I would get my camera ready, they would knock them around to start again.

You can get cool x-rays to look and print out here!

The kids wanted to know how our skull protected our brain,  so my assistant Ms. Airika came up with a skull science activity.

We used a ketchup cup and called it our skull. Stuck a pompom under the skull and proceeded to blow bubbles at the skull, drop colored water on it and drop small objects on it. We then check to see how the pompom held up and the kids were excited that it didn’t get wet or smashed.

We had great fun learning about bones and just a FYI
there are 206 bones if we are 4 years or older.
We are born with 300 more but they fuse together as we grow.

The Twelve Days of Christmas Crafts- Day 12, Part 2

Welcome to the Twelve days of Christmas Crafts brought to you

by the children at Little Kidette Academy. 

Day 12 - Bird Seed Ornaments

(Part 2)

Today we wanted to give back to nature 
and make an ornament for the birds.


All you need is birdseed, unflavored gelatin, 
some cookie cutters and wax/ parchment paper.  


Since we had 8 children making them we used:
4 small packets unflavored gelatin
3 cups birdseed in bowl
1 cup water


Place the water and gelatin in a saucepan and bring to a simmer while stirring. Continue stirring until the gelatin is dissolved.


Pour the gelatin water over the seed and stir well.

I placed a piece of parchment paper over a paper plate
and placed the cookie cutter on it.

I also gave the children a plate with the seed mixture and a spoon. 

The children placed the mixture into 
the cookie cutter and filled it half way up.


When it was half way full, we pressed it down and added a string.

We then added more seed mixture on top,
making sure we were pressing it together. 

* hint- After the children are done, use a piece of parchment paper and lay on top of the seed and push down really hard to compact it. Flip it over and do the same to the other side.  Let dry for at 24 hours. While drying flip it over often to ensure even drying.

Gently push the seed cake out of the cookie cutter
and hang up for your enjoyment.. and the birds too!

The Twelve Days of Christmas Crafts- Day 12, Part 1

Welcome to the Twelve days of Christmas Crafts brought to you

by the children at Little Kidette Academy. 

Day 12 -  I-Spy My Friends

(Part 1)

I wont go into too much detail on how we 

made these since they are pretty self explanatory. 

The children helped to pour the plastic bead stuffing into the bottles with the help of a funnel. We placed pictures of the children in the bottle a few at a time and then added more plastic beads until it was almost half full. We then added some colored beads, 

hot glued the lid on and shook it up. 

The children were excited every
time they found a friend in their bottle.  

*Note-I added a picture of all the children 
and caregivers who spent 2011 in our daycare.