Ever felt overwhelmed by your emotions?
As adults, sometimes we get caught up in the whirlwind of emotions. But, when you imagine them for the first time as a young child, the experience is mostly chaotic. The children go through the frustration of understanding them while experiencing them.
No matter how much we credit Gen Z and Gen Alpha for their chronically online presence. Children from these generations often experience difficulty in developing ways to slow down, process their emotions and build resilience. The digital age comes with its real-life complexities.
From endless screen time to constant dopamine-driven distractions, their developing minds are in a race for stimulation, sometimes at the cost of focus, patience, and emotional balance.
So, how do we, as adults, make emotions an integral aspect of children’s well-being?
That’s where mindfulness woven into their routine lives can completely transform Gen Alpha’s experience of growing in a digital-first world.
Leading playschools in Gurgaon are adapting mindfulness techniques by weaving them into your children’s routine lives. This transforms Gen Alpha’s experience of growing up in a digital-first world.
What is Mindfulness?
Have you ever played the Jenga game? It is a block game where all players are building a tower. Sounds easy? But the real challenge is to carefully pull out and place new pieces without tumbling the tower. The players who are distracted or rushing through can often lose. One wrong move and the entire tower is crashing down.
Now, imagine your children’s emotions as a Jenga tower. Each block in the tower represents an emotion, a thought or a decision. If your child rushes through they will often feel overwhelmed by situations. The lack of awareness will make them unsteady, and they won’t think enough when things will be a little wobbly.
With mindfulness in the picture, your children will learn to pause, breathe and stay in the moment. The emotional tower will be hinged on steadiness, patience and awareness, creating a state of stability in the emotional roller coasters.
Being present in the moment is the practice of mindfulness. An individual is completely aware of what’s happening around them without feeling overwhelmed. It helps children understand their emotions, focus better, and handle challenges with a calmer mindset.
Just like the steady and calm hand of the Jenga game. Mindfulness is the tool through which children will be empowered to navigate their emotions, stay balanced and make better choices.
Isn’t it something that is preparing them for life? Playschools in Gurgaon like IPSAA believe it wholeheartedly.
In the intense moments when their impulsive frustrations are all running around, mindfulness will equip them with a time frame to respond thoughtfully.
The Importance of Mindfulness in Early Childhood
According to Thich Nhat Hanh, “emotions are like waves in the ocean”. The waves are in all sizes, shapes and forms. They can be big enough to swallow you, or they can be small but might end up drenching you. In such scenarios, Mindfulness is a powerful tool for children that can teach them how to surf the waves instead of getting swallowed by them.
When we think of Mindfulness, most people can’t comprehend the concept’s association with children. It feels so contrary to their inherent nature, however, instead of introducing it as a concept where they have to sit for long hours. Mindfulness can be a fun activity for children, making them more aware. Awareness helps them build a sense of self.
So why should children learn mindfulness?
1. Learning to surf in the wave
Children often experience strong emotions. While understanding human connection, they can be overpowered by the emotions and have no healthy outlet to manage them. The struggle is real when children participate in a playful competition, the competition can induce potential stress. Or anxiety while completing a task.
In such moments, Hanh’s philosophy of ‘impermanence’ comes in, where emotions are like the waves. Emotions have a fleeting nature where nothing stays. This helps them handle stressful situations better, knowing it is for a while rather than getting overpowered by them.
Engaging Activity: You can always ask your child to describe their emotions as different types of weather. This will help them observe rather than be overwhelmed by their emotions.
When visiting potential playschools for your child, observe how they use individual or group activities to help children understand and manage their emotions.
2. Training the Puppy Mind to Concentrate
A child’s mind can be thought of as a playful puppy that needs to be engaged. Once the interest is gone, so they are. If you take them to the park, they can be running one moment, and the next, they are building castles. However, they never stay at a single activity for a long time.
It is not an easy task to bring their attention to the present moment, but through mindfulness, they can appreciate the small joys of life. The distracted mind can wander in everyday life.
Engaging Activity: During bedtimes, you can ask your children to notice the movement of their stuffed animal on their belly. The rise and fall of their breath will improve their focus and awareness.
Playschools in Gurgaon on their own can help your child initiate these activities, but through continued efforts at home, mindfulness can become a habit.
3. The Magic of Smile
Hanh believes “Peace begins with a Smile”. When children observe their emotions and the emotions of people around them. It fosters kindness and builds strong relationships.
When they are in agreement or disagreement with their peers or elders. Mindfulness allow them the headspace to interpret people’s emotions while observing their own. The simple act restricts them from saying hurtful things or inflicting pain. Hence, it develops the feeling of empathy and compassion.
Engaging Activity: Let children pick up a small pebble and keep it in their pocket. Whenever they touch the pebble, they will send kind thoughts to people. This small pebble can cultivate compassion in their everyday moments.
4. Watching the Monkey Mind
Hahn said that thoughts are like “monkey minds”. Thoughts in the human mind are like restless monkeys. When children actively trace their thoughts, they become more self-aware.
The idea is to observe their inside world with no judgements and, in the process, discover oneself. The present-moment awareness in thoughts, actions, and surroundings creates individuals who deeply understand the world. This improves their critical thinking and analysis ability.
Engaging Activity: Take your children to the park and encourage them to walk slowly. Let them wander around in the touch, feel of their hands against the trees. The way the grass feels on their feet or the melody of the birds singing. This helps them in creating a present-moment awareness.
The present-moment awareness in your children’s developmental years is often overlooked while you are searching for your playschools near me options. This is one of the important factors to consider for bigger impacts.
✔️ FINDING PERFECT PLAYSCHOOLS NEAR ME
Mindfulness at IPSAA: Creating a Calm and Engaging Learning Environment
At IPSAA, we create a holistic learning environment for your toddlers by adopting a few simple mindfulness techniques in their routines. We integrate mindfulness through:
1. Structured mindfulness sessions
The trained facilitators guide your kid through simple yoga poses and movements like the tree and butterfly pose, where we encourage your kids to imagine themselves like a tree or butterfly.
Tree Pose (standing on one foot like a tree) and the Butterfly Pose (sitting with feet together and fluttering like a butterfly).
Another simple method we integrate is playing along with your child in the breathing games where we ask them to place their hands on the belly and observe the gradual movement of rise and fall.
These age-appropriate mindfulness exercises your children are going through learning opportunities that address their developmental domains.
2. Calm and mindful classrooms
Playschools in Gurgaon like IPSAA, children associate classrooms with a place where learning means having fun. We create a love for education through colourful environments and storytelling with no access to screens.
Our classrooms are full of picture books, puzzles, structured and unstructured plays where they not only grow as individuals but also, the group activities creating non-stimulating enviornments that leave them with utmost ease and security.
In our outdoor activities, we ask your kid to identify the sound like birds chirping or rustling leaves, which connects them back to nature. Through these activities, we instil the habits of mindful listening that foster calmness in your child.
3. Mindful storytelling and play-based learning
When playschools engage in creative storytelling, look at how they integrate mindfulness concepts into your child’s development. At IPSAA, we use vivid nature imagery like a sunbeam or your kids be a little star for body scan relaxation.
The gentle rhythmic sound of their educators with soft pauses guide your child from toe to head, creating ‘sleepy magic. While going through this, your child is noticing all the stages of sensation, movements and relaxation in their bodies. This also develops a healthy relationship with sleep in your children.
When we use images of stars or sunbeams, it creates an association of relaxation with a feeling of twinkling and slow dimming that leads your children into a natural transition to calmness.
4. Encouraging emotional expression
When your kids are with their peers, sometimes they experience certain emotions that they can comprehend. In such moments, educators at IPSAA encourage activities like art, movement and guided discussion through which your child can express themselves through their work.
In our classrooms, we have a feeling freeze dance. When music stops, educators at IPSAA call out an emotion, and your child freezes in a pose that represents that emotion.
When children are eating together, we often encourage them to engage in an activity like savour the raisin where educators ask them to explore a raisin with all five senses from the way it:
- Looks
- Feels
- Smells
- Sounds
- Taste
Playschools in Gurgaon are recognising the power of eating communally. The practice enables your toddlers to appreciate the small joys of life deeply and becomes a small step in building for them a healthy relationship with food.
5. Practising Gratitude
One of the most essential ways to inculcate mindfulness in your child is to express gratitude. At IPSAA, we ask your child every day one thing they are thankful for and why. This helps on two levels:
First, your child learns to appreciate their relationships with their elders and peers.
Second, it helps them in creating a positive mindset when they are indulging in brainstorming sessions to find something to be grateful for.
Useful Tip: You can always create a gratitude jar in your home where your child can drop notes of appreciation.
Finding the Ideal Play School for Your Child
When choosing a play school in Gurgaon or searching for play schools near me, it’s essential to consider how emotional well-being is integrated into your children’s early education.
school prioritises emotional well-being and mindfulness practices. IPSAA stands out by fostering a balanced approach to learning—where mindfulness is an integral part of early education.
Playschools like IPSAA, where mindfulness is integrated into daily activities to create a nurturing and balanced learning environment. Through some simple yet effective mindfulness techniques for children, IPSAA incorporates mindfulness in your children’s learning years.
👉 CHOOSING THE BEST PLAYSCHOOL IN GURGAON
The holistic development of Gen Alpha also means learning how to get away from stimulating environments. With a team of dedicated educators, we want your child to nurture their real-life experience in this tech-savvy age.
At IPSAA, we think of mindfulness not as an activity or concept but as the need of the hour. We want children to experience calmness, focus and confidence in their daily lives.
Start your child’s mindfulness journey today with IPSAA! And let us be the end to your playschools near me research. Check out our website or get in touch with us for more information.