Mindful Practice Resources

Hey everybody, welcome to the WallDocWay. I'm Jessica and today's video is going to be mindful practice resources. Now this is a collaboration with my friend Arlene from Homeschooler by Design and she's going to be sharing her resources on her IGTV channel. So I'm going to link that in the description box down below so that you can check her out because she is the queen of mindfulness and you're not going to want to miss her resources. So the first things I'm going to show you will be kind of feelings and emotion based and then I'll get into more of the mindfulness stuff. The first thing I have is the book A Whole Bunch of Feelings What Do They Mean? 44 feelings. I will say that this is probably a little young for most seven-year-olds but I think she still really really enjoys it. It is very simple but it's beautiful. It's basically one feeling per two-page spread. So you can see here that this one is guilty and it just kind of gives you a little synopsis of what guilty means and kind of an example of what this child did that may have made them feel guilty and then after we've read that I normally ask you know what is something that you've done that's made you feel guilty or something that would make you feel guilty if I don't think she's ever had that specific feeling and maybe what we could do if we did have that feeling. We also have the Us Born All About Feelings book. Now this just recently came in so I haven't really had a chance to do anything with it other than glance through it and at first glance it is gorgeous. Everything that we've come to expect from Us Born. I think this is an amazing resource and I can't wait to use it. I also have a few printable games. One of them is from Life Overseas or Life Overseas but it's the letter C. And basically it's similar to like a Candyland type of game. You have these cards with feelings on them and you just move to the next spot that has that feeling. We will be discussing that feeling maybe something that could cause that feeling or a time we felt that way. It won't just be you know to identify. We'll be addressing our personal feelings as well when we do it. The other one I have is from Strawberry Mommy Cakes and it is the Inside Out Game of Emotions. It's based off of the Disney movie Inside Out. So you have these cards with the different feelings on them and what we'll do is we'll draw one and we will talk about a time that we felt that way. So when we felt afraid or when we felt joyful or what makes us feel afraid or what makes us feel joyful as we play the game. I also have the How Do I Feel flashcards. These came from the Target Dollar Spot. So they just are like I feel this or how do you feel when kind of things or conversations about feelings. I also picked up the Fun With Feelings Memory Game. It's just a simple memory game where you're matching two sets of feelings. Again when we match them we will discuss something that makes us feel that way or a time we felt that way. Most of this is all to be able to be talking about our emotions. I have the I Heard You're Feeling conversation cards from Eboo. These are probably one of my favorite resources. I'm going to show you one of these cards because they're just amazing. They have these beautiful illustrations on the front and they have questions on the back. So for instance this card says, What kind of news is Bear reading? How would you act if you were Bear Cub? Is Bear paying attention to Bear Cub? Why not? Does Bear Cub understand Bear's mood? So it's just a really fun way to discuss emotions and it's one of those things that you're looking in from the outside so it's not personal for them. I also just recently got this game Wake Up Stars. We've already played it probably six or eight or ten times. A lot. We love it. It's very simple. It says ages 3 and up but it's one of those that the entire family can play from your 2 year old to your 32 year old and all have a good time playing it. So you have these little foam stars. You have a spinner. You spin and it tells you how many stars you get to pick up or whether you're giving a star to little bunny. When you pick up the star they have different emotions. Now we first try to make the emotion face because well that's just funny and then we tell a time that we felt that way or I feel happy when whatever. If you spin the bunny you have to give him the star and you say that he feels happy when he something. So when he eats carrots or when you know something that you think would make him feel that way. And then whoever fills their board up here with eight stars first wins. It's very very simple. It's a quick gameplay but it is a lot of fun and I love that it's very minimal setup. So it's a really fast game as well. It's a great like right before bedtime kind of game. Okay the next thing I have are the Big Life Journals. Now I do actually have the first edition and the second edition. You don't have to do the first before the second. It just happens to be that this one came out first, this one came out second. They're two separate journals. They're both about growth mindset and I love that about them. They both ask you to have a journal buddy which would be who I am to her. The things that are included in the first one are make a difference in the world, dream big, follow your heart, you are not what you have, believe in yourself, take action, be persistent, effort is key, love learning, be mindful, be grateful, failure is learning, and be positive. And basically it's broken down into 26 weeks. The second edition includes believe in yourself, mistakes help you grow, be persistent, be grateful, be unique, be you, challenges make you stronger, effort is key, love learning, be kind, and make a difference in the world. So that way you can see maybe which one you want. But I will say they do often have they just have one over Labor Day. Buy one, get one half off, and if you catch it at one of those sells I really recommend just going ahead and getting both because you're gonna love them. You're gonna want them both eventually. Okay since those were kind of along activity books I'm going to show you the activity books that we have. We have the three Usborne activity books which is Be Brave, an activity book for young people who sometimes feel sad or afraid, No Worries, an activity book for young people who sometimes feel anxious or stressed, and Hello Happy, an activity book for young people who sometimes feel sad or angry. And it's just a really fun Usborne activity book that goes through kind of mindfulness and feelings and things that would address the the thing on the front. So you know being scared or worried. We also have the Usborne Unworry book. Now I will say you probably do not need these both. I got them both and there is a little bit of an overlap so I would pick one or the other. But this is not, it's not not good. It's still a really good book. You just probably don't need both of them. I also picked up the Gifted Kids workbook which is mindfulness skills to help children reduce stress, balance emotion, and build confidence. 27 fun activities to help kids stay grounded, reduce overwhelm, and embrace their uniqueness. And it's just a workbook. But what I liked about this one is it's a workbook that has a little bit more for the kid, like for the adult, for the mom, background on some of the things. It's not just like a fun activity book for the kid. It helps the mom work through it too. I also picked up a jar full of mindfulness. It is 101 exercises to help children focus and calm their minds. And so it's just a jar full of these little cards. And for instance one of the cards says mindful listening. Listen to the chime. Play a real chime or tone on your phone. And that's for you. Close your eyes or look down. Listen to the sound of the chime. What can you notice about the chime? As the chime fades, listen until you can no longer hear it. And then raise your hand. What do you notice? So just some fun activities in a jar to help you be a little bit more mindful. I also picked up the calm kit at the Target Dollar Spot. We haven't used it yet. It's probably something I'm gonna throw in my purse because it's really really compact. It has six calming card strategies, a fidget spinner, and a container of dough. But I think this would be a really good like travel calming kit. So it's probably something we're gonna put in my or I'm gonna put in my purse. I also have the mindful kids 50 mindful activities for kindness focus and calm. These are amazing. Like I cannot say enough good things about these. They are these beautiful really sturdy cards that have a wonderful image on the front and then step-by-step directions on what to do in the back. Some of them are breathing techniques. Some of them are activities. One of the activities we did the other day was for her to write all of her worries down on a piece of paper and then to put that piece of paper in a safe place because after she knew they were safe she didn't need to worry about them anymore during you know playing and school and all those things because she knew where her worries were. It was such a simple activity but it was one that I would not have thought of myself. So I'm really really grateful that these have those kinds of things in them for me. Alright the next thing I have is one of those things that was like a win-win. It is a book of affirmations but it also had the word magical in the title and since you guys know this is my year of magic I couldn't not own this book. So it is the magic of me my magical words and is that little girl not the cutest. So it is a book of affirmations and in the very beginning it talks about tips for reading with the children. It gives the children this background about how your words are super and they have magic and the words you speak have super powers. They can bring sunshine or rain showers. So here are some magical things you can say to bring the Sun and light in your day. Listen closely to this life advice. Start with I am and end with something nice. The more you say these words the more they come true so repeat them quite often because the magic is in you. And I just I love that. I love that it's telling kids that their words have magic. So then you just have things like I am special and then this beautiful little quote about it. The illustrations are adorable and it has all these you know I am giving I am peaceful which is like I said it's just it's beautiful and it was magical technically so I had to have it. The next thing I have is Buddha at bedtime and yes of course this will have to end up in our bedtime basket because it says the word bedtime on it. It is tales of love and wisdom for you to read with your child to enchant enlighten and inspire. And it was gorgeous which means that it had me at that. So it has quite a few different here you can see the contents right here has quite a few different stories in here or tales for you to read but they're just they're beautiful. And I read one myself and they were very kind of peaceful and Zen so I'm excited maybe it'll help put me to sleep too. The last book I have is probably one of the most popular and it is Breathe Like a Bear by Keira Wiley. She's actually coming out with some board books for the young kids and I can't wait even though Emily's not young I'm still probably gonna get them because we love everything she's done so far. We have done this twice we are halfway through on our third time. The breathing exercises in this are simple but they're effective so I can tell Emily now if she's starting to get really upset and I can catch her quick enough I can tell her to smell her flowers and blow out her candles and she knows exactly what breathing exercise I'm talking about and normally those breathing exercises will help bring her back or at least bring her back quicker. So I really love this book for that but I wanted to be able to extend it a little bit and kind of practice some of the different breathing exercises in here and not just those two. So when I saw that the Torchlight Pre-K used this book and had these gorgeous badges that she had made so the way that she means for them to be used is that you do a breathing exercise in here and they would earn the badge so that for instance they would earn this gorgeous snake breath after they did it. She did these beautiful watercolors. I don't know that it's gonna focus because it's laminated but she did these beautiful watercolor badges. Well what I did is luckily they're in extension so you don't have to get the entire curriculum for it since obviously I don't need Pre-K. I bought the extension so I'd have these beautiful watercolor images for each of the breaths in the book and then I printed two copies of the badges on the back of this really really cute watercolor scrapbook paper and laminated them. So my goal now is that we will play memory or matching. So we'll lay all the cards out and we'll take turns matching and whenever you make a match like for instance whoever made the snake breath match would then practice by doing the snake breath. If it's not something that we remember right off hand we'll reference the book and we'll read through it and we'll just practice doing that. That way we are still enjoying and kind of extending the book that we love but we're getting a little bit of extra practice in on those different breathing techniques and hopefully eventually getting better and better at the breathing so that we don't need the book every time and those breaths come a little bit more naturally to us. That is my goal anyway and plus we love games so it was kind of a win-win. The last two things I have are kind of our movement. This is the Think Fun Yoga Dice. We love this game. I love that it's so compact and convenient. It comes in this little bag and it has these beautiful dice that you roll to show you the different yoga movements that you're gonna do. It's also a collaborative game so you play it together and not against each other so you either win together or you lose together which is really amazing. And then the last thing I have I don't actually have to show you guys because it's a YouTube channel and I'm going to link it up here for you because if you haven't checked it out you really really should and it's Cosmic Kids Yoga. They have so many different kinds of yoga on there. They have bedtime yoga. They have mindfulness yoga that's specifically for mindfulness. If you have a kid that loves Minecraft they have Minecraft yoga on there. They even had a Harry Potter yoga because we did that the other day when we started Waldock Wizards and Blondes. There's just tons. I promise you that something that you're either studying or something your kid is interested in it's probably on there and it's a really really fun thing to add to your day especially for us in the morning. So we try to do our movement at the end of our morning basket or the last part of our morning basket before we transition into table work. So that way she's gotten a little bit of those wiggles out and her brain's kind of clear and ready to go.