How to incorporate Mindfulness into Kids Crafting
My children love to play with Hama beads and we were sent some beautiful sets recently form Craft Merrily which they adored putting together. My older nieces came over to and spent a good hour having Hama time (couldn’t resist sorry!)
I realised something whilst watching the kids fit the beads into the shapes and follow the patterns.They were pretty in the moment..lost in a world of creativity just thinking about what was occurring and nothing else. They barely talked just quietly and happily beaded. It was SO restful for the adults but was totally restful for them too for their minds and for their bodies. Occasionally they would get distracted from their flow.This was a perfect time to encourage mindfulness.
Mindfulness is about training yourself to pay attention in a specific way. When a person is mindful, they:
- focus on the present moment
- try not to think about anything that went on in the past or that might be coming up in future
- purposefully concentrate on what’s happening around them (Source)
How to incorporate Mindfulness into Kids Crafting – to tips
When your children play mindfully you encourage them to be very aware of their play.
So in this craft session when they seemed to get distracted I encouraged them to focus and be ‘mindful’ by considering about how their senses were impacted by the crafting .
They notes the colours of the beads in all their vibrancy, the smooth feel of beads in their hands and when they placed them. I encouraged them to smell the air (I had been baking brownies) and hear the little clicks of the beads as they were placed. I encouraged them to really look at the patterns they were following. Basically to engage fully all their sense on what was happening They didn’t need to verbalize these experiences of sense of share them just try and tune in to them.
The children were really relaxed and totally mindful of their play experience.Afterwards they seemed much calmer and happier than before. They had been totally present in their play.
If you want to know more about more mindful activities and kids I have found a great article on how to teach mindfulness to children
if you enjoyed this post on how to incorporate Mindfulness into Kids Crafting you will also enjoy my post on how to teach kids to be generous
Mindful hamma beading sounds brilliant an I will indeed encourage my little ladies to take some time and focus on what they are doing and enjoy being in the moment, It is oo easy to keep living for ‘what next?’. Mich x
I love your explanation of mindfulness, something I have lost as an adult but which seemed so easy as a child.
I love this! What wonderful lessons to teach the children. I hope they can take it on to other aspects of their life too – it’s a lesson many adults I know could benefit from!
Wow – Just found myself nodding along as I read this post Becky. The whole mindfulness thing is something that I’ve been conscious of people talking about lots recently, but I feel like I’ve just not had time to catch up with it if you know what I mean, Yet this post just grounds so much for me and explains how I need to get LMC to think a bit more when having her Hama time (have to love that joke – still!)