How can you support your child’s learning at home?

We all know that the connection between school and home is very important.  So the question is, how can you support your child’s learning and development with regards to  mindfulness at home?  Here are some suggestions.  As we continue to learn more, the list of ways to support will continue to grow.  Be sure to check back!

Watch your breath:

The breath continues to be at the core of our learning.  A deep breath helps us regulate our body, create space to provide a thoughtful response, helps begin the steps to diffuse large emotions, and helps us bring our attention from within.  Practice breathing with your child at home.  Ways to do this include:

• Using the bell sound found under resources to ring a bell and have your child teach you how to take a proper deep breathe (as opposed to just a big breath).
• Model using a deep breath at home.  When you model a breath, narrate that you did it and why.  (“Boy, I am sure glad I just took that deep breath.  I was beginning to feel frustrated because I have asked you to sit down at the table three times and I was feeling like I was going to yell.  Since I took my breath, I am not going to yell.  But I do need you to listen to me.)
• Model breaths for more than negative feelings.  Show that a breath helps with positive feelings too.
• When you are laying with your child use your breath as a way to connect and calm down.  You can just lay next to your child taking deep breaths without talking.  Or you can talk about your breath a bit.  One fun game is to put a stuffed animal on your belly and try to rock it to sleep with deep breaths.
• Point out times you notice your child controlling their body.  Even if they were controlled the whole time!  (It does not have to be just when they calmed down.)  For example, if your child sat nicely at the dinner table, walked carefully down the stairs, really anything.  You can just point it out, or you can ask them some questions (Wow, you walked down those stairs so carefully with a controlled body.  How did you do that?)