To keep my sessions fresh, interesting, and educational for the kids I teach, I often theme mindfulness activities – be it movement, breathing or meditation - around current events. The following game is an oldie but a goodie from my book, Teach Your Child Meditation, that I’ve been incorporating in my MMM sessions as a nod to several summer Olympic events: synchronized diving, swimming, and artistic and rhythmic gymnastics. This game requires focus to play, yet is a super active and fun activity for kids -- a perfect way to introduce mindfulness and meditation to children who are challenged by being still.
Have fun with it!
Lisa Roberts xoxo
Scarves
What is Scarves and how does it help? Scarves is a mirroring game that can be played in partners or groups. An active meditation, it encourages mindful movements and a focused mind to play. In addition to the benefits of meditation—a clear and focused mind—Scarves supports the development of coordination skills, balance, intuition, communication and teamwork.
You will need:
· One colorful silk scarf per child
Simple Steps:
· Begin in partners facing each other, one child elected as leader. Or in small groups, with one child elected leader.
· The leader freely moves his scarf in slow and fluid movements. His partner or group must follow, mirroring his moves.
· Those mirroring must follow the leader’s movements and speed, as if they were his mirror reflection.
· Encourage leaders to keep movements slow and intentional, this is more challenging to mirror than fast, jerky movements and requires a lot more presence.
· After working with the same leader for a while, do you notice that you begin to guess what their next move will be, naturally moving with them without thinking too much about it? This is your intuition.
Discussion: After playing scarves begin an open discussion with players about how they felt in their minds while playing. Did they find it easy to focus on the scarf and the leader’s moves? Or were they easily distracted? Did any players experience their intuition coming into play? If so, discuss intuition – what it is and how it can play a role in other areas of their lives.
Game: Scarves can be played as a game of elimination: The child “caught” not mirroring the move exactly is “it” - in the case of a group activity, one player will be eliminated from each round until only one player remains and is declared the winner. In the case of a partner activity, the person who is not “it” gets a point, roles are reversed, and the game starts over. Whoever has the most points at the end will be the Mirror Champion.
Ready to learn more? Check out the following webinars:
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