Simple Mindfulness Exercises With Kids

A lot of people talk about mindfulness, but what is it exactly? In short, Mindfulness is a skill to live in the present, without being occupied by the imperfection of the past or expectations for the future. It is very hard especially if we are used to let our mind wander to our past and our future back and forth while doing going about our day. Kids and adults can benefit from practicing mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness can help us focus, reduce stress and anxieties, manage our emotions, and many others. Try these simple exercises by yourself, or with your kids and have fun!

Many mindfulness practice involves activating all your senses, to actually experience what is happening in the present.

Important note for you and your kids:

1. When you are doing the exercise and you find your mind wanders, that’s okay, it happens. Just bring your focus back to the present and continue on.

2. When describing what you capture with your senses, just observe, not judging if it’s good or bad.

I like to do this exercise while walking outside, and it always leads to fun conversations or just some giggles.

Tell your kids that you want to activate your “Spidey Senses”or the super-focused senses of smell, sight, hearing, taste, and touch that Spiderman has. This will encourage them to pause and focus their attention on the present, opening their awareness to the information their senses bring in (Karen Young, 2017).

1. 5 to 1 Technique

Take turn and look for 5 things you can see (no repeated items)

4 things you can hear

3 things you can feel with your skin

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste (sometimes during a walk in a forest or hiking, I let my kids taste a flower that I know is safe)

2. Safari

Let them focus on one of their senses, and make a guess of what animal/plant they can capture with that sense.

For example: use hearing sense, ask them to pick a sound, and talk about what animal is it. How many legs do they have, do they walk, jump, crawl, or swim? Are they carnivore or herbivore? Do they live in a group? What else can you observe from the animal?

3. Mindful Tasting.

Get a blueberry or other little food that your kids like.

Describe how it looks like: it is round and small, I could fit 1-2 in one bite easily, how about you? Mine is blue, rather dark, and still seems fresh, what do you think of yours?

Sniff it: it smells like something sweet, maybe it is sweet, what is your guess?

Put it in your mouth: Don’t bite it, let your tongue play around with it for a bit and feel how the texture feels on your tongue, compare it to when you held it in your hand.

Bite it: feel the burst of flavor from the blueberry, is it sweet like you thought? A little sour? A lot sour? Make sure every part of your tongue gets to taste it. Is it different if it’s in a different part of the tongue?

You can repeat this exercise as many as you want or until you are running out of blueberries!

4. Washing your face/hands/feet. You both can take turn washing each other.

Describe how the soap looks like on your hand, is it clear? is there color? is it foamy? is it thick or runny?

Sniff it: what scent could your recognize from it?

Rub it together and describe what you feel in your hand, is it cold is it soft, is it slippery

Put them on your face and make a gentle circular motion to reach every corner of the face, concentrating on how it feels against your face skin.

Wash it with water and concentrate on how your skin feels, looks, and smells. No judgment, just observation.

5. Mindful Jar

Filled a transparent jar with water, and prepare some glitter, or pop rocks (yes the candy). Put a spoonful of the item you prepared to the jar and shake it. Observe how the clear water is now looking cloudy and you can’t see through anymore. You have to wait until all the glitter/pop rocks go down to be able to see clearly. This is how our mind works when we are feeling emotional too. Sometimes we can’t focus and think clearly. We have to breathe and wait for some moments until we can focus and think clearly again. You can also let your kids try to shake it gently or with full force, to teach the different level of emotions can affect you (yes, grown ups are affected by emotions too!).

6. Scramble a word

Look for an object nearby and try to spell it backward, or in different language, make it a challenging and fun ones!

Spell your last name or person around you backward