With the easy access to mobile phones and technology, plus busy school and afterschool schedules, children often struggle to focus during their downtime. They find it hard to “switch off,” leading to increased stress levels with more screen time.
If your child faces challenges focusing due to constant distractions, consider introducing one or all of these seven activities into their routine. Encourage them to engage in these activities daily, not just during holidays, to establish a healthy habit. These activities benefit the whole family, providing motivation for your child to keep practicing them.
These activities not only enhance mindfulness but also contribute to emotional strength and resilience in children. Curious to learn about these activities? Let’s get started!
Mindfulness for Kids
Mindfulness is crucial for kids because it helps them regulate their emotions. If your child tends to take things personally and react impulsively without pausing to think, these activities can be beneficial. Children often react quickly due to their developing brains, so teaching them mindfulness develops their emotional regulation and the ability to pause and reflect.
7 Mindfulness Activities for Kids to Cultivate Inner Peace
1. Mindful Breathing
Usually, all of us take breathing for granted. We may not even realise it is an activity to cultivate inner peace and slow us down. Mindful breathing, when practiced regularly improves your mental health and overall well-being.
It also helps slow down your heart and relax your muscles so it is a great activity to incorporate into bed time.
So, here is an easy technique to cultivate inner peace in your kids. You can ask them to breathe for 1 second in, then 1 second hold, and then 1 second breathe out. To make it more fun and appealing, you can put an animal toy or a general toy on their tummy, and whenever they breathe in or out, the toy will move accordingly, and kids will definitely find it entertaining and relaxing.
2. Five Senses Exploration
We use the five senses exploration mindfulness technique in our workshops to recentre our kids when the energy is high and we need some focus. It is a common technique that we have found lots of teachers do with students in the schools we visit.
We use it as a transition activity and we simply ask the kids to stop and we ask them the questions while they are silent. The kids
Instruct children to stay quiet and:
Find 5 things you can touch – touch five things by just moving your arm.
Look at 4 things around you – silently name four things you can see around you.
Listen for 3 things – what can you hear?
Can you smell 2 things?
Finally, can you taste one thing in your mouth?
If children start telling you their answers, gently remind them this is a silent game.
In our school incursions we also use this activity to increase students gratitude for the nature when we are on a nature walk.
To use this as a way to express gratitude for their five senses, you can prepare a chart or take a general blank page; draw 2 columns and 5 rows.
| I am grateful for | Answer |
| 5 Things They Can Touch | |
| 5 Things They Can See | |
| 5 Things They Can Hear | |
| 5 Things They Can Smell | |
| 5 Things They Can Taste (or have tasted today) |
If your child can write, you can ask them to fill the second column. If they don’t know how to write, you can ask them to draw whatever their answer is. To make it more engaging, you can draw their answer on the paper, and ask them to fill color in them.
Depending on the time have, you can reduce the number of things they identify or ask them to orally describe their answer, and you can fill the second column.
3. Mindful Walk
Mindful walking is the most common way to relax yourself and as it increases blood flow, you ultimately feel less stressed and more relaxed.
Nowadays kids spend a lot of their time indoors and miss out on the wonder just outside their doors. Our five senses exploration walk is great to get kids to focus on where they are and engage with their surroundings.
You can also ask their opinions about various things by asking questions like:
“What can you see in the clouds?”
“How many different shapes can you find around us?”
Download our Mindful Nature Walk here for more ideas on mindfully walking in nature.
4. Mindful Listening
Listening to nature, bird and animal sounds is a great way to relax. Even some people listen to rain sounds to improve their focus and mental health. Spotify or your favourite music streaming service will have nature sounds, just search up “nature sounds”, or “nature sounds for sleeping” which is a great addition to bedtime routines.
Our cities, homes, schools and suburbs can be noisy places for kids. TV shows and cartoons and video games generally have upbeat music in them, which doesn’t give much chance for kids to enjoy the natural sounds of their surroundings.
Turn off the TV and take your kid to the nearest park or even just on your lawn. You can ask them to tell whatever they hear. To make this activity even more engaging, you can ask them to imitate the sound they can here or record it. They’ll definitely love this activity and will like to do more. Check out our Nature Songs made by Spotify for Strength Heroes.
5. Mindful Eating
Many kids and teenagers eat while watching devices. Simply turning off all devices so the family can focus on the meal and each other is a great way to pause. There are other ways to pause that don’t take a lot of effort.
Kids love bright colours, right? Well, you can make mealtimes more engaging by serving them foods with a variety of colours that look really enticing.
Ask them to spot the different veggies or fruits in their meal ask them which colour they love the most on their plate.
This fun activity encourages them to think about their food and pay more attention to what they’re eating instead of just staring at a screen. Plus, it helps them appreciate their food more and can even prevent overeating, as often kids eat mindlessly when they’re not focused on their meals.
If you struggle to put all the colours of the rainbow in your meals, why not try some conversation starters. Click here to find our Strength Hero conversation starters.
6. Mindful Drawing
Almost every kid adores drawing! Instead of suggesting specific objects like an apple, try giving them a blank sheet of paper and some crayons. Ask them to draw whatever pops into their heads.
This not only lets you peek into their imagination but also boosts their concentration. It’s one of those wonderfully healthy activities that can bring inner calm to children.
No need to push them to draw anything specific. Just provide them with colours and paper, and watch their creativity flow naturally. Head over to our Free Resources to download our Calm Colour In. We also have Squiggle Drawing activity download which is perfect for kids who can’t think of anything to draw.
At Strength Heroes, our aim is to help children embrace the joy of art and drawing, enhancing their mental outlook and emotional resilience.
7. Mindful Emotions
Create a chart with three emojis: Sad, Angry, and Happy. Since there are many emotions, we’ll start with these three to keep it simple for the kids.
Ask them at regular time to share how they’re feeling throughout the day and mark the appropriate emoji on the chart.
You could even, encourage them to express “how much” of that emotion they are feeling using their fingers too. For example, if they’re feeling angry, they can rate it from 1 to 10 by counting on their fingers.
This simple activity helps boost their emotional understanding and lays the foundation for them to express and admit their feelings. Our Calm Corner Kit has been designed to develop children’s emotional regulation skills. Check it out here.
Conclusion
Mindfulness is essential for people of all ages, including children. By introducing mindfulness practices early on, children can develop a healthy mindset as they grow, becoming emotional strength heroes.
These are just a few of the most common mindfulness activities for kids, designed to improve focus and overall well-being. You can make these activities enjoyable for your children and encourage them to practice them daily.
Incorporating mindfulness into their routine not only benefits their present but also lays the groundwork for a more emotionally resilient future. Start nurturing their mindfulness today!