Tag: mindfulness

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A Calmer Christmas With Calmer Bannanas At Buckland Park Lake

by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment on A Calmer Christmas With Calmer Bannanas At Buckland Park Lake

Christmas is a wonderful time of year, but the hustle and bustle, packed scedules and lack of time can take a toll on us all and the need to switch off from it all can be much needed.

Its not just the adults that need to take a break. I am definitly guily of trying to put too much on the kids at Christmas. I want these few short weeks a year to be crammed with as much magic as possible, but in reality it can all be a bit too much and they need something that give them a more chiiled day out – and this is were I was hoping the ‘Calmer Christmas Experince from Calmer Bananas would be perfect.

On Sunday morning we headed to Buckland Park Lake, Reigate to take part in this event. We parked up on the edge of the lake which was a stuiing sight to see and so surrene – however the boys were a little worried I was going to get them to join in with the wild swimmers!

We headed towards the gingerbread house where we were greeted by a super friendly elf that told us all about what our morning was going to hold. Buckets and scavenger hunt sheets in hand we headed off on our scavenger hunt to find all the pieces we needed to build our own snowman. In my head I had imagined a much lower key hunt, with us literally finding bits and pieces in the wooldna, so I was thrilled to discover a huge trail filled with activites, questions to answer and lots of little elves scattered aroynd to make it a really thetrical dispaly.

At each stop thier was something to keep the boys brains ticking over and thet loved the challange of having to complete a task to gain a piece towards their snowman.

After walking through the beautiful woodland we troated across a liitle bridge over a stream to play a few games of Pooh Sticks and made our final journey toward a pretty shleter nestled betwwen the trres. The numbers are kept low and we didnt bump into anyone the whole way round which made it even more speical and you didnt have the anxiety of having to rush trough tasks to let ohter people in for thier turn.

As a big fan of outdoor fun I actually think I was more excited at the sight of the shelter than the children. I was beatifuult decorated and homed an open fire where we sat down with a hot choclate after building our snowman.

Hot chocolate in hand and toes nicely warming up there was even more fun to come. We each had a gingerbread man to decorate and the boys made thier own christmas decorations. Whislt all these activites were being completed Mother Claus read the children christams stoires and sang a few songs to really get us in the christmas soirit.

There is also an option to have lunch whilst you are there and i was amamzed at the quality of the snack boxes. The boys has christmas tree shapped sandwithes, a candy cane cheese straw and a super cute reinderr brownie. so much thought had gone into it and they gave a big thumbs up for the taste test!

The adult boxes were just as good, and I enjoyed a festive treat with a turkey and cranberry sandwich, homemade sausage roll and a gooey chococlte brownie.

The whole experince was as relazing as i had hoped for. The boys are extremlly boysterous and can sometimes get more than a little over excited, but being ocupied the whole time gave them a mental workout, alonf with a good walk trough the woods, allowing them to really kick back and enjoy the peace and quiet of the calm actitives in the twnt.

This experience far excided my expectations and I would defintly put it top of our activites this year. It was someting differnt ans we will definlty be retrning next year!

Children, Families, Family Life, Friendships, Learning, television

Mindfulness With True And The Rainbow Kingdom

by thejoyoffiveLeave a Comment on Mindfulness With True And The Rainbow Kingdom

[AD] These are challenging times for us all at the moment, and as adults we can rationalise things and try to put coping mechanisms in place for times when things all get a little to much.

Sadly for all the little ones going through this it can be even tougher, as it must be so hard to process everything that is going on around them. Their park trips have been cancelled, there is no more school and there is no contact with their family and friends and this must be such a challenge in their little minds.

One way we can try to ease this for them is to help them find ways to help them relax and focus their minds.

Frankie has actually suffered with anxiety for many years now, and one thing we have found to be a great help has been mindfulness; and during these times I think that the majority of children could benefit from practicing this.

Here are just a few ways mindfulness can help:

• Builds Self Control – Mindfulness makes you pay attention to your body and especially breathing systems which we all take for granted. Tuning into these allows us control over over bodies which is a huge help when little ones are feeling overwhelmed.

• Lowers Stress And Anxiety – We all know how much stress and anxiety can take a toll on our bodies and mindfulness can help to regulate blood pressure and lower heart rate.

• Increase Self-Esteem – Mindfulness helps you to think about your emotions and open up to how they are making you feel which in turn builds your confidence and self-esteem.

With all these benefits you really couldn’t say no to giving it a try, but for me finding a way for little ones to practice this without them getting bored can sometimes be a challenge and this is where True And The Magic Kingdom is a fun and interactive way for them to learn these techniques.

Tiny Pop has brought True And The Magic Kingdom to our screens, a show produced by the world-renowned artist Pharrell Williams who worked closely with childhood development experts to integrate the concepts of mindfulness into the show.

True – the hero of the show encourages children to ‘ stop and take a breath’ when they are faced with uncertainty and change and shows them how to deal with things that they are not expecting.

The Rainbow Kingdom which is home to True is full of hustle and bustle and can be very overwhelming, so at the beginning and end of each show True visits the Wishing Tree which is a haven of love and warmth and demonstrates deep breathing exercises with the children without them really realising what they are practicing.

Each and every episode includes True’s friend – Zee, who encourages True to STOP, BREATH and THINK about her problems and organise them so they can be dealt with.

All of these tools that have been integrated into True And The Magic Kingdom to teach young children to stop and think before they act which as we all know isn’t an easy task, but being able to refer back to a favourite TV show to mimic these things is a fantastic way for children to practice these in everyday life and for me this is what is so fantastic about this show, especially with all the changes we are currently facing.

Tune into Tiny Pop available on FREEVIEW 206| YOUVIEW 206| SKY 616| VIRGIN 736| FREESAT 600 everyday at 8am and 4.30pm

Do you practice mindfulness with your little ones?

True And The Rainbow Kingdom™ Guru Studio. © 2020 Guru Studio

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Actimel ‘Back To School’ Workshop And Yoga Challenge

by thejoyoffive2 Comments on Actimel ‘Back To School’ Workshop And Yoga Challenge

A couple of weeks ago the lovely people at Actimel invited us along to the mindfulness and yoga workshop they were holding in East London to celebrate the launch of their new yummy yogurt drinks.  I took number three and four with me, but was a little sceptical as to how well number four was going to behave!

I have only ever practiced yoga during my last two pregnancies, but found it a great way to really focus my mind and helped a great deal towards a much calmer and easier labour.  It is always something I have considered for the children as they tend to easily lose focus easily and would love to see if this had any impact on their learning.  With number three returning to school and number four starting nursery this was a perfect event for us.

Once we had arrived and had a super healthy breakfast at the yoga centre we set to work at practicing our yoga moves and learning the importance of breathing techniques.  The children remained engaged throughout and really enjoyed learning something new.  Next up we got to make some fabulous smoothies with the new flavours that Actimel had to offer mixed with lots of fresh fruit.  It is a fantastic way to get the children to start their day and I always find they are happier about trying new things when they have helped to prepare it themselves.  Number four was especially taken with the glow in the dark bottles and couldn’t wait to go home to try them out.


    

With five children to contend with in the morning it may be a challenge in itself to get the yoga challenge done before school, but with some new rules being implemented for September in our household the time they would spend sitting watching cartoons will now be used to fit in couple of yoga moves each morning.


    

We have started the challenge this week and have already seen a marked improvement in the children’s behaviour and is lovely to have ten minutes together to start the day.  Thank you so much for Actimel for inviting us along to your wonderful event and opening our eyes to something new.


We were invited along to take part in this event to try out Actimels new product.  All views are my own honest opinion.