Calling the emotional regulation station. What’s the weather like?

Calling the emotional regulation station. What’s the weather like?

All aboard. The theme at our Danforth program this week was emotional regulation.  For many kids, emotions are like a roller coaster of ups and downs. This unpredictable ride can sometimes cause storm fronts for kids and families.

Kidevolve is committed to connecting kids with tools for social and emotional learning (SEL). This process through which children (and adults) acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships and make responsible decisions. Basically, we want kids to get in the drivers seats of their minds.

Raffi’s “Take A Breath” (The Self-Reg Song) Can Help Children Deal with Stress

Raffi’s “Take A Breath” (The Self-Reg Song) Can Help Children Deal with Stress

Singer-songwriter Raffi, along with being known as “the most popular children’s singer in the English-speaking world” (The Washington Post) is renowned for his advocacy on behalf of children. He just released a song that can help children and adults deal in a very simple way with the stresses and anxieties of everyday life.

Kindness Soup & The Anchor Of Breath

Kindness Soup & The Anchor Of Breath

Spring has sprung, and the Danforth Kidevolve kids poured into our class teeming with excitement. We just about squeezed ourselves when we heard the kids have been practicing the Kidevolve techniques at home with their families. That’s our goal!

Tuesday's class was filled with music, movement, breath, games and a gathering of energy that was palpable. We have two sweet stories to share from the night.

Peek inside Kidevolve's Blog - a chest of carefully curated content on Kids + Mindfulness!

As parents and teachers, we don’t always know how to best support our children in learning important soft skills, like social emotional awareness, compassion, resilience and kindness.

How do you teach these things in a way that kids will care about? These are the innate skills that allow our kids to excel with whatever life throws at them.

Kidevolve is on a mission to nurture a culture that supports kids becoming more compassionate, aware, emotionally intelligent adults. We want to help kids improve focus, achieve calm when they need to, and value how they are connected to the wider global community of human beings.

So how do we put kids in the driver's seats of their minds?

  • We teach. Over the course of delivering our hands-on programs in schools, homes and community centres, we teach kids how to bolster their natural abilities. And because our programming is geared just for kids, we engage them in this process by making it fun. During our programs, our team collects inspired data to share with other families and practitioners.
  • We do the research and inform. Kidevolve is all about curating evidence (of all kinds - soft data, hard evidence, experts, family findings) to demonstrate the power and impact mindfulness has on young children. Dig into our blog. Look back into our archives. You'll find some pretty awesome research, articles, blog posts. 
  • We connect. People reach out to Kidevolve to become Ambassadors, partners, informers and collaborators. Join us!
  • We support. Want to share something? Start a new program? Ask us a question, or just chat? Contact us!

Are you ready to tread along this trail with us?

 

 

Parenting Mindfully through Divorce - By Erika Prafder

Parenting Mindfully through Divorce - By Erika Prafder

How does one manage huge life transitions, and difficult experiences with kids? None of us have received a 'how to' manual. So what do we do? Of the potential painful periods, divorce is definitely high on the list for both the adults and kids involved. This article brilliantly outlines how parents can sit with their experience, not judge themselves and find ways to navigate through a divorce mindfully. 

What Changes When a School Embraces Mindfulness? - By Katrina Schwartz

What Changes When a School Embraces Mindfulness? - By Katrina Schwartz

We at Kidevolve are huge fans of the MindUP curriculum, developed by the Hawn Foundation (founded by the actress Goldie Hawn). Here is thoughtful account of a school integrating mindfulness into their programming, approach to education and hearts.  After implementing the MindUP program at Marysville, the principal , teachers and students saw the difference. Lana Penley, school principal said, "We've seen this huge shift in the overall tone and civility of the school culture," 

Why Are Our Kids So Miserable? - By Jenny Anderson

Why Are Our Kids So Miserable? - By Jenny Anderson

Stress in kids? There's a lot going around. And it's not just the day-to-day living stress. Researchers are also noting rising levels of kids' overall anxiety, depression and more cases of diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We found this excellent article written by Jenny Anderson via Quartz. She explains some suggested reasons behind this shift. Why are many of our kids not developing key life coping skills? 

 

Don't worry about what the 'experts' say: The kids are going to be all right (Leah McLaren - The Globe & Mail)

Don't worry about what the 'experts' say: The kids are going to be all right (Leah McLaren - The Globe & Mail)

Check our LEAH MCLAREN's new Globe and Mail piece... 

Have any of your heard the term 'mindful parenting'?. There is a new form of engaged or “conscious” parenting emerging. It may appear to older generations (or a behaviourist like Leonard Sax) to be overly permissive or lacking in boundaries, even if, in fact, it’s anything but. “Our generation of parents needs to have an honest conversation with our own parents, and say, "My parenting looks a lot different than your parenting, but I need you to trust me not be to a doormat, okay?"