KiddyCharts is really focused on helping kids with their mental wellbeing. Mindfulness is an important part of the site, and we have a number of resources specifically designed to assist with helping kids improve their mental health; this article focuses on breathing exercises for kids.
With this in mind, we have partnered with EdPsychEd and their new Parent Hub to bring some positive mindfulness actions to aid sleep in kids. Steph Smout, a play therapist and children’s yoga teacher, has worked with EdPsychEd’s Parent Hub, and her resources are there, alongside her comprehensive advice on supporting sleep. Why not check out the Parent Hub’s Sleep Well Series to complement these breathing exercises for kids if your children are struggling with sleep and/or anxiety? Or if there is other support that you feel you might benefit from?
This is a sponsored post.
What is EdPsychEd’s Parent Hub?
EdPsychEd’s Parent Hub is a website developed by a small team of educational psychologists to offer practical, psychological and educational support for families. It provides loads of excellent bite sized, practical videos and resources on everything from helping with sleep, to managing screen time, coping with big emotions and understanding wellbeing and mental health in kids. The best thing is that they are parent driven so they encourage us to tell them any topics we’d like covering- and they will do their best to create a video and resource to help. Join them on Facebook to share your ideas!
It only costs £7.50 to join, just as a one off fee.
The company do want the resources available to all, so if you are struggling and need support with payment, contact them at info@edpsyched.co.uk.
What breathing exercises will aid sleep in kids?
We are sharing a few techniques for you on the printables that we are providing today, which are also part of the Sleep Well series within the parent hub.
The Sleep Well Series will develop your understanding of sleep, common sleep difficulties and practical strategies to help your child (and you!) sleep better. Jenny Dutton (sleep practitioner and Child and Educational Psychologist) has teamed up with her colleague Steph Smout (play therapist and children’s yoga teacher) who will be covering techniques to calm our nervous system to help our children to have a longer, more rested nights sleep.
The breathing techniques covered within the printables include:
- Dragon’s breath,
- Balloon breath,
- Humming bee breath,
- Star breath,
- Foggy mirrors breath, and
- Moon and stars breath.
All of these are ways to help calm the body, and focus on breathing to prepare the mind for sleep. The specific focus is to give the body a trigger to help to create a relaxation response so that your children are more likely to be in the mindframe for sleep.
Breathing exercises: Dragon, balloon and humming bee
We like you to know what you are getting when you download our resources, so here are the first few techniques from the sheet. Take a look, and don’t forget to nip over to EdPsychEd to take a look at the other resources they have there too.
We actually think it is a wonderful idea to print these out and pop on the wall for your children to be able to look at them before they go to sleep, or if they need to stay calm during the day.
Breathing exercises: Star, foggy mirrors and moon and stars
We have shared the stars technique with your before, alongside other ideas for wellbeing for kids, but why not revisit it alongside the other two new ideas?
These breathing techniques are a great way to calm the mind, and coupled with some of the other ideas within the Sleep Well series, they can assist most parents with nightmares that we can all have in trying to get our kids to sleep, or to stay in bed.
To download these breathing techniques, click on the circular picture here and they will be yours.
These breathing techniques are part of the sleep well series of videos, and resources that Parent Hub have on their site. Other resources that you might be interested in include those covering:
- Relaxation activities,
- Increasing confidence through growth mindset,
- Gaming and screen time,
- Practical strategies to managing big emotions (coming soon),
- The power of play (coming soon),
- Supporting children’s anxiety (coming soon), and
- Live and recorded Q&As on a range of topics.
Do check it out here – at £7.50, and with 100s of bite-sized videos and resources to support parents with their children, it is well worth the price of a meal out.
We have many more sleep related articles for kids on the site, so do take a look at these for more tips.
Sleeping Tips for Babies and Beyond
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How to get a toddler to sleep in their bed: Top 5 tips
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Baby sleep problems: As kids arrive, the sleep leaves
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Can you use an app to calm your child as part of a sleep routine?
Is it possible to use a sleep app to calm your child? Read on to find out.
Bedtime stories for kids: Why bother? (With Nick Jr)
Should you bother with bedtimes stories? Here's why you should!
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If you're looking for tips for older kids then these 10 tips for a successful sleepover should help you.
14 books to help your kids have a better night's sleep! #BathBookBed
In this post we share 14 books to help your kids have a better night's sleep!
Importance of bedtime routines: The class bear gets one too!
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Sleepovers: Are they just late nights and chaos?
We answer the important questions on KiddyCharts and this one is no exception.
Check out these helpful 5 ways to encourage your child to go to sleep.
Encourage your child to go to sleep with these 5 simple tips.
These additional mindfulness resources from other sites are very helpful too, so do have a look.
Mindful activities for kids from other sites
Here are a few more ideas for you about mindful activities that your kids can do today.
50 Mindful Journal Prompts for Teens
Some prompts for the journal that you might now have from Upside Down Books - or just some general journaling ideas for your kids.
Tip To Encourage Mindful Sibling Relationships
Ideas for encouraging mindful sibling relationships - something that we struggle with a little in our family...so perhaps some of you do to?
Inspiring Your Child to Love Themselves
Helping your kids with their self-esteem is a great way to encourage them to be more mindful too. Why not check out this advice to help them?
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Thank you for stopping by, and we would love to see you again on here soon.
Helen
Helen
Helen is a mum to two, social media consultant, and website editor; and this site is (we think) the only Social Enterprise parenting magazine!Since giving up being a business analyst when juggling travel, work and kids proved too complicated, she founded KiddyCharts so she could be with her kids, and use those grey cells at the same time.KiddyCharts has reach of over 1.1million across social and the site. The blog works with big family brands (including travel) to help promote their services, as well as offering free resources to parents of kids under 10.It gives 51%+ profits to Reverence for Life, who fund a number of important initiatives in Africa, including bringing running water and basic equipment to a school in Tanzania.Helen has worked as a digital marketing consultant (IDM qualified) with various organisations, including Channel Mum, Truprint, Talk to Mums, and Micro Scooters. She loves to be creative in the brand campaigns she works on.Get in touch TODAY!