5 Top Tips for Parents: To help their child be ready to start school.

As a parent or carer, we can often feel a lot of pressure around getting our children ‘school ready’. We might have well intentioned parents, grandparents’ friends, who start conversations with “When so-so started school they were writing their name!”. As we live in a society that loves to compare and shows everyone’s best lives not their struggles this can often leave people feeling unsure, or like we are not doing good enough.

In our previous blog what is school readiness (read here), we discussed how school readiness is much more then perhaps the societal perceptions that have been held for many years. But actually, it is making sure that children have the underpinning communication and language, personal social and emotional and physical development in order to be ready to start school. So, for example, they can listen and follow instructions, they can express their wants and needs to others, they have good large and small physical movements, and they can play alongside others.

1.       Share books – Books are a great way of supporting children’s communication and language development. Also, it can help to create a love for literacy from a young age, is great for supporting personal, social, and emotional development as you bond with your child as you read. Also, books can help to support your child’s listening and attention skills.

2.       Sing nursery rhymes – There is lots of research out their showing how fantastic nursery rhymes are for supporting children’s communication and language development. As well as their early literacy development. Meme Fox is often famously quoted for saying that children who know 8 nursery rhymes by the age of 4 years old are some of the best readers at the age of 8 years old.

3.       Visit the park – Visit the local park and climb tree, roll down a hill, play on the swings, climb on the climbing frame and apparatus. Or take your bikes and scooters and go for a ride. Children need to have developed their proprioception, vestibular senses, and gross motor skills before they are ready to sit and show control over a pencil.

4.       Support your children to dress themselves – Practise doing fastenings for example, zips and buttons on clothes so that children can do this independently themselves. Encourage children to dress themselves in the morning. Teach them how to know which way round they put their shoes on, for example, using a sticker cut in half that they have to match up to get their shoes the right way round.

5.       Practise your route to school – Familiarity can help with the transition to school. So whether you will be walking, biking or taking the car practising the route to school and talking about what you see on the way can support children to become familiar and confident with the experience.

What is Yoga Storytelling All About?

In our previous blog, ‘How to Have a Fabulous National Storytelling Week on a Budget’. We suggested that settings could incorporate yoga storytelling to support children’s learning development and well-being as part of National Storytelling Week 2023. So, this blog is going to explore the following:

·         What is yoga storytelling?

·         What are the proven benefits of yoga to children?

·         Suggestions of where to start your yoga storytelling journey.

What is Yoga Storytelling?

Yoga can be defined as much more than an exercise program, but it is a practice rooted in thousands of years of tradition that is about connecting your mind, body, spirit, and health together. As well as learning to tune into our bodies and minds in a busy world (Harper 2013). I have recently been reading the book by Harper (2013) little flower yoga for kids, this is a fantastic read for the overview of developing a yoga and mindfulness program in settings.

Therefore, it is also important to consider what the trending word mindfulness means, beyond our current cultural practises of mindful colouring and activities! Blissfulkids (2022) have a fantastic definition of mindfulness which can also be shared with children:

“Mindfulness is simply… noticing what is happening right now.

Mindfulness is taking notice of how your body feels and what you see, smell and taste. Maybe you even feel emotions in your body, perhaps through a tightness somewhere, or a good sensation.

Mindfulness is also noticing what your mind is doing.”

Harper (2013) in her book and outlined program talks about 5 key elements of yoga and this includes mindfulness as part of yoga:

·         Connect

·         Breath

·         Move

·         Focus

·         Relax

These 5 key elements when developing a yoga program are vital and important to understand as we think about the holistic practise of yoga. When thinking about yoga storytelling then what does this mean, this is a practise of storytelling in a fun and engaging way for young children that promotes all of the 5 elements above, connection, breathing, movement, focus and time to relax. While engaging in telling small stories to young children, whether we are making up stories, passing stories down from one generation to the next, or telling a story via a story book.

What are the proven benefits of yoga to children?

There are many proven benefits to yoga and mindfulness practices to supporting children’s well-being, learning and development and below are some of them:

·         Supports developing tools to help self-esteem,

·         Helps to manage stress,

·         Helps to develop resilience,

·         Increases focus,

·         Supports academic performance,

·         Supports emotional regulation,

·         Supports memory and brain development,

·         Supports general emotional well-being and balance,

·         Promotes relaxation,

·         Is energising,

·         Supports strength and flexibility,

·         Supports balance, proprioception, and vestibular sense.

(Mindfulness Communication and Such, 2023; Harper 2013; Goldberg 2013)

Starting Your Yoga Storytelling Journey?

Introducing something new to your setting can often be exciting, but equally overwhelming with knowing where to start. Here we are going to outline an idea of how to begin your yoga storytelling practice, so that you can develop it overtime. First you will need to focus on developing some skills, before perhaps doing some of the more complex wonderful children yoga books on the market that require a little bit of practising first (spoken from experience!!).

Before starting your yoga journey think about environment. Remembering that one of the key elements is relaxation, think about where in your setting you carry out yoga so that it does not happen in a crowded over stimulating area of your provision. You want somewhere that is not cluttered or full of distraction for those busy minds. Also, make sure that you have individual yoga mats for the children, so that they have their own boundary for their own physical space whilst completing yoga.

The book by DK My First Yoga is a great book for introducing the yoga poses to young children and getting them familiar with them at the beginning of your journey. Remember, that yoga time does not have to be a rush it might be that you start by using this book and learning 3 or 4 poses a session to begin with. This book is also fantastic because it has really simple explanations of the different poses and photos! It also is good at promoting the breathing element of yoga and not just the physical movements. (P.s. you need to feel confident while doing yoga, so if you cannot do a movement don’t use that one until you are confident in doing it!).

Once children are confident with their yoga movements this is a time to start to combine a few simple movements together to tell a story. For example, you could tell the 3 little pigs using just a few movements as you tell the story. For example, doing a mountain pose for the beginning of the story, the downward dog pose for when the wolf is huffing and puffing, and a strong tree pose to represent the houses. As the children become more confident and experienced at yoga you can develop more movements into the storytelling sessions.

You can also then progress to some fantastic books such as:

·         Yoga Animals in the Forest by Christiane Kerr

·         Good morning yoga by Mariam Gates

·         Yoga Adventures by Jamaica Stevens and Jamaroo Kids

I hope you have found this blog helpful and are all excited to start your very own yoga storytelling sessions in your settings!

References:

Blissfulkids (2022) Mindfulness: What is it and How to Explain it to Kids and Adults, [online] https://blissfulkids.com/what-is-mindfulness-and-how-to-explain-it-to-kids/ [accessed 3/02/2023]

Goldberg, L. (2013) Yoga Therapy for Children with Autism and Special Needs. New York: Nortan and Company Inc.

Harper, J.C. (2013) Little Flower Yoga for Kids: A Yoga and Mindfulness Program to Help Your Child Improve Attention and Emotional Balance. Raincoast Books: Canada.

Mindfulness Communication and Such (2023) Mindfulness for Kinds [online] https://www.mindful.org/mindfulness-for-kids/ [accessed 3/02/2023]