I was looking through my email this morning and I caught site of a BOOST blog with the above title.  I have grandchildren and I’ve been using them as guinea pigs, along with the rest of the neighborhood children.  It’s fascinating to watch children grow and see the various effects on children by how parents…parent.

My grandson is a highly active child at age 7; he has never wanted to be by himself since the he was born.  The problems we encounter have everything to do with his personality and we adjust how we deal with him because of that.  Decisions are made in order to help him learn to do downtime, to clear his brain.  Keeping his schedule open so he has a chance to unwind; really the kid could be busy all the time but that isn’t good for the family or him. I see the effects of what happens when he’s tired and how different tactics can get different reactions.  I’ve learned that patience is definitely a virtue and stress and lack of sleep are major issues in their their lives and their family’s lives.  If we can manage these things we are so much better as parents/teachers of children.

So, now back to the BOOST blog! This is a simple and easy to use resource to help kids and adults de-stress.

Shawnee Thornton Hardy is an educational and behavioral specialist who uses yoga to CALM THINGS DOWN. She calls her system CALMM which stands for:

C – Center
A – Assess How I’m Feeling
L – Let Myself Breathe
M – Move My Body
M – Make Positive Choices

The article discusses the yoga poses that are used (with pictures) and a description of what you need to do to help children “center” themselves.  Using the link below you can also find more articles by the same author for stressed out Educators, and more about SEL and behaviors.  This is a great resource, simple and easy to incorporate.  Hope this helps.

Link to articles – https://boostcafe.org/author/yogabyshawnee/