Welcome to our first newsletter of the 2022-23 academic year. I hope you have managed to get settled in by now as we approach the end of September!
I hope too that you may already have restarted meditation with the children in your classroom. You will have discovered for yourself that children take so easily to the practice, especially when it becomes a regular part of their school experience. If you haven’t already started, please consider beginning again this week.
Many teachers say that that immediately after morning break or lunch break are especially good times for meditation. Children say that meditation helps them to let go of all the drama and teachers find that meditation really does help them to let go of all the tensions and anxieties that can arise during morning and lunch break.
World Mental Health Day takes place on 10 October each year. The two weeks leading in to that global event is a very good time to re-introduce meditation to your classroom. Meditation has physical, psychological, emotional and cognitive benefits for adults and children alike. It calms the mind, lessens anxiety and develops in children the very important and necessary quality of attention.
Lesson Plans & Meditation Timers
We recommend three simple lessons for introducing children to meditation. We suggest that schools begin by showing children to meditate (Lesson 1) and that they practice meditation (ideally on w hole-school basis) at least two times a week for the following six week, more often if possible. Lesson 2, which follows six weeks later, looks at the practical benefits of meditation. Lesson 3 follows after another six weeks of regular meditation and explores the rich inner fruits that flow from the practice.
Don’t forget you have free access to our YouTube site as well where you will find a range of videos that can be used for introducing children to meditation or for refreshing their understanding of how and why we meditate. Click on the video to the right for Episode 1: How to Meditate.
Click on the image to the left to see our video meditation timers.
Book and CD
Newsletter Archive
Free Posters
Please send a one-line email to meditationandchildren@gmail.com to let me know that meditation is still going well in your classroom. It means a great deal to us to hear back from you – a single sentence is like gold-dust, so please do!
We hope this year to create a greater sense of community among teachers who can see how beneficial meditation is for the children in their classroom. We will create some opportunities throughout this term to bring teachers together online to offer additional support and to hear about the challenges and joys of making meditation available to children in the classroom. We will start with a small group of teachers spread across Ireland. Please email us to say you might be interested if the time and frequency suited, to meditationandchildren@gmail.com
And, thanks for all you do to offer this gift for life to the children in your classroom and school. Even if they stop meditating as they grow older, they will return to it in time. It truly is a gift for life.
Copyright © 2022 Christian Meditation Ireland clg (Charity No.: 20083489 Company No.: 530525, All rights reserved.
