Attentive: Mindful, Observant
We have been using We Choose Virtues this year. Our virtue focus the last couple of weeks has been “I am Attentive.” Airplane Betty Jane taught the kids what being attentive is and what it is not. We did several of the activity ideas on the back of the card and also came up with a few of our own. Here’s a few additional attentive activities:
Make an I Spy tray.
Place random objects on the tray. Let your children look at it for a certain amount of time. Take the tray away and remove several of the items. Bring the tray back. Can the kids spy what is missing?
Build a Paper Airplane.
Demonstrate how to make a paper airplane. Have your children follow along while building theirs. For my younger kids we did a very simple folded airplane. For advance airplane builders, try a different airplane design.
Color an Airplane Color-by-Number.
Since we were talking about airplanes, I created a simple color-by-number page for my preschoolers. They had to pay attention to what color each section of the airplane need to be colored. You can download the airplane color-by-number here.
Color the VirtueVille Kid from the WCV Coloring Book.
Even my 10 yr. old enjoys taking time to color. The WCV coloring book has all the VirtueVille kids. It is a great way to reinforce the virtue being learned. We Choose Virtues has actually just come out with a print version coloring book and activity book, which is different from the download. It is called VirtueVille Color My Story Book and is part of the new Kid’s Kit. (If you stop by WCV FB before 11/1- you can snag a 30% coupon for the Kid’s Kit.)
Read a book together.
Have your children listen while you read to them. Ask them questions about what they just heard. Were they attentive while listening?
Story Bingo.
Look through a book ahead of time and pick out key words and phrases. Write the words on Bingo cards. Hand the Bingo cards to your children. Have them listen for those phrases while you read the book. Can they get their whole card covered?
Do you have any attentive activity or book ideas?
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Maureen, I was just talking to clients about how to help children with Autism and ADHD learn to meditate. The subject comes up often as a way to help resolve learned habits, fears, and traumas. However, needless to say it’s near impossible to tell most children with these issues to sit and clear their minds. (If they could do that, the problem would solve itself… and I would be out of a job 😉 ). We use Deep State Training in our office as a type of meditation-with-handrails. I posted a week or so ago about tips to train children with autism and/or ADHD to begin with mindfulness games. My list was short, but this helps expand it. I’ll be sharing it with clients.
Our list included playing a game called “Sit Super Still”, with groups or individuals, sort of like games we used to play called “graveyard”. One person is “it” and is looking for anyone moving. The only difference is in those games you are trying to trick the person who is it. In this version, we have kids sit cross legged, or lie down and we practice deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, and sitting as still as possible.
I also think that yoga can be helpful for some kids. We found a video we like on YouTube, but for some kids just the video itself will be overstimulating. Liked the blog. Shared it… um everywhere. 🙂