“Children are born Mindful and with wisdom we can keep this alive.”

The Dalai Lama

‘dots’ - a new mindfulness curriculum for children aged 3 – 6

We are delighted to have been chosen as an early years setting to pilot a new Mindfulness programme, 'dots', aimed at 3 to 6-year-olds and developed in association with the Mindfulness in Schools Project.

We are big advocates of Mindfulness at KatieB Kids, and we feel very privileged to extend the benefits from our educators, to our children through the work of MiSP.

Each dots session, about 15 to 20 minutes in length, is expertly crafted for use to teach a distinct mindfulness skill or concept. The sessions are led in person by the dots teacher. Our teacher at KatieB Kids is Dr Nick Buckley, who has been a trainer at MiSP since 2017.

dots is based around three key interconnecting themes. Aspects of these themes include:

Awareness

  • Metacognition

  • Anchoring/Grounding/Being Present

    • Calm

    • Curiosity

  • Embodiment/Focus/Concentration

    • Body (Senses, Movement, Stillness, Breath)

Connection

  • Connection/Interconnectedness

    • Awareness of others/Social awareness

      • Relationship skills

      • Developing empathy

    • Awareness of World

      • “Awe and Wonder”

    • Compassion – for self and for others
      (Care, Kindness, Gratitude, Wellbeing)

Emotion

  • Emotional Balance/Emotional Regulation

    • Recognise/Reframe

    • Emotional Literacy (Recognising emotions)

    • Working with distractions

    • Self-management

    • Self-regulation

    • Self-awareness

    • Choices

Calmer, happier, more resilient children

Mindfulness in Schools Project (MiSP) is a charity and global community of mindfulness educators. Their aim is to equip today’s young people with skills and techniques that will support their lifelong wellbeing. MiSP that lists some of the potential benefits of Mindfulness for children as:

  • Promoting well-being and resilience

  • Offering knowledge and skills applicable to the child’s life

  • Developing many areas of personal, social and emotional development

  • Extending the thinking skills learning which is promoted in the national curriculum (such as metacognition).

We are excited to launch this new programme to our Oak children as part of their Forest School programme from May 2024.