Imagine this! Children who are calm, relaxed and receptive to learning

September 14, 2018 by

At the Rainbow Planet Connection we are here to help you as a teacher, child counsellor or parent!

We realize that many children can exhibit restlessness and lack of concentration.

It’s difficult to either teach or parent children when they are  not receptive.

If we can teach children to relax and be able to put themselves into a much calmer state then we will be in a much better position to help them with both learning and behaviour.

I would like to introduce you to our first E-book on ‘Refocusing and calming activities for children.

Please read below:


There is a lot of wisdom in the old saying, ‘TAKE A FEW DEEP BREATHS’.

This Module has been developed to help children to refocus and calm their energy using breathing exercises. It helps them to become more aware of their breathing patterns and teaches them how to breathe in a deeper more relaxed way. Encouraging full, deep breaths can also be a powerful way to promote release of the energy linked in with feelings, which are locked in the body. It can help to set the energy in motion (e-motion).

Many adults and children, only breathe into the top part of their chest. Shallow breathing is one of the body’s ways of controlling and suppressing emotions and excitement.

Feelings of grief, sadness and fear are often held in the chest. Some of the exercises also teach them how to release pent up emotions using breathing techniques.

Benefits of Refocusing and Calming Activities
Benefits of the activities in this Module include helping children to:
  • Develop an awareness of their breathing, and how it affects their energy and emotional state.
  • Learn how to release pent up emotional energy by breathing it out, using visualization exercises.
  • Learn how to use deep breathing for refocusing, calming and balancing their energy.
  • Use deep breathing techniques so that they are more receptive to learning, more focused and less scattered.
  • Be aware of how feelings such as anxiety and fear can cause shallow breathing and how peaceful, calm and more relaxed feelings are linked with deeper breathing.
  • Understand how breathing is affected by external situations and experiences, including environmental factors and other people’s emotions

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN WHAT WE HAVE TALKED ABOUT PLEASE CONTACT US VIA OUR WEBSITE OR YOU CAN ORDER COPIES OF OUR E-BOOK 1 ‘REFOCUSING AND CALMING ACTIVITIES FOR CHILDREN’

http://rainbowplanetconnection.com/products/module-one-refocusing-and-calming-activities-for-children/

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Tips for Child Counsellors and Therapists

October 24, 2013 by

Would you like more ideas and resources to help the children that you are counselling develop their social and emotional well-being?

Happy child with painted hands

I know that as a counsellor myself for many years, I was constantly looking for resources to use in my counselling role, especially ones that were interactive and fun.

I needed resources to use with small groups of children and also ones that I could use when working with a child one on one to help to encourage them to express their feelings!

If you are working with emotionally disturbed children it is extremely useful to have stimulus materials, ideas and resources to help them express their emotions in healthy, non-violent ways.

We (myself and Karyn – a primary school teacher) set up the Rainbow Planet Connection several years ago to provide resources and training programs to support children’s healthy social and emotional development.

We offer fun, creative activities to help to encourage children to open up and express themselves so that emotional healing can take place.

The activities we offer are based on the use of art therapy, drama, role play, dance and movement and creative writing to encourage children to express their feelings.

Art therapy for example, is a very useful and effective tool to use one on one or with small groups of children to help them to express their feelings. Many children find it difficult to talk about their feelings but if they are drawing a picture it helps to put them at ease and they often begin to open up. It is amazing what you can find out about a child’s personal circumstances from a drawing of their family!

dancing girl blog 231013Other activities are offered which are based on breathing exercises and inner body work. This involves looking inside the body to find out where the feeling or hurt is and then breathing it and/or doing other exercises to express and release the feeling.

Drama and role play activities are offered as part of our programme and provide fun, effective ways of helping children express their feelings and find better ways of responding to life issues.

As well as a number of Activity-based books and a set of colourful feelings cards we also offer an E-training course for anyone working with children and supporting their social and emotional well-being.

Our Training programs can be done online over a period of 7-10 weeks.
If you decide to enroll you will be provided with the full set of Programs and Resources to enable you to deliver between 8-10 sessions of Emotional and Social well-being skills to groups of young children (primary school age).

An outline of this course:

o This e-course has been created to provide resources and training to encourage and support the development of SOCIAL AND EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE in children

o Teaching EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE skills has been found to be a KEY FACTOR in producing happy kids with good self-esteem who are socially and educationally more successful

o The Program focuses on helping children to learn how to manage their own emotional energy as well as how to be more aware of other people’s emotional energy and how it affects them

o It introduces them to relaxation, visualization, breathing and body awareness techniques and teaches them how to use these techniques to centre and manage their own energy

o Creative self-expression activities are used throughout these sessions including games, role-plays, movement/dance, art, story telling and more, to help children to explore and express emotions

o The program also helps to empower kids to deal with life issues such as bullying, friendships and anxiety.
If you would like more detailed information about our resources or our training courses please go to www.rainbowplanetconnection.com
Or e-mail: carol@rainbowplanetconnection.com

Thanks for your interest.
Carol Wood, Director of Rainbow Planet Connection.

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Tips to help children refocus and calm down!

October 3, 2013 by

REFOCUSING – A WONDERFUL TECHNIQUE

Imagine this! A group of children who want to learn, who are calm, relaxed and receptive to learning.
Children who are having fun and being creative. Whose emotional energy state is stable and focused.
How can you achieve this?

Introduce ‘Refocusing’ into your dayrelax kids feet oct 2013

Introduce 5-15 minute sessions throughout the day, which are spent on helping the children to refocus and center their energy. Help them to change their hyperactive, scattered energy state to a calmer more peaceful one and be more receptive to learning!
This is time well spent for yourself and the children to recharge your batteries. This helps make your day easier and to flow.

How do you do this?

You can weave into your day short sessions of refocusing the child’s energy and attention by introducing Breathing and Body Awareness and Relaxation/Visualization exercises into your day.

For example at the beginning of the day or just after lunch when the children’s energy may be scattered you can use one of the relaxation and refocusing activities from Module one of the Rainbow Planet Connection resources.

For example, Activity 2 called ‘the Garden’ takes them back on a journey to a special garden where they feel peaceful and relaxed. A worksheet accompanies this visualization where the children can draw a picture of what they saw in their beautiful garden.

Or you can use techniques, which facilitate the release of pent up emotional energy such as putting the Feelings Cards around the room at the beginning of the day e.g. angry, sad, happy etc. You then ask the children to stand next to the one that most describes how they feel.  Then allow them to say why they feel like this.
This technique enables children to let go of emotional energy, and release and clear this from their body to become more receptive to learning.

You can use the activities we offer with the whole class over a number of weeks perhaps during circle time. Or you can use them with children in small groups. Some of the exercises from Body Awareness Module 2 involve teaching children relaxation and body awareness techniques to help them to get in touch with their feelings and where they are in their body.

They tune in to the colour and shape of the feelings and how these feelings are affecting them and their behaviour. They then learn how to breathe deeply and change the colour and shape to a more harmonious one if necessary.

This type of exercise works brilliantly with children (and adults) and I have used it many times over the course of my professional career as both a teacher and a counsellor. You can help the children and yourself get into a totally different state quite quickly using these methods.

You probably have children in your class who are challenging when it comes to sitting quietly and concentrating. They may even have lots of issues, which are causing them emotional hurt and pain. You can’t fix this for them but you can provide them with a wonderful school environment where they feel safe and nurtured. You can create a six-hour day for them where they leave behind their hurt and are present and open to learning.

Rainbow Planet Connection has lots of ideas and exercises you can use for ‘refocusing.’

Below is some feedback from facilitators who have used Rainbow Planet Connection’s Refocusing and Calming Activities with positive results:

  • “The children immediately took to the breathing exercises and many come into each class, asking when we can do our breathing/relaxation exercises. I believe the children are learning to exercise self-discipline and to self calm. I have to push them out the door when it is time for them to leave – really!”
  • With other groups ages ranging from 5-12 years:
    “I was really surprised to see how they identified with different shapes and colours which represented different feelings. I found this the most awesome part of the night; I didn’t realize how readily they would identify and label.”
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