Finding Focus
Finding Focus
Many parents are concerned about their child’s ability to listen and focus - both at home and in the classroom. In our modern-day hustle and bustle, we often mistake busyness for focus, but busyness falls short of satisfaction and execution. How often do you feel like you put forth energy on a task, ‘spinning your wheels,’ so to speak, but you wind up getting little accomplished? Or, have you ever asked your child to clean their room, and they spend time “cleaning,” but when you walk in, it looks pretty much the same? Is it a lack of focus? Most definitely.
I like to use the story, The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle as an example when explaining this to kids. The Very Busy Spider was not busy; she was focused. As the animals interrupted her work, she did not get distracted. She had her eyes on her goal of finishing her web and kept at it. That level of focus takes a bit of brain training, and we will focus on those skills in this digital social-emotional learning activity kit.
SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING ACTIVITY KIT: Finding Focus
Here’s what you’ll get:
Brain-splain: The bite-size overview of mindfully living in a world of distractibility. Without realizing it, we’ve wired our brains to become distracted, which doesn’t help anyone. When you’re done reading this page, you’ll know what focus-building skills we’re working on and why they are so important.
Inhale+Exhale: In this mindful breathing activity, you’ll work on focus as a family, using visualization from ideas that you’ve come up with together.
Brain Boost: Using a deck of cards, you’ll have a blast as you boost math skills, mindful breathing, gratitude and focusing skills all at the same time!
Journals: Many households have multiple kids, and adult support is just as crucial as kid support, so we provide three sets of four weekly journals (little kid, big kid, adult/teen) to help your family grow and bond. In this pack, we’ll look at all areas of our day to find ways to creatively build focus skills.
Let’s Talk About It: Tired of asking what your kids feel and think and getting the cold, shrugged shoulder? A set of 12 conversation starters built around focus to help you get deeper than how was your day and help open the family communication.
Planning for a Great Day: You’re bound to have a great day if you keep yourself focused on responsibilities, creativity, movement and gratitude and this checklist will help keep you focused.
Videos: Two short, fun videos - one for you and one for the kids to help explain what’s happening in the brain and how they have the power to make choices that benefit their mental and physical well-being.