BODY BRAIN BOUNCE
A Mindfulness, Resilience and Wellbeing Program
for Educators and Young Children

PRACTICAL TRAINING FOR EARLY YEARS EDUCATORS PROPOSAL

 
About us

Mindful Kiddo is located in South Australia and is offering expertise in self-awareness, mindfulness, building resilience and wellbeing for Early Years Educators working with young children in Early Learning Centres, kindergartens and Child Care Centres. Our BODY BRAIN BOUNCE program is based on over 21 years combined experience shared between the Mindful Kiddo Team. Our team’s expertise is in Psychology, children’s movement and body awareness, child health, early brain development, and social and emotional well-being. We pride ourselves on being focused on the practical aspects of Early Years Educators work and providing not only knowledge about mindfulness, but how it supports early childhood development. We offer ready-to-use lesson plans, solutions and tools to embed mindfulness and self-regulation techniques in everyday curriculum.
Our training program is meticulously designed and developed based on years of experience working with children in the early years. The program is designed by our experienced learning and development team and aims to maximise the time spent together in a supportive learning environment. Comprehensive follow up and ongoing support is available, including access to further learning, resources and lesson plans.
The BODY BRAIN BOUNCE Program aligns with the Early Years Learning Framework, the National Quality Standards and the Australian Teacher Standards.

Meet the Team
Hiacynta Romanska Founder and Co-Director
Master Degree in Psychology (recognised in European Union)
Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) Therapist (Australia)
MBCT and Mindful Relationship and Leadership training (Australia)
Certified Trainer at Rainbow Yoga for Children & Families (Australia)

April Crisanti Co-Director and Trainer
Cert III & IV in Fitness at Australian Institute of Fitness
Adelaide Ambassador and Certified Trainer at Rainbow Yoga for Children & Families
Children’s Group Exercise & Personal Trainer
Certified Pilates & Fitball Instructor
Certified Zumba & Zumba Kids Specialist
Certified Rainbow Yoga Partner Trainer
Vinyasa Yoga Teacher (200HYTT)
Moveit Fitness & Wellbeing (Owner & Program Designer)- Specialising in Children’s Programs since 2006

Sonia Harris Co-Director and Lead Trainer
Bachelor of Nursing – Paediatric Specialty
Post Graduate Certificate in Child and Family Health
Certificate IV in Training and Assessment
Certified Trainer at Rainbow Yoga for Children

Training Aim

Our aim is to share knowledge, support, skills and resources with Early Learning Centres to build resilience, self-awareness, self-regulation and wellbeing for the education team and the children. By teaching mindfulness skills and assisting educators to find ways to personally use the tools, they will role model mindfulness practices with the children with the aim of becoming embedded into everyday practice. Mindfulness is an incredible tool that can be taught from a very young age, in fact some say that children are the masters of mindfulness and we can learn from them.

The program will teach and support the education team to identify risks of burn out, compassion fatigue (also known as vicarious trauma), as well as teach practical tools to assist with stress management, emotional regulation and build empathy, and improve emotional availability. All techniques provided are easy to implement in the early learning environment and adjusted to educators’ always-changing environment.
The program is evidence-based and brings the best techniques from MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction), ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), Mindfulness, Kids Yoga, Positive Psychology, Social Emotional Learning (SEL).
BODY BRAIN BOUNCE Program offers an overview of child development, including attachment theory and trauma informed practices based on building secure, predictable and safe relationships. The program works with individual strengths and respect for the education teams existing knowledge of the children and the families that they work with.

Training Outcomes

– The education team will demonstrate increased confidence in identifying potential risks to their own wellbeing by taking cues from body sensations.
– The education team will learn and practice a range of strategies and techniques to assist children in emotional self-regulation, improving body awareness and coordination in the early learning setting.
– The education team will be able to use and practice simple mindfulness techniques to improve focus, release stress, relax body and improve awareness.
– The education team will have the tools and knowledge to establish a Connection Corner within their room to help children with emotional regulation.
– The education team will be able to maintain the level of engagement in mindfulness practices individually or in a group by having ongoing Mindful Kiddo team support, as well as access to regular updates, additional exercises ideas and Q&A options.

Training Structure

Our training will be conducted by one of our trainers and is available in two options:

Option 1 – One seven hour Workshop
Workshops include practical activities and content that will explore the following subjects:

– What is mindfulness? The benefits for educators and young children.
– Development of emotional regulation. Co-regulation and using mindfulness practice
– Mindfulness and the brain. Effects of stress on learning, memory & emotional development.
– Mindfulness in the early years. Different ways of practicing mindfulness for different age groups. Embedding mindfulness into curriculum
– Practical mindfulness activities for educators.

Option 2 – Three x two hour modules:

Module One
– What is mindfulness?
– Benefits for educators
– Benefits for children
– Mindfulness in the early years
– Mindfulness and early brain development.
– Mindfulness practical experience

Module Two
– Development of emotional regulation.
– Using mindfulness practice to support co-regulation
– Effects of stress on learning, memory & development.
– Mindfulness practical experience

Module Three
– Mindfulness for different age groups
– Practical mindfulness activities for educators
– Establishing a connection corner
– Embedding mindfulness into curriculum

Training Materials

Training attendees receive complete training materials and tools that consist of:
BODY BRAIN BOUNCE – A Mindfulness, Resilience and Wellbeing Program for Educators and Young Children – Complete Handbook for Early Years Educators (2020, A. Crisanti, S. Harris, H. Romanska)
Connection Corner Complete Tools – set of 14 mindfulness tools to be used by children at Early learning Centres:

Moody Monkey Adventure Game (Complete game for emotional self-regulation and mindfulness practice for children. The game includes: handmade Emotion Rocks for sensory play and emotional education, game board with an emotion wheel with more complex emotions, Body Cards, Breathing Cards and Activity Cards that instruct how to use all Connection Corner resources)
– Breathing Ball
– Singing Bowl
– Emotion Calm Jars (8 colours)
– Mindful Cards
– Mirror
– Massage Ball
– Moody Monkey Drawing with pencils
– Meddy Monkey
– Sequin Cushion
– Bubbles
– Scarves
– Eye pillow
– Head massager

Connection Corner worth is $300 and is a required tool to put into practice all knowledge gained during the training.
The training can be provided for a group of educators from different sites but It is advised to order at least one Connection Corner set per site.

Additional Benefits

Every centre that takes part in Mindful Kiddo Training has access to ongoing email support (answering questions*)