Adventure 1: Body Awareness
Our first adventure as “Turtles In Training” is to learn to enhance our body awareness.
So often, we move through our day without paying attention to our bodies. We may not recognize that some of our muscles are tight while others are relaxed. We may even be a bit off balance when we walk or sit. Yet, if we learn to check in and observe our bodies, we can easily enhance our body awareness.
One way to check in on our bodies is to do a body scan. We teach this skill to the children in our program because awareness of the positioning and restrictions in their bodies is essential for swimming proficiency and True Comfort.
It is also helpful for parents to develop this skill so they can discern whether their children’s bodies are tight or relaxed – especially when helping their children learn to swim.
Body Scan:
Start by sitting in a comfortable position and closing your eyes
Begin at your feet and sense – are my feet relaxed? Are they tight?
Just observe. It is not necessary to change anything.
Then feel the sensations in your calves. Do they feel warm? Do they feel cold?
Continue to observe the parts of your body all of the way to the top of your head.
Notice the different sensations.
Once you have scanned your entire body, take a few relaxed breaths and then open your eyes.
Certainly, the littlest ones will not do a body scan as we have outlined above, but there are many ways to enhance body awareness and develop “turtle senses.” We have suggested different activities for different age groups so you can choose the most appropriate methods for your little ones.
Activities:
- Diaper Dolphins (0-36 mo):
- Article: Body Scan for Toddlers/Preschool: Squish and Let Go
- Video: 3 Min Body Scan for Kids and Adults
- Audio: 3 Min Body Scan for Adults
- Other Activities to develop Body Awareness: Baby Spa! The Benefits of Infant Massage
- Other Activities to develop Body Awareness: Body Awareness Activities for Children
- Pre-school (3-5 years):
- Article: Body Scan for Toddlers/Preschool: Squish and Let Go
- Video: 3 Min Body Scan for Kids and Adults
- Video: 5 Min Butterfly Body Scan for Kids
- Audio for Bedtime: 11 Min Body Scan for Kids
- Other Activities to develop Body Awareness: Body Awareness Activities for Children
- School Age (5-Up):
- Article: Body Scan for Children
- Video: 3 Min Body Scan for Kids and Adults
- Video: 5 Min Body Scan for Classrooms and Families
- Audio for Bedtime: 11 Min Body Scan for Kids
- Other Activities to develop Body Awareness: Body Awareness Activities for Children
- Other Activities to develop a Mindful Body: Mindful Body Awareness & Worksheet
And Don’t Forget….
As you complete each Adventure, please log your discoveries in our: Turtle In Training Adventure Discovery Log.
- Please make sure to look for an email from Google Forms labeled “Turtle In Training Adventure Discovery Log.”
- You will need it for future Adventures as it has an “Edit Response” button on there.
- This will enable you to go back into “your log” and add new information to your previous responses versus creating a “new” response.
