If you're trying to get your kiddo to practice mindfulness, sitting still isn’t always ideal or an option for active kids. Asking kids to sit and meditate may seem too foreign or uncomfortable at first. We need to reach children where they are at with their mindful experience and connect with them in their learning and development.

One of the best ways to connect children with mindfulness is to get out in nature. In fact, there are many brain-building benefits to including nature into your mindfulness practice, including:

Decreasing Stress
Increasing Mood
Helping Regulate Body Systems
Increasing Calm and Creativity
Releasing Brain Blocks
Increasing Focus and Memory

Focusing on our senses when we are in nature can help us to mindfully to be in the present moment of noticing and appreciating what is right around us. Switching between our senses can help us mindfully train our brains for focus. Increasing our awareness of and attention on things in nature can help us train our memory as well.

Have you ever walked outside and taken a big deep breath and felt refreshed and instantly more calm? There’s science behind how nature increases our mindful awareness and helps us be more empathetic and kind. It takes us out of “I” thinking and points to the “we” of the world we live in.

Observing a caterpillar crossing our path and choosing to step over it or move it to a safe spot increases our empathetic response and natural problem solving, curiosity and self-awareness. Becoming more aware of our symbiotic relationships with others helps us become part of a community and the web of existence we all belong to (but sometimes forget).

Here is a fun, mindful nature bingo walk that switches between various senses to increase awareness and focus. Just like regular bingo, you can play the mindful walk bingo in several different ways:

Diagonal, vertical or horizontal bingo.
Four corners
Fill up the entire card

There are blank spaces for kids to fill in their creative ideas of what they would like to observe on their nature walk. Page two allows kids to mark down what they experienced along the mindful walk or tally each time they experience that space. Consider using that as a recap when you get home, helping with memory.

Mindful Nature Walk Bingo (Free Printable!)