Do you know that you can make mandalas that soothe children with pasta, legumes and leaves?

A creative and relaxing activity for children is to make mandalas with natural elements or ingredients that you have at home

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Children love to play, experiment and create using natural elements as well as objects and ingredients that are easily found at home. This inclination of theirs can also be exploited to give them a little serenity and joy, removing them from the climate of stress and anxiety that, more or less, we are all experiencing in this period. A nice activity to offer him is the creation of mandalas.

To suggest how to create mandalas is Monia Monti, pedagogue and expert in meditation and mindfulness, whose techniques and activities also offers children with excellent results. On these issues you have also published a book: “Calm and happy children. Meditation techniques for children and adults to manage anxiety and stress ".

Generally, the activity of mandalas presupposes that colored pencils, markers, watercolors, gouache or wax colors are used, instead Dr. Monti proposes a slightly different version, which requires the use of alternative materials, which are generally found in our homes and in gardens or parks.

Nature mandala

Invite your students or children to collect sticks, leaves, stones, berries, blades of grass, animal feathers and whatever else they find in the garden or park.

@ Monia Monti

Mandala of pasta and legumes

needed:

• pasta of different shapes: spaghetti, macaroni, torciglioni, shells etc.
• legumes: peas, beans, lentils, chickpeas, etc.
• colored cards
• vinyl glue
• brushes
• pencil

@Monia Monti

In both activities, ask the children to compose these elements together following the flow of thoughts and emotions and wonderful realizations will emerge.

@ Monia Monti

When to do it:

It is an activity that allows you to stay focused on the present moment, stimulates creativity, manual skills, fine motor skills and at the same time is extraordinarily relaxing. The more one immerses oneself in the creation of the mandala, the more one perceives that unpleasant emotions, such as anxiety, fear, sadness, slip away to give way to a sense of deep calm and serenity.

For other relaxation activities and mandalas for children read also:

The cloud of calm, a simple "trick" to restore tranquility in children

The breath that calms children with a simple… paper boat!