Brain Building, Yoga and Mindfulness: Expanded Work with Family Support, Hammersmith & Fulham
(TALK TO US ABOUT HOLDING WORKSHOPS AT YOUR SCHOOL OR ORGANISATION!)
We are thrilled to announce an expanded partnership with Family Support Hammersmith & Fulham, to bring a series of mindfulness sessions and bespoke family yoga classes to staff and families that will include brain-building activities. Family Support, backed by the H&F Council, has an incredible mission, which is to help families in Hammersmith & Fulham thrive. This includes their “Brain Builders” initiative with activities and resources to help build your baby’s brain!
“We help families thrive by building their confidence so that they can resolve issues before they become more difficult to manage. And that means we can help children and young people develop the resilient brains they need for future life challenges.” - Family Support
We first began working with Family Support to bring our Om:Pop to Melcombe Primary School in Fulham. It was such a lovely day with four nooks: Yoga + Mindfulness, Sensory, Creativity and Relax. Our Om:Pops aim to bring families together through creativity and yoga, as well as to provide tools which enable children and parents to take a breath when needed.
Now, our continued work with Family Support will include the integration of Brain Building activities into our sessions, that will further encourage nurturing interactions between parents and children. Much like how partner poses work in yoga, one way to nurture your child’s brain is by engaging in a process called “Serve and Return.”
“A vital ingredient in a young child’s growth and learning (and brain development), especially from ages nought to five, is the “serve and return” interactions that they have with their parents, caregivers and the people in their communities. This process helps them develop important language, cognitive, and social skills. If adults do not respond by getting in sync with children and returning these kinds of noises and gestures, the serve and return rally breaks down and the child’s developmental process is interrupted. This has negative implications for later learning.”
London Family Yoga: MoreYoga Surrey Quays with Jen Armstrong (photo by Dana Dyksterhuis)
We are excited to build this program with Family Support and will provide updates along the way! In the meantime, we’d love to share some activities from Vroom, a program of the Bezos Family Foundation that helps families with brain-building inspiration and information.
Love the Om:Pop Team,
Dana, Jen, Karin and Aoife
