mindful games

The Mindful Child: How to Help Your Kid Manage Stress and Become Happier, Kinder, and More Compassionate

By Susan Kaiser Greenland

60 fun activities to share with kids of all ages.

Mindful play is a great way for kids to develop focusing skills while learning to regulate their emotions and respond to any situation calmly, with kindness and compassion. Here are sixty simple and accessible games that can bring mindfulness to your daily routine.

These delightful games, developed and tested over many years of working with children and their caregivers, are designed for kids, but they can be just as fun and transformative for adults! Susan Kaiser Greenland encourages parents to play these games themselves to develop their own attention, balance, and compassion. As caregivers, our own mindfulness has a powerful effect on everyone in our lives, especially children. They notice when we're calmer, more composed, and more joyful, and they learn by our example.

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Spanish Translation See Inside the Book

videos of mindful games

Watch

Drop the Monkeys for Young Children

We build a chain of plastic monkeys to demonstrate how to notice thoughts and let them go.

Ice Cube Meditation

The melting-ice game for older children, teens, and adults.

Thoughts, Emotions, and an Awareness Meter

We use an awareness meter and barrel of plastic monkeys to demonstrate how to work with thoughts and emotions when we meditate.

Susan demonstrates the Snow Globe Game

By moving our attention away from what we're thinking to an experience in the moment, our minds help our bodies settle.

Friendly Wishes & Imaginary Hugs

A delightful adaptation/mash-up of two mindful games — Friendly Wishes and Imaginary Hugs.

Drop the Monkeys for Older Children and Teens!

A colorful chain of plastic monkeys demonstrates how to notice thoughts and let them go.

Meditation in a Jar

Watch how easy it is to settle your mind when it's busy! then, listen to this guided meditation to give it a try.

Meditation For When You’re Upset - Smell the Roses, Blow out the Candle

Feeling upset or annoyed? Here's a tip for calming down anytime you feel worked up.

Pass the Cup

Using teamwork, and by paying attention to what’s happening around us, we pass a cup without spilling a drop of water.

Melting Ice

We hold a cube of ice until it melts to notice the difference between a feeling and a reaction. (Game led by Gene Lushtak.)

Friendly Wishes

We imagine that everyone is happy, safe, healthy, and living in peace to practice kindness and concentration.

Tic-Tock

We sway from side-to-side, while chanting a rhyme, to help us become more aware of our bodies.

Rock-a-Bye

We pretend to rock a stuffed animal to sleep on our bellies to relax our bodies and quiet our minds.

Balloon Arms

We practice focusing by slowly moving our arms up and down, or back and forth, in sync with each other’s movements.

Fading Tone

We listen closely to the sound of a tone as it fades away to help us relax and focus.

Seeing Clearly for Young Children

We watch baking soda settle in a fishbowl to help us understand the connection between what happens in our minds and what happens in our bodies.

Endorsements

“A wonderful, fun, and engaging way to bring mindfulness into a child’s life.”

— Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence

“In Mindful Games, Susan Kaiser Greenland offers a highly engaging and easy-to-understand set of activities to use with groups of children. All the games support understanding and empathy - and seem like fun! Susan draws on her own deep understanding of meditation and mindfulness practice, as well as her extensive knowledge of child development and research. Although written for adults working with groups of children, this book is certain to enrich the lives of any reader.”

— Sharon Salzberg, author of Loving Kindness and Real Happiness

“Susan Kaiser Greenland captures the essence of mindfulness in a way that very few people can. As an experienced practitioner and teacher, her insight shines through on every page and Mindful Games will undoubtedly be a wonderful resource for every parent and child alike.”

— Andy Puddicombe, founder of Headspace

“Susan Kaiser Greenland, the pioneer in bringing mindfulness to young children, has done it again! Mindful Games is not only a fun way to teach and learn mindfulness but a truly wise way as well. Buy an extra copy because Mindful Games is destined to be one of the most beloved, well worn references for parents, professionals and kids alike.”

— Christopher Willard, PsyD, author of Growing up Mindful

“In her marvelous new book, Susan Kaiser Greenland provides a whole new alphabet for raising better children as well as our best selves.”

— Surya Das, author of Awakening of the Buddha Within

“Mindful Games is a remarkable book. It interweaves engaging and practical mindfulness exercises for children with a sophisticated and nuanced exploration of the psychology and insight wisdoms underlying them. This book is an invaluable resource for anyone with children in their lives—indeed, for anyone at all. Highly recommended.”

— Joseph Goldstein, author of Mindfulness: A Practical Guide to Awakening

“The practical benefits of mindfulness are wide-ranging and undeniable. This wonderful book helps bring this transformative practice into the routines of those who will carry it into the future: our children.”

— Congressman Tim Ryan

“We adults have a moral responsibility to do all we can to help young people develop the cognitive and emotional skills that will enable them not only to survive but to flourish in the world they have inherited from us. Susan Kaiser Greenland’s latest book, Mindful Games, is a very welcome and important companion volume to her groundbreaking earlier book, The Mindful Child. I recommend it highly for its bountiful wisdom and skillful means, based on many years of her pioneering work in this field.”

— B. Alan Wallace, author of The Attention Revolution

“Susan Kaiser Greenland has played a foundational role in making mindfulness practices developmentally appropriate for young people. In Mindful Games, she builds on her previous work by emphasizing play and creativity in teaching mindfulness skills. This is truly the way forward for making mindfulness a true exploration rather than just another chore or ‘to do’ for our kids.”

— Chris McKenna, Program Director, Mindful Schools

“Mindful Games teaches mindfulness just as it should be taught -playfully. It’s about the curiosity, exploration, and discovery that unfolds with mindfulness but mostly it’s about the fun of it all!”

— Susan L. Smalley, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, UCLA