For Children

Little Buddhas is  Cambridge Zen Center's children program for ages from 5 to 12. We meet at 11:30AM on Sundays, usually once a month. For the next meeting date, see below. It focuses on cultivating mindfulness for children through fun games and engaging activities. More specifically:

• Develop skills to pay attention and practice seeing and hearing things around them clearly.
• Bring awareness and compassion to their inner emotions and outer experiences.
• Using above skills, try to make wiser and kinder choices in their everyday lives.

Fees and registration: this program is free but if you find it helpful, donation of any amount is appreciated. You don't need to register for the program but if it is your first time, please send us email at D6F636E2C69616D67604B61647E6F677D696B6 so that we can better prepare.

For parents: The program takes place in the main dharma room for about one hour and a half. You are welcome to stay with the little ones depending on how comfortable they feel and how much you are curious about the program. But you are also welcome to join the parents meditation practice in the small dharma room. The meditation usually consists of sitting and walking meditation. It may also include reading and discussion depending on topic of the month.

Next meeting: April 28.  The theme of the month is Buddha, celebrating up coming Buddha's birthday in May. There will be stories about historic Buddha and activities on finding buddha within us.

Dates for the future meetings:  We are hosting a special family retreat on June 1st at Open Meadow Zen center. This whole day retreat includes many fun activities for children as well as mindful parenting education for parents. It is lead by one of our senior Dharma teachers, Nancy Hathaway. Here is the retreat poster in pdf for details. Our last meeting before the summer break will be on June 23rd.

Should you have any questions, feel free to email us: D6F636E2C69616D67604B61647E6F677D696B6

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Resources for mindfulness parenting and education

1. 'Planting Seeds' is a treasure when it comes to mindfulness activities for children. It's written by renowned zen master Thich Nhat Hahn himself. It's website has much information.

2. A list of other useful books for parents as well as children is here.

3. Mindfulness in Education Network is an effort by Thich Nhat Hahn and his school's effort to bring mindfulness education to the mainstream education world. 

4. MindUP The actress Goldie Hawn is big on mindfulness education. She created a foundation that is dedicated to developing mindfulness education to classrooms across America.

5. Mindfulkids Different medication activities for kids and also place to share mindfulness parenting experiences.

6.  Why mindfulness eduction is important? Research has shown that mindfulness education increases emotional and social intelligence. See below for details.
http://www.mindfuleducation.org/research.html
http://www.mindfulschools.org/about-mindfulness/research/
http://www.sel4mass.org/benefits-of-sel/

7. More Buddhism focused resources on education can be found here.