Sit Spot

Teaching the Practice of Slowing Down with Little Humans

By Tara Hardman

Have you ever found yourself going too fast while outdoors? That feeling that there is always a destination or an end goal? 

We were experiencing this with our group of kids for weeks. With the desire to be first—so often present in children—we found our pace to be impossible to keep up with. 

One thing we started practicing with our kids to reaffirm our value that being outside and enjoying our surroundings is the goal is Sit Spot. 

The Set Up

Before practicing Sit Spot with preschoolers it is important to be clear about expectations and safety. We set these expectations clearly beforehand and it makes for a more meaningful experience during. This is currently what our set up sounds like: 

“We’re going to find a spot to sit. BEFORE we go to that Sit Spot, we need a magic word that tells us to go to that Sit Spot. We will know to go to our Sit Spot when we hear this magic word.

Now that we’ve chosen a Magic word, here are a few expectations of your Sit Spot. 

1. It must be far enough away from each other that we have our own space. 
2. It must be in a spot where you are safe and still close enough to the group. 
3. When we find that spot, stay there till we are invited back. “

Now we call out our MAGIC WORD—and off we go!

Structure: 

When we are in the Sit Spot, I usually try for a structure like this one. 

1. Start with a Breathing Practice
   We got stickers that have breathing techniques on them and put them on the water bottles we use for while in the forest.  This gives kids the opportunity to do the breath on their own and as many times as they’d like.
2. Next we often have a question or a movement 
   • Do a Body Squeeze
   • Close your eyes and point your face towards the sun 
   • What is one green thing you see near you? 
   • Take a sip of water. 
3. Sometimes we will have Affirmation words
   • These are any words that feel right for your students that day. 
   • Example, ’I take the time to enjoy my surroundings.’ 
4. End with an invitation to come back 
   We invite the children to come back when they are ready and that we will call everyone back within 2 minutes. 

The Benefit and the Challenge: 

When you sit and take in nature you notice and appreciate more than you would have thought. While this practice usually lasts less than 10 minutes, the slowdown continues throughout the rest of our day. Our kids point out changes in our forest that happen from week to week, they notice different rocks or pieces of wood they haven’t seen before and it sets the expectation of peace and appreciation for our community and our forest. 

The challenge is supporting students through longer quiet times. It is our ultimate goal to take away some of the structure so our kids know how to lead themselves through a Sit Spot. Right now, our sit spots are heavily guided and that is appropriate for the students we serve. Keep in mind if planning this with kids, the first one is going to be very short and very talkative. Ask yourself,

“How can I support my group so they know it’s ok to slow down,

and just notice what is around them?” As we’ve continued, our sit spot time has increased and the growth in  independence our kids are showing is amazing. 

Switch it up 

We’ve tried a few things to switch up Sit Spot from the typical, including:

• Continuing Sit Spot throughout our hike
• Sipping hot chocolate as slowly as possible
• Bringing a seat (in our case, a place mat) to help their spot feel extra special

How would you switch this practice up?

Extra Resources: 

If you are looking for a kid friendly structure to lead words of Affirmation, the podcast, Charm Words by Brains on is a great place to start.  

There are many free resources for Breathing Techniques with children. The OT Tool Box is one resource I’ve found that makes very playful breathing exercises.

These are the Breathing Stickers we mentioned above.  

Things I’ve stopped to notice because of Sit Spot: