Happy New Year! It’s wintertime here in New York City, and regardless of what your primary Hero power is, it’s likely that you retreat a little this time of year. That inherit sense of quiet and peace makes winter the perfect time to explore Water Power.
Water power brings a sense of peace and imagination to the world. Through the power of listening, we can learn how to stretch our minds to see hidden connections between things that bring deep meaning to our life.
Through water power, you’ll grow the ability listen to the messages beneath all the noise and bustle around you to gain deep insights and solve challenges. Water Heroes can go deep into their imaginations and have access to wisdom about life’s complex and changing circumstances.
In our #PowerUp course and The Tournesol Kids Game, we’ll show you an exercise your kids can do to find peace by getting still. They can use this any time they need to clear their heads.
We know you have big hopes for the children in your life. Here at Tournesol Kids, we dream of being able to offer our program for free to the children who need it most: those in undeserved communities who can benefit greatly by developing tools for resilience.
We plan to reach these children by expanding widely into schools. To that end, we’ve found a school in Brooklyn that wants to be our pilot school. To make the most out of this effort, we need to gather pre- and post-program data from the students and teachers and work with a researcher to prove that our program delivers the impact that we promise.
This initial program is just the beginning. Data from our pilot program will help us attract the bigger grant funding we will meet in order to meet our ultimate goal of empowering 1 million kids.
We have only until the end of the year to meet our fundraising goal of $50k to launch our pilot program. This will include:
- Intensive training for teachers and administrators
- 6 months of ongoing teacher support
- Decks of cards for every child and teacher
- Data collection and reporting on the efficacy of the program
- Online and text book support materials for parents, teachers and administrators
Help us empower underserved children by making a donation today.
Here at Tournesol Kids, we dream of expanding widely into schools and delivering our program to underserved communities for free. To that end, we’ve found a school in Brooklyn that wants to be our pilot school. The principal was trained in our program a couple years ago and is firmly behind bringing T-Kids to his teachers and students.
To make the most out of this effort, we need to gather pre- and post-program data from the students and teachers and work with a researcher to prove that our program delivers the impact that we promise. With these results, we are much more likely to attract the bigger grant and corporate funding that will help us build the financial foundation we need to reach more underserved kids and schools.
Please consider supporting this initiative with us. We need to raise $50K before the end of the year to cover a 6-month program. This will include:
- Intensive training for teachers and administrators
- 6 months of ongoing teacher support
- Decks of cards for every child and teacher
- Data collection and reporting on the efficacy of the program
- Online and text book support materials for parents, teachers and administrators
Help us empower underserved children by making a donation today.
Teaching gratitude and graciousness are pillars of wellbeing for healthy child development and cornerstones of the Tournesol Kids curriculum.
Gratitude doesn’t mean you have to say Grace at the table, but you should take a moment to take a breath and say thank you for your food. Expressing gratitude at mealtime reconnects us to our roots and the earth’s great ability to nourish us. Mindful eating is an Earth Power skill!
Children can also grow learn how to release negative thoughts and develop gratitude through Gold Power. Gold Heroes have the ability to be mindful of their thoughts. Gold Heroes have the power to examine thoughts very carefully.
Learn these and more skills for developing gratitude through the Tournesol Kids Game and #PowerUp courses.
What would it look like if everyone in a community was able to play to their strengths and help each other with their blindspots? Would growth be exponential? Would the environment change? What kind of adults would those kids grow up to be? What kind of society would they make?
This transformed world is the vision we’re striving for with bringing Tournesol Kids Program to schools.
In response to our email last week, 27 schools reached out requesting the T-Kids program! Donate now to help us transform the lives of these kids and their communities.
If we don’t raise enough before the end of the year, we won’t be able to bring the T-Kids Program to schools that want to improve children’s lives.
$8,500 – sponsor one classroom
$80,000 – sponsors 10 classrooms
$160,000 – sponsor 25 classrooms
$250,000 – sponsor a community
This is YOUR chance to make a seismic shift in the future success of our children and our communities.
In 2020, T-Kids plans to donate the #PowerUp program to every classroom in five communities. Help us make this happen!
HOW MANY:
25 schools
750 classrooms
1,000 teachers
22,500 kids
45,000 caregivers and parents
100,000+ community members’ lives changed
WHAT:
Every classroom receives:
30 decks of #PowerUp game cards – one per each child
5 brand new short, impactful teacher training videos
2 teacher training manuals
WHEN:
Between now and December 2020
WHY:
Training children in mind-body techniques promotes greater capacity to be in and maintain attention to present-moment experience with an attitude of openness, curiosity and self-compassion. The Tournesol Kids #PowerUp program is designed to be easily integrated into the busy school day without burdening teachers with extra work.
WHERE:
Anywhere in the USA — you can even sponsor your own school!
HOW:
Donate to help make this a reality!
$8,500 – sponsor one classroom
$80,000 – sponsors 10 classrooms
$160,000 – sponsor 25 classrooms
$250,000 – sponsor a community
This is YOUR chance to make a seismic shift in the future success of our children and our communities.
Show us that you care. Donate and make a difference.
Tournesol Kids is a 501c-3 non-profit organization that empowers children through online education, workshops and community outreach. Our programs teach holistic healthy child development strategies to kids, parents, educators and caregivers that identify and meet the individual physical and emotional needs of children. Here are four ways you can be a part of our mission.
1) Donate
The best way to support our mission is through a direct, tax-deductible donation to our organization. Donate here.
2) Buy one of our products
Each purchase of our #PowerUp videos or The Tournesol Kids Game activity cards supports our mission to bring the principles of Tournesol Kids to 1 million kids. Buy our products here.
3) Become a coach
Learn to teach the groundbreaking new program that incorporates the science of Growth Mindset with principles of Mindfulness and Compassion to provide parents and kids with a science-based, time tested interactive program that helps kids develop executive functions they need to thrive in the face of challenge. Email carey@tournesolkids.org for an application.
4) Bring Tournesol Kids to your school or organization
The T-kids program offers a unique approach to mind-body training in children that is temperament-based and aims to improve success by raising self-awareness and dignity in diversity. The program is designed to be easily integrated into the busy school day without burdening teachers with extra work. Email belinda@tournesolkids.org for more information.
There is a growing body of research that demonstrates that training children in mind-body techniques promotes greater capacity to be in and maintain attention to present-moment experience with an attitude of openness, curiosity and self-compassion. This has short and long-term benefits in physical, emotional and cognitive wellbeing.
What children will gain from the Tournesol Kids Program:
- Improved attention: focus and flexibility are dependent on maturation of executive functions (working memory, planning, inference, empathy). The T-kids program targets these functions through its mind-body exercises.
- Improved communication skills: The T-kids program specifically targets developing the art of conversation and broadening the range of emotional vocabulary both essential for successful social and emotional engagement in the world.
- Improved emotional regulation and empathy: utilizing non-violent communication techniques, students will improve their ability to accurately detect emotional/sensory cues related to physiological reactions to stressful events and connect them to underlying needs. This brings greater empathy that is accompanied by improved regulation, generating positive strategies that temper and influence the emotional response. Emotional regulation confers benefits in terms of health, well-being, social connection, and competence with life tasks
- Improved stress-management: by learning simple coping techniques, students will learn how to identify and release stress on a daily basis.
- Improved self-awareness: results from body-mind practices that improve communication between body, mind and feelings.
- Improved self-esteem: dignity in diversity is achieved by learning to recognize different temperament styles.
- Improved Growth Mindset: learning to recognize fixed mind thinking, the causes and how to shift towards growth mind thinking.
- Improved participation, cooperation and curiosity: results from empowering students to teach each other skills they have learned.
Belinda Levychin, Program & Marketing Director
As a Fire Power person, I ran from Water type behaviors when I was a child. Water folks seem to cause Fire folks to fizzle. Where Water types can be still and contemplative, it is sometimes hard for Fire types to allow their minds to settle down. After all, where is the fun in that? For people who are inherently Water Power, their hero-helpers are Gold and Wood, allowing for precision and grace and moving and planning ahead. The powers that generally challenge them are Fire and Earth Power, which is where optimism, conversation and empathy live.
I continue to learn about the methodology that is the bedrock of Tournesol Kids and use it for my own journey through the five powers. I marvel at how much Water Power exercises have become a large part of my world. As I have stated in past blogs, yoga has become a daily practice. I have found that starting out the day grounded in stillness, finding my breath and doing asanas that benefit my physical well being is essential for me to have a well-balanced day. The crazy irony of what is a natural challenge to Fire Folks like me is what helps us the most. And that — surprise! — instead of my fear that my light will be put out, it actually helps me shine all the brighter.
But for kids who are Water Power, the challenge is how to ignite their Fire. Kids who are naturally contemplative can have a tough time finding their inner joy. When stressed, kids with Water Power can easily feel disconnected and overly cautious and even apathetic. One of the exercises that The Tournesol Kids Game offers is Power Play, which gives an example how to play no matter what your power is. And, through play, kids can also work on being part of their communities and also work on elevating their Earth Powers as well. Check out all Water Power exercises in The Tournesol Kids Game.
Water Power is affiliated with winter. The time of year when many of us, regardless of what power we are innately, retreat. After the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, I know that I’m ready for some serious down time – which is where the power of water becomes necessary. So, here’s to all of us finding time to dream and to believe that as we all find balance we can begin to see the true harmony hiding out underneath all of the ills that seem to plague the world at large, with the kids leading the way.
Belinda Levychin, Program & Marketing Director
Details, details, details — sometimes the last thing a person with Fire Power wants to think about. After all, for folks with Fire Power, it’s about the excitement, the joy you get with the finished product, whether it’s a school project or even planning a fun activity. People who have Gold Power are often about the details, the structure, even the beauty of things. The hero-helpers that feed Gold Power are Earth and Water Powers, allowing people who have Gold Power to be empathetic and patient. Their hero-challengers are Fire and Wood, which means for a Fire Power like myself there is some built in struggle to find my inner Gold Power!
This can sometimes transform me into a person who is racing through a project to get to the part that really makes me feel joy. But what I have come to understand is that when I take my time and work hard on the details, I’m far happier with my end result. But, truthfully, that is easier said than done. Throughout my life I notice that I some of my best friends have been Gold-Powered folks, great way to bring balance, right?!
Gold-Powered kids are usually the ones who need a right or wrong answer. Having things be open-ended can sometimes cause anxiety for these kids because they are wired to seek perfection. This is a perfect opportunity for the kids to tap into their own inner Fire or Wood Powers. Tournesol Kids, the Game offers an exercise called Laughing Meditation a cool way to find your inner Fire Power and stop taking your Gold self so seriously.
Most of us enjoy the works of those people who are driven by their Gold Power: beautiful buildings, brilliant engineering marvels, and — let’s be honest here — to have things done well, the first time. But at the end of the day, it’s about how all our powers work together to bring balance, beauty and perfection to our universe.
Check out more exercises to balance Gold Power on our website: T-Kids The Game