Virginie

I have been a teacher for twenty-four years, and throughout all those years I have always looked for ways to give children a sense of calm and safety. In 2018, I discovered Eline Snel’s Sitting Still Like a Frog. From that moment on, the idea never left me: this was something I truly wanted to learn. When I finally began the training, guided by Marianne, I experienced it as a real gift.

Bringing mindfulness into my classroom has profoundly changed the way I teach. With Grégoire, our frog puppet, my four-year-olds learn to breathe, to feel and to find their calm again, each one settled on their own little water-lily mat.

Of course, things didn’t always go as planned. The first time I rang the bell, the whole class burst out laughing. In the past, that would have annoyed me. But this time, I learned to stay curious: I asked the children what was making them laugh, and I listened to them without judging.

Perhaps this is where one of my greatest lessons lies: there is nothing to succeed at, and so nothing to fail.

What this practice has given the children continues to move me and to resonate within me. In the playground, when they fall, they now say to each other: “Breathe!” Parents have told me that their child has become calmer at home and is better able to put their emotions into words.

And me? Meditation, both formal and informal, is now fully part of my life. In difficult moments, I find it easier to step back, and I am slower to judge, whether it’s the children or myself.

This training has given me another string to my bow, but above all a practice that now holds a very precious place in my heart.