Davey and I have lots of good conversations before he goes to sleep at night.

He likes to ask me: “Mama, how were the second graders today?”  He loves any stories I tell him about what we did at school.

He likes to hear about the 8th graders I work with as well.  The other day I was telling him about how some of the 8th graders don’t always do their work like they are supposed to.  I told him that I didn’t really understand why some of them don’t want to work.  Of course, I know that there are many factors that go into this, and I am sympathetic to that, but I also like to talk about it with Davey, because I’m always trying to emphasize the importance of doing your best in school.

He said, “Well Mama, maybe they don’t love learning like you do. Not all kids love to learn.”

I really hadn’t thought about it in that way.

Davey does love to chat, and it often takes him quite awhile to fall asleep.  I decided to try something called “Square Breathing” with him.   It is a deep breathing technique and I thought it might relax him.  I actually think it worked pretty well.  We will have to continue practicing it and see how we do.

I explained to him that you think about your breathing and you breathe in for 4 counts, hold for 4 counts, and then breathe out for 4 counts.  He thought about this for awhile and said, “That seems like triangle breathing to me.”   I thought this was a good point.  However, I just googled it and turns out that I had it a little wrong.  After you breathe out for 4 counts, you are supposed to hold your breath for 4 counts before you start again.  Can’t wait to tell him this.  He will think that makes much more sense!

I recommend it though.  I recommend it for myself as well.  We could all use a little slow deep breathing on most days.